When Tennis meets Fashion: Rafael Nadal wears $525K Tourbillon Watch on and off court

Rafael Nadal, the new world #1 tennis player, has signed onto a new sponsorship deal with Richard Mille to wear a specially designed lightweight tourbillon watch on court and off court, the TOURBILLON WATCH RM 027 RAFAEL NADAL. The watch is worth $525,000 and is limited to only 50 for sale worldwide.

Not many tennis players wear wristwatch during matches because first it's extra weight on the wrist and secondly, sometimes even the slightest difference in what they're used to can make a difference in whether a down the line backhand lands inside or outside the line. But there are a few who does it, and Nadal is definitely doing it in style.

The watch is a black on black, square face, matte finishing, lightweight Tourbillon watch. The inner mechanism of the world is visible through a plastic cover where the intricate and precise workmanship is in plain sight. GQ just wrote an article on how cool black on black watches are and I personally own two such styles, they're the coolest thing and instantly add style to any ensemble. This particular one that is designed just for Nadal is definitely wicked, but it is also something I, or other mere mortals will never be able to afford, at least not for a watch...

Nadal debuted this watch at the French Open and will be wearing it throughout the Olympus US Open series up till the US Open in NYC during September. You can catch him on TV on ESPN every weekend or the Tennis Channel.

Fashion: A long shopping day

Today I went around town to collect clothes for the upcoming photo shoot that I'll be styling. A few days back I brought my sister along, my pseudo-assistant, and she came back saying it was much more difficult than she had imagined, it involved much more thinking than she had anticipated, at least not for shopping.

Anyway, for today, I went to downtown to two vintage/trend shops, Cinema and Virgo, and they lend clothes for a 20% restocking fee. Since I'm new to this, I'm sure there are better deals to be found elsewhere, but since I don't know much being a newbie and all, this is pretty good. I have to say, being able to just point at items and just say "I want this" "That one's nice, I'll take it" is pretty nice =).

My last stop of the day was Buffalo Exchange at Sherman Oaks. It's one of my favorite store in the valley. This particular one boast a wide selection of style (though they don't swing far from the general B.E. aesthetics), and maybe I can even style the whole shoot there =) The store staffs were nice enough and patient enough to help me throughout the process and they even waived the restocking fee!! Thank you God! And check out what I saw among the racks!

I love JC!!

King James Version

I think I have all I need for the shoot, obviously a bit more options would be nice too. So, fitting tomorrow night, then shooting Wednesday night, ahh, so nervous yet excited at the same time. I know if I do my best and leave the rest in God's hands then I will be better than alright.

Here are some pictures of the things I stumbled across today.

Kenneth Cole, vibrant color and a feel of luxury (for $18 haha)

Marc by Marc Jacobs, a great contrast between classic shape and gold studs

Nine West, love the red and gray, a great pair of fall transition shoes

Big summer wedge trend

Steve Madden, a sensual and sexy purple hue

Awesome Onitsuka Mid-tops (not my size)

If you use your own bag at Buffalo Exchange, you get a 5 cent token to donate to 1 of 3 charities available in the store!

When Tennis meets Fashion: Stella McCartney for Addidas US Open Dress, STUNNER!

I'm ready to say this: the best, most innovative, most fashionable tennis dress I've seen. It's simple, sexy, glamorous, sporty, exciting, and it's everything Nike wants but haven't been able to produce and now Addidas is BRINGING IT! I love both color and seriously can't say which one's better. Too bad Maria Sharapova's tied down with a contract with Nike, she'd look so much better than Caroline Wozniaki wearing this...sadness.

Update: Caroline modeled it wearing a neon yellow bra/tank top underneath, where as before it looked elegant and chic, now there's an instant youthfulness and so much more urban and perfect for a fashionable youngster in NYC.

When Tennis meets Fashion: Serena and Venus @Seren's pre-ESPY house party

Check out Serena and Venus at Serena's own Bel-air pre-ESPY house party in celebration of the ceremony and her recent win at Wimbledon.

I know Serena is sporting a Dolce & Gabbana dress, not sure what Venus' wearing, but it looks great! Also, soft and sultry make-up really suits Serena.

Tennis: The Wimbledon-US Open Series layover

Though many die hard tennis fans try to make the gap between Wimbledon and the start of the US Open Series sounds exciting, it really isn't (not to me at least). And how can it be? You simply cannot have the energy after witnessing the drama unfolding at Wimbledon and anticipating the battles that will take place in the summer leading up to the US Open. And not helping the matter at all, for the two weeks in between, there's oddly some clay court tournaments, Davis Cup quarterfinals, and then a grass court tournament, the Hall of Fame induction, in Newport. Those tournaments are not only odd, they also feature match-ups and quality of play that are as unassuming as the outfits of some of these 50-100 ranked players. Let's face it, even though intriguing players are still around, generally it's not that exciting outside the top 20, maybe top 30 for men's. Plus, I simply need some time to recuperate.

So recuperate I go, and what a perfect time to switch my attention to finding the perfect stripe tee for the summer,OH, or a stripe tee for tennis, especially after spotting this mini street style trend on the internet.

And random question, when people say the US Open, do you think of tennis or golf?

Fashion: J. Crew Jewelry

I had the best time having dinner with my cousins in San Francisco this weekend! It was good food, good city, and the company made it extra special; I always have the best time spending time with them. My cousin Ellen sat across from me and I couldn't help but notice the dazzling yellow/gold ring on her finger, which matches perfectly with her "grape juice" (Ellen I hope you're reading this). It has a big brown/taupe-ish gem in the middle and was surrounded by smaller clustered yellow/gold crystals. It was very sweet yet glamorous and it was something that will always catch whoever's attention. It was from J. Crew.

This reminds me exactly how wonderful is J. Crew's jewelry collection. On top of great American preppy style, J. Crew really provides some outstanding jewelry options to complement their hugely popular clothing lines (largely thanks to a big push by a certain Mrs. O). But the jewelry of J. Crew are often statement pieces that are affordable for what they are and always remain stylish and unique enough to add that extra special touch to your outfit.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good enough picture of the ring Ellen was wearing. But click here to check out the latest collection and below are a couple pictures of the pieces.

Fashion: I joined lookbook.nu

I just got invited to join the online style community lookbook.nu. It's really exciting but sort of daunting at the same time, the people on that site has some serious style and they all vote for looks that they like, so it's sort of a popularity contest.

How can you help? Of course you can, on the right hand side of this blog is a picture of my latest look on lookbook.nu. If you have facebook, simply click on the photo, it'll link you to the website, sync it to your facebook and you can automatically start "hyping" (liking), including mine of course, haha.

Here's a big Thank You in advance!

When Tennis meets Fashion: Maria Sharapova daytime date-wear: spotted with Lakers Sacha Vujacic

Update: A good friend spotted out that Maria's new boyfriend is actually LA Lakers Sacha Vujacic, who has also dated Paris Hilton before. IMO, Maria is definitely an upgrade from Paris Hilton. Also, the fact that Maria is dating a Lakers sort of trump whatever she's wearing, but oh well, it's still a nice outfit for a day date in Serbia =)

Check out Maria with her BF, she's just wearing a 3/4 sleeves charcoal linen shirt dress. Very demure, simple, yet correctly accessorized with a boy-size men's watch and a shoulder strap bag. Keeping it casual and tough-chic at the same time.

When Tennis meets Fashion: GQ snaps great style at Wimbledon

GQ's editor got himself to SW19 and along with tennis he also found some great style. It's exactly what this blog is about, finding the real life connection between tennis and fashion; and Wimbledon, being in London, probably provides some of the most fashion savvy spectators of all tennis events around the globe. Click here to see the slide show and other great GQ editorials.

Fashion: More images from Sammi wearing CCChu in her new album

Fashion: Elle presents stylish handbags that can charges your phone also!

This is awesome, thanks to the new twitter account of Erin Kaplan, Elle's PR Director and star of MTV's " The City", I just got a really cool piece of fashion news!

Elle came across the portable light projects, which tries to introduce reusable energy to 3rd world countries specifically by encouraging the inhabitants to incorporate solar textile kits into their textile/weaving culture. The first result was a messenger bag that is equipped with a flexible solar panel, an HBLED light, a rechargeable battery pack, and a USB port. Elle picked up the exciting idea and tapped 9 designers to recreate their version of this high-tech multi purpose handbag so that YOU can also experience this new exciting development - a bag that can recharge your phone, your iPod, or your whatnot.

Participating designers include: Diane Von Furstenburg, Tommy Hilfiger, Loomstate, Loeffler Randall, Lutz and Patmos, Rogan, Vena Cava, and Zero + Maria Cornejo

Now Elle is auctioning the nine handbags online with proceeds going toward "The Portable Lights" project. Click here to check out the online auction.

And follow Erin Kaplan @twitter here.

Fashion: Paris Photographer - Sacha Dumain

A friend suggested me to join this online fashion/style community lookbook.nu and it's wonderful, I found a bunch of really talented and stylish people sharing their looks and looks that they like. It's by invite only, so wish me luck that I get invited to be a member, just applied....!

BUT, what I'm truly excited tonight is to find this fresh, talented French photographer Sacha Dumain, he's 19, a fashion photographer, student, fashion lover, who goes around Paris shooting fashion, his friends, and beautiful objects. His shots are black and white, and there's definitely youthfulness in it, which comes with a sense of freedom, but also maturity, which manifest itself in a weird sense of intensity in his pictures. By taking away the element of color, his fashion shots really focus on pattern and contrast between texture and the surroundings. I particularly like his shot of Carine Roitfeld, French Vogue Editor in Chief, wearing the polka dot Dolce & Gabbana (it's in the first page of his blog, click below to go visit).

(Ironically his own self-portrait is in color)

Check out his work in his website here.

Fashion: Sammi Cheng Love Mi World Tour - Taiwan

Mind-blowing is the only word to describe what was presented on stage at Sammi Cheng's 2010 World Tour Taiwan stop. The creativity level of her costumer is just outrageous and he always achieve the balance of fashion and costume; little bits of fashion elements are injected into each look to add some edge to the theatricality.

Some people complain Sammi is copying Lady Gaga, but I think it was more so the case of her costumes in the original Hong Kong tour stop (and that's just the opening outfit, Sammi's style is more trendy where Gaga's more artsy and theatrical). Here in Taiwan, where she revamped the whole line-up and wardrobe, she wore looks that are modified from the HK version but remaining the same theme, or a slight hint alluding to the idea of its counterpart in the HK version.

I picked some pictures, take a look at one of Asia's best!

Fashion: Sammi Cheng wears CCChu on new Album cover

Sammi Cheng, one of Hong Kong's biggest pop star, is becoming quite a fan and supporter of local brand CCChu. I've featured the brand in a previous post with selected pictures from their new summer colleciton. And Sammi once again picked their accessories for her album cover. Great publicity for the brand, and I'm becoming a big fan also. It's good to see HK celebrities supporting local fashion.

Visit the brand's website here. You can order online and they can customize the order for you!

Tennis: Wimbledon Men's and Women's Final decided!

Men's final:

Rafael Nadal (def. Andy Murray) vs. Tomas Berdych (def. Novak Djokovic)

I was so wrong with my prediction, not only the losers in my prediction ended up winning their matches, my 5 sets prediction all ended up being straight sets victories, but not without some drama and close calls.

Now that the final is set, in my previous prediction post, I wasn't able to pick a winner until the semi-finals are done, and I think (which I'll probably be wrong...) the winner will be Tomas Berdych!!! Not only has Berdych beaten Nadal before, he's playing too well to not win, and his mental strength has proven to be much improved as he has shown in his semi-final match earlier today.

Womens Final:

Serena William (def. Kvitova) vs. Vera Zvonareva (def. Pironkova)

The winner will be Serena, she's going to peak in the final, and there's no way Zvonareva will have much to offer. Not saying the match won't be competitive, in fact it'll probably be a close one, but Serena will more than likely pull through and defend her Wimbledon title and thus continuing the Williams sister's dominance in Wimbledon for the last 10 years, only 1 out of the past 10 years has there not been a Williams in the ladies' singles Final.

Fashion: Theory host Stylist Battles on Facebook!

Contemporary brand Theory is hosting a stylist battle on their facebook page. They're pitting three stylists against each other, Nylon's Joseph Ericco and Dani Stahl, along with Annabel Tollman. Each one will style three similar looks (jersey, shorts, and men's) and facebook users get to vote for their favorite stylist. The winning stylist will have a charitable donation from Theory going toward their choice of organization, and the voters will be able to enter a sweepstake for one of three $750 dollars gift cards.

Sample pictures below, in order from Left to Right: J. Errico, and Annabel Tollman, Dani Stahl, more on the facebook page.


This is just one fun example of the real life competitiveness of the styling industry, and why not do it for a charitable cause, and it's super fun! After viewing the Theory facebook page, it's hard to pick an outright winner, while the women's looks are strong across the board with J Errico slightly stronger, I think Annabel Tollman has the strongest men's look, and for that my final vote goes to Annabel! Once you click to the website, her men's look is so fresh and clean, and most importantly, it's not bulky and heavy. It's still layering, but she gets the proportion just right, and it's quintessential Theory. It's a great late summer early fall look for NYC (or.... a winter look for us who're in Southern California), so go ahead and pick your favorite!

This is also getting me even more excited about the upcoming Theory x Theysken collaboration (read about it in my earlier post). Hopefully there will be another style-off with that collection, just imagine what they can do with Theysken's clothing....mm....until then.