ION Insider: Fashion visits ♡

I tried out for the ION Insider blogger program, and I was shortlisted to attend the ION Insider workshop for Fashion on the 28th of May together with 4 other lovely ladies! (:

We met at Alfresco Gusto, located at #01-15 of Ion Orchard for some food and refreshments before an introductory session before beginning the workshop.

(Warning, drool-worthy food photos coming up! :9)

Crab shaker; deep fried soft shell crab with a seasoning and butter on the side

Oh, I could do with some of these soft shell crab bits now!  

 Antipasti Platter; assortment of cured meats

Sausage Platter; who doesn't love sausages!

Crispy Risotto Balls; deep fried squid ink risotto balls (SO GOOD!)

One of my favourites would have got to be these crazy delicious risotto balls. Crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside with the risotto bits! 

Seafood Platter 

Chilli Cheese Crab Pizza; Yay to crab always!

Full menu we had:

Crispy Risotto Balls

Crab Shaker

Salmon on Toast

Chilli Cheese Crab Pizza

Meat Lover Pizza

AntiPasti Platter

Sausage Platter

Seafood Platter

After, we headed on to our first store! (: Our first stop for fashion was at Alice and Olivia, which is a New-York based fashion label created by fashion designer, Stacey Bendet.

The styles here are fun, whimsy and vintage inspired; and I love the items here so much! They are absolutely items which I would bag home to keep.

The staff was explaining to us the concept of the store, and it is amazing because she said that each and every Alice and Olivia store all around the world would have a piece of vintage furniture, handpicked by Stacey Bendet to be placed in it.

And this cupboard above is the vintage piece of furniture present in ION Orchard's branch! (:

Signature red lips and big sunglasses look at the Alice and Olivia flagship stores

Intricate and gorgeous evening gowns

Here’s some pictures of the the crazy cute handbag line known as the Olivia Handbag. It’s designed to be roomy and functional for the ladies to carry all their essentials but yet, kept classy and chic at the same time.

My obsession with heels, and these were too adorable. (Imagine them being paired with a tulle skirt and clutch on the streets!)

Super cute heels!

Ending off with more displays and shots of the Alice and Olivia store at Ion Orchard;

I love the store layout of Alice and Olivia; everything is really bright and it has a vintage vibe to it as well. And I love vintage items! Gotta love the colours and textures used for the items in this brand (: 

Alice & Olivia 
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Next, we moved on to Sandro. Sandro is a French luxury brand, established in 1984 by Evelyne Chetrite and her husband Didier Chetrite. It’s first stand-alone store in Southeast Asia was opened in Singapore just in May 2014 (:

The styles here are edgier, minimalist and play around a hint of rock and roll to their items. The line of clothing is unfussy, tailored and well-cut to make one look effortlessly stylish. 

There's a men's collection available at Sandro as well! (:

I love this black and white biker jacket which was hanging on the rails (below). It was such a stunning piece with the soft leather sleeves and white washed front.

And so, I tried it on! (: It turned out that, this jacket was featured by Emma Watson in a fashion magazine spread  previously! 

More pictures taken of the Sandro flagship store; 

Sandro
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The third store we visited next was Bread and Butter. Bread and Butter is a store which carries various denim labels from all around the world. They carry denims from countries such as Japan, Europe and the United States (: And some examples of the labels they carry would be Evisu and 7 for All Mankind. 

We were given a short introduction on some of the types of denims the Ion outlet has, and one that was mentioned was the raw denim jeans. Raw denim is denim that is not washed after being dyed in production.

And the amazing thing is that these raw denims are often made by hand only, which makes each piece and every piece unique in it's own way.

Close-up of raw denims 

Denim fans would actually only wash raw denim jeans once a year (yes, once in 365 days only) in order to set the jeans in a way that would fit the owner perfectly! 

However, the staff also mentioned that raw denims are usually donned by men though, as ladies prefer to own jeans that have a mix with lycra in order to accentuate curves (:

I tried on a pair of embossed floral motif jeans here too! 

I love the cut of the jeans, best pair I've ever tried so far as it really hugs you in the right places. The embossed details are really pretty as well. 

Here are a couple more shots of the store:

I really enjoyed listening and learning about the different kinds of denims, and the staff also mentioned that in order to keep the jeans clean (cause people only wash them once a year), they actually place jeans in the freezer or in the oven to kill bacteria! Bread and Butter is definitely a place to visit for denim junkies (: 

Bread and Butter

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Our last and final stop was MM6, which is a diffusion line from Maison Martin Margiela (: The apparels' styles here are clean, sleek and they carry innovative ideas in their designs with different collections centered around unique themes. 

More shots of the store and the items they carry;

Jelly boots!

Colourblock Sandal Flatforms; perfect for casual get-ups or androgynous looks

The changing room is really big and pretty with lots of mirrors!

I like MM6 for it's simplistic and polished looks, which gives off a very refined and sophisticated feel to their items (: 

MM6

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Ending off with a group shot with everyone (: (pity it's a bit blur for this photo)! But anyway, thank you Coleen and Chermaine from the ION Orchard marketing communications team and Sweta from Vocanic for bringing us around! (: I definitely enjoyed my fashion workshop around ION Orchard.

And yes, here's my outfit for that day: 

Shot by Gerri and Cleo when I met them for lunch earlier on that day (:

Top: A for Arcade

Shrug and pants: Love, Bonito

Heels: New Look

Here's to an awesome rest-of-the-week ahead everyone, and happy midweek! 

Love, Jo ♡

Singapore International Water Week: Lorong Halus Waterway

Hi everyone! So, I was recently invited to participate in a trail walk on Saturday around Lorong Halus Wetlands in light of the Singapore International Water Week! (:

What is the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW)?

The SIWW is the global platform to share and co- create innovative water solutions. Comprising the Water Leaders Summit, Water Convention, Water Expo, Business Forums, Industrial Water Solutions Forum and TechXchange, it culminates in the presentation of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, a prestigious international water award to recognize outstanding contributions towards solving global water problems.

Basically, this trail walk I went for was one of the events for the SIWW which is an informational walk on this reservoir's history and how the water is collected and purified here! (:

Woke up bright and early for the trail walk and headed there with Tzu! Thank goodness he was there to accompany me heh! (: There were about 40+ people for the walk, and the aunties on the walk were very cute hahaha. 

And here we go! (:

Lorong Halus Wetlands is located in the north-east part of Singapore, around Punggol and Pasir Ris (: It's quite popular with residents as a recreation place for cycling and walks. I actually had my photoshoot somewhere nearby too! (: 

But what most people don't know is that, Lorong Halus used to be a landfill from 1970 to 1999! It occupies about 234 hectares along the eastern bank of Sungei Serangoon back then. However, a fraction of this former landfill has now been changed into Lorong Halus Wetland to treat leachate. 

(Leachate is essentially any liquid material that contains elevated concentrations of undesirable material derived from the material that it has passed through.)

Pretty water lilies

The unique thing about this wetland area is that, water isn't treated by chemical means but instead via the environment itself?! (: Plants specially planted at reed beds would absorb nutrients from the leachate, and thus providing a suitable habitat for plants and animals. This ecosystem helps to protect our reservoir water! (:

An impermeable wall made of cement, bentonite and soil is also installed to intercept leachate along the length of the former landfill before it is distributed into the reed beds. It helps to contain the lechate and prevent it from seeping into the reservoir.

The two photos above are of some of the plants in the reed beds (: 

The reservoir

The dam

The dam helps to regulate flow from the sea in between high and low tides. It also helps to balance the salinity of water in the reservoir. 

And here's another of us, along the red bridge which overlooks the beautiful reservoir (: 

The trail walk was overall really fun and enriching I feel! (: I've never known the background that goes behind the whole purification system, and it's pretty amazing how it is done! It was a lovely morning too, to have a walk around the area (: 

For articles regarding the SIWW, do visit http://waterchatter.wordpress.com/ too! (: 

Thanks for reading everyone, and do pay Lorong Halus Waterway a visit some time for a day of recreation, fun and to also learn about water conservation! ♡