I realized some of you might have been a bit lost with regards to some of my shoe references in the last post. So... let's do a crash course today!

Unless you've been living in a bubble here in sunny Singapore, or if you never look down at people's feet, you probably would have noticed the overwhelming numbers of these on the streets...

With the Stan Smiths there's nothing much to say because they are a staple pair of sneakers not unlike those Chuck Taylors from Converse. Personally I'll never get a pair because they are common af and I prefer to stay out of the mainstream. Now, as for the other pair, -you know, the one with those lego bricks- they're also getting more common but the difference is that THERE ARE SO MANY COLORWAYS OMG I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN. *breathes deeply* Okay, for starters, they're called NMDs which stand for Nomad. It's this marketing slogan(?) by adidas to appeal to "the urban nomad", or in simple English, people who walk around in the city a lot. That's me. Haha. No kidding, but half the time it's because I decide to get adventurous and end up lost/walking in circles.

So, NMDs. Regardless of the colorway, they come in three main forms: R1s, XR1s, and R2s. Those in the pictures up there are R1s. Now wait for it...

These ones with the cool cage on the side are dope-ass XR1s.

The 'lego' bricks on XR1s are much less pronounced, which gives it that sleeker look. Featured here is the Triple White iteration for men.

The women's iteration. Notice the stripey upper and polka dotted laces, giving it that extra detailing which adidas thought females would be more appreciative of. No wrong guesses there.

However, this pair screamed "REGINE" more than all the others. Pink heel tab, nice grey accents in that prime-knit upper, 3M reflective laces, dat cage... What's not to love?!

One might also notice the funny Styrofoam lookalike sole on the NMDs. It's called Boost, and adidas claims that it returns you more energy in each step you take + it's comfortable to stand on. I'm a convert. Ever since I began wearing Boost (shout-out to fam who inducted me), I've never felt as good wearing other kinds of soles like EVA or Lunarlon. Nike's Air Max designs look cool but dang the sole is hard and just not as comfy. Granted, I've not walked in them a whole day to test out the comfort level (and perhaps they need some breaking in to reach their potential) but I've never had to break in my NMDs.

Since we're on the topic, I might as well share about the two breeds of NMDs, namely Mesh and Primeknit. Mesh is your typical sports shoe upper material. It's porous, kind of inflexible, and unsightly if not done right. It's the kind of material which signals to people around you "hey, I'm wearing sports shoes". Modern sports shoes need to look like they can be carried off on the streets, in casual wear. Enter Primeknit (PK). It's a knitted sock-like material, and NMDs have it as a one-piece upper to reduce waste during manufacturing. Honestly, this article does a much better job at describing NMDS than I can. Nike has its own version of knitted uppers too, termed Flyknit. But after feeling both up, I'd say that PK has more appeal. Its level of elasticity varies from the toebox to the heel-area, being more firm at the latter.

This design has been criticized by some on the online community to look like some dude jizzed all over the shoe. You gotta admit, there's somee resemblance...

Wow this post took me longer than I thought. And that's barely scratching the surface. There's still so much more to be covered: collaborations (think Kanye and Rihanna, streetwear brands in the UK and Japan, sneaker boutiques everywhere), other models worthy of mention... I'll save it for next time, and if I get positive feedback on this one. Hit me up if you'd like me to write about other topics like the latest brands and trends I'm following or opinions on the upcoming sneaker drops (drop = release, cop = buy). There are always captions on Instagram going "cop or drop", and countless other variations in street-wear talk that never fails to amuse me. Then again, I'm easily amused.

Was inspired after a conversation with my girlfriends to start blogging about trends I read up on, so let's see how this goes.

Yesterday I was browsing through the racks of the huge MBS Zara store (which I hadn't stepped into for a long time) and discovered a couple of cute pieces. However, I didn't want to spend any more money for that morning I had already carted out close to a hundred bucks on clothes. Regardless, it was enjoyable to just look around for cute pieces, especially when my then-accomplice has an eye for what I might fancy. Is it just me, or do I have a consistent style? Many of my friends would take one look at an apparel I picked out and comment on how it's really me/"I can see you wearing that".

Once upon a time, I was rather clueless on what to wear. My mother would put together outfits for me, and even when we would go shopping, I would be humming and hawing my way through. Deciding what to wear was such a burden for me. I didn't care, as long as my parents approved of my outfit and it wasn't anything I despised with a passion (how I dreaded those days when I kept a short ugly bob at the strong suggestion of my mother because apparently the younger me was too lazy to upkeep long hair). Then came a time when I would simply follow what my peers were wearing. I was always confused, and found it hard to make good sense of what matched and what didn't. My wardrobe was disjointed. Chaotic. Colors were everywhere. I'd purchase whatever caught my eye, but utterly fail to consider if it could go with anything else existing in my room. So there were super frilly lace dresses, a pair of 3/4 pants in emerald green and another in dark grey with too many pockets, and those vintage washed T-shirts with Little Miss characters (on my wish-list but never got around to buying), among other oddities I'm grateful that I cannot remember.

Fast forward to the present day, after an era where I was hardcore obsessing over the Japanese gyaru/lolita/mori-girl style and even diving into cosplay for a brief period, I think I've finally found who I want to be (cue enlightening crescendo). Think living in Japan for five months helped a lot. Being surrounded by stylish people who look like they're polished all the time, even though sometimes it felt like they were wearing uniforms, really helped to drive home the importance of being consistent.

Anyway, back to yesterday's discoveries at Zara.

First up was this embroidery + frills sleeveless tunic which really reminds me of the girly boho style

This babydoll blouse is so Jap-ish. The pinstripes, pale blue, and black ribbons at the sides all come together to make it cute. But I don't like how they styled the model with grungey-looking jeans. It doesn't make the cute girly look pop.

Now this blouse looks normal in front, but wait till she turns around...

Ribbons adorning the back! How cute is that.

There was also a pretty pair of pink trousers with ruffles at the hem but I couldn't locate a picture of it on the website. Now, if you've been paying attention to the world of sneakers, you would have read news of Puma suing Forever 21 for copying the Fenty sliders design. Know which other major fashion retailer has been copying stuff? Zara. They've been ripping off Adidas's designs such as the Stan Smiths and the sock collar of the R1 PKs. Wonder when it will be their turn to get sued. But it's really funny because Asics is also coming up with designs very similar to the NMD R1s.