FOR ART RESEARCH. don't bother!


ST - S'pore men more brand conscious than women here They're increasingly favouring labels like Gucci,Louis Vuitton and Prada: Survey By Joyce Hooi on May 24, 2005MR MOHAMED Faliq, 20, waxes lyrical over designer togs from Burberry, Dior and Miu Miu.The full-time National Serviceman has amassed 35 pairs of shoes and 25 bags - all of them designer brands - in merely a decade.While studying in junior college, he had five pairs of sneakers - one for each day of the week.According to a 3D survey by media agency MindShare, he is part of the rapidly growing group of local men who have become more fashion and brand conscious.In fact, Singapore men actually become so brand conscious that they value designer brands more than their female counterparts.And this startling conclusion has significant repercussions for marketing and branding strategies of companies, which have traditionally targeted beautyand clothing brands at women.According to 3D - a consumer, brand and media research project - 35 per cent of the 600 men polled last year thought it was important to keep up with fashion, upfrom the 18 per cent of men who felt the same way in 2003.When it came to projecting a better image, a larger proportion of men (41 per cent) felt that designer brands helped them to project a better image comparedto women (37 per cent).Mr K.C. Tan, an interior designer, stands staunchly by his favourite designs - Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci- at least where wallets and bags are concerned.He and Mr Mohamed both favour designer labels because they believe that they are paying for top quality, design and styles.Having painstakingly saved up for his luxurious purchases by skipping lunch almost every day, Mr Mohamed sums up the appeal in one word: Exclusivity.'I want something with cache,' he said.Mr Tan, 29, has a penchant for 100 per cent Egyptian cotton shirts and avoids off-the-rack clothing because 'everyone will be wearing the same thing'. Mr Shenzi Chua, the founder of a local up-and-coming male boutique New UrbanMale.com, reckons that healthier lifestyles are among the reasons for the 3Dsurvey findings.'People are more conscious of their bodies, they go to the gym more often, they eat better, they look better and therefore they want to wear stuff that are moreflamboyant,' he said.Also, he felt that the increase of men's magazines over the past two years has made men more fashion conscious because they are exposed to more ideas onwhat to wear.In addition, 'people are more savvy online now, as they surf foreign sites and are influenced by more cutting-edge styles,' he said.Established in 2003, business is so good that NewUrbanMale.com's flagship store at the Heeren is undergoing its fourth expansion to stock more linesand designs to meet the very strong demand.Ms Lee Mei Li, the general manager of Wing Tai Clothing, which operates stores including Topman and Warehouse, has seen a marked difference in men'sshopping and spending styles.She noted that five years ago, men's shopping patterns generally revolved around two main seasons, the frenzy right before Chinese New Year when 'men buy theirentire year's wardrobe' and the mad rush during the Great Singapore Sale period.Now, however, there has been an obvious increase in male shopping activity throughout the year.In fact, men are shopping so frequently now that sales at certain Topman outlets 'have almost doubled over the previous year', says Ms Lee. And G2000 isconsidering opening more stand-alone outlets exclusively for men.Tangs, the department store, is also optimistic about the avid male shopper market. 'Compared to two years ago, men are a little more daring,' said Mr Tang WeeSung, the chairman and chief executive of the Tangs group.He said its effort in targeting metrosexuals have so far been 'quite encouraging', and that Tangs is looking at a gradual gain in sales.Male customers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, go for the Australian and Italian lines that Tangs carries.Local men are not stopping at their threads alone. Rather, they are going the whole hog with skincare regimens and cosmetics.Mr Tan reveals that he is a regular user of SK-II's Pitera mask and Biotherm products to help with the 'lines and puffiness'.He is not alone, says NewUrbanMale.com's Mr Chua. The Heeren outlet also stocks male skincare lines such as Zirh and Mr Chua has seen repeat customers coming back for their must-haves like cleansers and anti-ageing creams.Also popular is Zirh's five-minute mask.Ultimately, Mr Chua notes that for all of this newfound preening, 'men are lazy...they want convenience'.





The Tears WE Drained.


I know. I've not been blogging much lately. I noticed. Don't be a memo-pad to me. I did mention though, that my posts wouldn't be as frequent as they were during previous years.

---
Just got back to dad's not long ago. Yea, I'm at dad's place at this hour. Caught 'I Not Stupid Too' with Fion and Sammie. Gosh, dang it! I so detest the show. Never had I drained that much tears in my entire life-span on worldy earth, in a cinema WITH my besties' presences. Wasn't that keen to pay 9.50 bucks to catch a local production at first. But, ohwell. It was worth it afterall. However, I despise the fact that the movie's damn sadistic. In a sense that the director made the audience weep like whores losing their virginity and at that very same time of crying-boo-hee-hoo, he made the audience laugh over gaaaddamn lame stuffs! Sickening yet hilarious uh. Oh and I so so hate the way how the show started. Some bloody chinese aunty and probably with her sister or something (still, they were those old, wrinkly, hair-infested-with-flakes-and-silver-strands, nyonyas!) were making such a huge din over some chinese family seating at their seats. Like hello old bitch, I so don't mind if you were to resolve the whole situation quietly. But you acted like s'if you were back at those kopitiams, which I assume you would usually dry yourself of at, and shout like no ah-peks give a ding-dong! Sheesh. To think our Singaporeans ARE still like this?! Gaaaad. And I'm a sin-cha-poh-le-yern loh! Right. Came out of the cinema looking like depressed homeless brats. Eyes were red. Nose was wet. Face was soiled. People were gawking like one kind. Fuckers whom have never seen others cried before.

Fion walked home. (bye Fion!). Heyho to Sammie and Reeez's uber insanity! So we were practically having sex and played around with Sammie's dg cam. HAH! My idea. Hello. It's not like we get to do such stuffs often this year uh. Blame it on OHmyLevels! Like choke us with the chill pills for once please? (as you can see I'm making the effort of replacing the typical cheena 'can' with please. please sounds more english. not that out of place. unlike saying 'can' which makes me feel so stranded; desolated in venus!) Enough with bombarding us with homeworks. I don't mind tests (not too much of it though). We need some time of our own as well okay. Don't you go telling me Nooo.. It's only for a year.. Sacrifice it.. Just for this year. And trust me with this one, they're so gonna repeat the same fucking thing when we seat for A Levels (that's if I'm heading for a JC after my Os). This people (the ones sputing such motivational-not statements), they're just boring people that are bored (yes, this sentence has it's differences). They're just bored to their father's hairy crackarse core that they wouldn't mind repeating the same statement over and over again. But, isn't that boring?! Yea, boring people. Anyheehors, I realised that what I'm SUPPOSED to be ranting on is super being dragged by irrelevant infos. We were snapping shots practically almsot everywhere in White Sands' area -the traffic lights, the road, the lamposts, the stained and unclean steps, the bicycle park (as in the parking of bicycles, duh). We were so flaunting of photography skills and I think that Sammie's a good photographer and she's definitely a good object to be part of a photograph. Hah! object. I'm making her sound, dead? Lmao. So we were flaunting, and flaunting, anddd flaunting. For a total of 45mins or so?

Abang, balik kampong lai!

We then headed for the bus interchange. Ride home ride home! Sadly, I wasn't gonna take 88 since I decided to go over to dad's. Sad uh! Sad, silent, boring ride home! Sad, silent, boring ride home! Urgh. Adding on to the misery, I felt so pathetic. Really. Damn pathetic. I had to borrow coins from Sammie but she was short of a 10 cent. I wasn't carrying coins with me today! I only had like what, a $2, 2 $5, and a $100 notes. PAPER. Not circular metals. Super sweet of kakak to go around asking whether anyone had small change to a $2 note. We even went to extreme point of getting small change by trying hard to see if there was any 5 cents or 10 cents that anyone might have accidentally, generously dropped onto the floor. See, I was a desperate penniless mofo. (oh don't be lame-not-funny and say pennisless. doesn't work, babe!) Some baik hati couple generously donated me the small change in the end. All thanks to kakak for asking! Cheers.

Well yea. There goes my day. Hah! And it's being ended with dad singing his dick and balls off. Goodness! Karaoke-ing in the middle of late night? Dad is so not okay to karaoke. You'll get what I mean. Maybe.

---
Since I haven't been blogging much this entire week, a quick sum up of what happened to me when I was breathing in and/or out of sekolah:

Monday 13th Feb.
Had History test. Was trying hard to squeeze in time to do last few revision for it. And what? I was called a slut by Ms Chua (Hist Teacher) few mins before it just because I was so digging up lotsa hints from her that she thought I might as well asked her the answer. HAH! Sweet.

Tuesday 14th Feb.
Advance commemoration of Total Defence. And to bring gaiety to the event, I was soooo lucky to get fucked up to present some oh-so-the-drama-babe! skit-cum-dance during assembly. I must say, I so loved it. The actual performance was better than we would've thought it was. Embarrassingly, my water bags burst. My armpits were drenched with sweats lah! So the basah. Not that basah though. Yet, that didn't stop the whole bravo play.

Oh and it's valentine's day. Urh, I don't give a whatever? (:


Okay, the rest of the days were either mundane or I just couldn't remember what happened to me then.





Revived.

A recovery of a syndrome;
'blog-renovator-recreator-revamper senile syndrome'.
It's a made up term, of course.

This words-weren't-for-real blogger's back
-the vow of continuing blogging after O Levels.
Obviously, he didn't make the sudden urge call.
Too many people were missing my rants, already.
I turned a corner; "what happened to your blog, reeez?!"
I logged into MSN; "heys, you don't have a blog anymore?!"
NOPE.
It isn't annoying.
Rather thoughtful and sweet of these helpless readers.
Nonetheless, ^shows an act of self selfish desires^ wouldn't it be more gaga to go all over when you read the papers and your blog is publish as a headline news: "Blogger, (blogger's name here), with his/her (blog url here) Is Being Terribly Missed By Thousands".
^furthers selfish desires^ Okay, maybe not just a thousand? Take it nation wide?
It's sugar hard sweeter that way, isn't it?

I thought so.

The readers can now sigh in relief.
But I wouldn't make it a promise this time.
I won't say I WILL pen entries everyday or most of the time.
The pinnacle of desperation to be a competitor against that Xiaxue or Mr Brown hasn't come to my senses just yet.
Wait, why bother?
Heh!

So long.