All posts in: This or That

16 May 2021

BHLDN x Free People Bridesmaids

Given how long these two have been under the same parent company, I’m surprised by how long it took for this collaboration to come together. What I’m not surprised about however is their powers combined to create a magnificent and whimsical collection. It embodies qualities that belong to both brands – the elegance of BHLDN and free-spiritedness of Free People. As I begin to rack up weddings in 2021, I’ve started to think about how these collections have evolved. And given the overlap in the two brands, it has the potential to be wildly successful!

The collection was released May 10th and will range in pricing from $168-$398.

Here are just a few of my favorite looks and colorways:

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13 Apr 2021

Tiny Tan | Dynamite

In case anyone needed a little mid-week pick me up, this clip of Tiny Tan dancing to Dynamite is so cute. Tiny Tan are characters based off the real life BTS members and honestly, the creators have done a great job with them!

03 Apr 2021

Weekend Watch: Adorable Fan Meets IU

Let’s start this weekend on a high note! In the most wholesome video you’ll watch all weekend, IU meets with a young fan of hers who initially pretends not to know who she is. I think we can all relate to this in someway anticipating what it might be like when we meet someone we adore. Tracy asked if I’d reach the same way meeting BTS, but to be honest, it wouldn’t go as smoothly as this probably!

25 Mar 2021

An O.C. Rewatch Podcast

Growing up, there was no shortage in cult teen-centered television shows. There was The O.C., One Tree Hill, Greek, Gossip Girl, etc, but in 2021, why does this feel non-existent? With no show like this to latch onto, actresses and stars of The O.C., Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke are giving us a taste of nostalgia with a new podcast. Appropriately titled, “Welcome to the OC, Bitches!” Rachel and Melinda, will revisit previous episodes of the series and share some of their behind-the-scenes commentary from when they were on the show.

A description of the podcast: “Zip up your Juicy Couture tracksuits and grab a seat by the pool while they deliver the ultimate O.C.-rewatch podcast. Each week they’ll take you back to a particular episode, share behind-the-scenes scoop, and interview guests who were part of the OC experience.”

If there was any show from back in the day that I would want to revisit, it would be this one.

[Source]

14 Mar 2021

Blog Roundup

  • 7 Meghan Markle Interview Bombshells That’ll Make You Anti-Royalist [Vulture]
  • How SF Restaurants Have Rearranged the Room for Indoor Dining [SF Eater]
  • The Death of Take-Home Design Exercises [Meaghan Li | Medium]
  • Revisiting the Great Covid Social Media Scold [Vanity Fair]
  • Steve Yuen’s New Frontier [GQ]
  • Asian Bodies That Proudly Defy An Archetype [HuffPost]
  • A Thailand Mall Has Two San Francisco-Themed Floors [SF Gate]
  • This Is Our Asian-American Experience [Byrdie]
  • Korean TV’s Unlikely Star: Subway Sandwiches [NY Times]
07 Mar 2021

Blog Roundup

  • 13 Things A Designer Would Never Do In Their Living Room [My Domaine]
  • The 43 Breathable Face Masks to Shop Now [Vogue]
  • FKA Twigs Discusses Shia LaBeouf Allegations in Gayle King Interview [The Fader]
  • Margaret Zhang Named Editor-In-Chief of ‘Vogue’ China [Fashionista]
  • Marin County May Be the Fakest ‘Woke’ Place in America [The Bold Italic]
  • Ten Years Later, ‘Greek’ Remains TV’s Gold Standard for the College Experience [The Ringer] not my college experience, but a series I loved!
  • Trailer for Michelle Obama’s Waffles + Mochi [Source]
  • Why I’m No Longer Staying Silent About Anti-Asian Racism by Sophia Li [Vogue]
  • Chloe Zhao’s America [Vulture]
  • We said goodbye to Daft Punk after 28 years
  • Swallowing Our Bitterness [The Cut]
  • The Future of Work Might Look Like This [Surface Mag]
  • I Love You, Please Get Vaccinated [The Cut]
  • The Invisible Artistry of Asian Actors [The Atlantic]
20 Feb 2021

Instant Noodle Aisle = Instant Serotonin

In a pandemic, you need to be able to find joy in the little things. When the highlight of your week is a trip to the grocery store, you zero in on what will become your favorite purchases. The instant ramen aisle is endless. There’s no shortage in new things to try and its array of colors and packaging make this aisle a lively one.

Also, I’m not sure where this trend came from of influencers taking photos in grocery aisles (we’ve done this too!) but it’s interesting to see what trends come out of pandemic times. Who would’ve thought that poorly lit aisles and mediocre items would be a hit? Not us, but here we are. I’m always on the hunt for some of the best instant noodles though my mother would not consider this a healthy diet. Share with us your favorite recommendations? So far my favorite has been anything involving Jajangmyeon!

15 Feb 2021

On Our Hiatus

There are very few times in Yow Yow’s! life where we’ve stepped away for a bit. Over the holidays is when I feel the most content charged, but I forget that periods of that can also lead to my own burnout. In January, I left the city for a cabin 90 minutes away. We still had access to wifi and I was still active on most of social, but selective. Instead of sharing immediate stories from my stay, I waited until I returned back to San Francisco. Nothing was preventing me from sharing out, but I needed this for myself.

The two weeks that I chose to go silent were two weeks in which the world chose to be loud. It started out as a slow burn with Bean dad and white women Mahjong before it escalated to our Georgia runoff win, the insurrection and Trump being banned on Twitter and Facebook. Somewhere in the mix, there was a Soho Karen.

I couldn’t break my rule of not posting during this time. The plan was to return home and share my thoughts afterwards. That time never came. It was a combination of the news just not being relevant anymore and myself not feeling the need to comment anymore. It may seem like an obvious lesson here, but news is timely. It’s one of the reasons why we ask our friends whether they are ‘living under a rock?’ when they’re a day late to a story breaking.

When the moment has passed, we should let it. In 2021, we act as if we all need to have commentary on everything. Shouldn’t the focus be on being better listeners? There’s a race to get to the news first and to have our take on it, but more often than not, it’s not our voice that needs to be heard. Stepping back for two weeks made me realize that I could sit back every once in a while. Why not let someone else’s voice be amplified? I thought this challenge for myself would be difficult, but it wasn’t. In fact, it only showed me how easy it could be to step away someday and be completely okay with all of this.

15 Feb 2021

Blog Roundup

Patricia Chang
  • Instagram Really Isn’t Optional For Restaurants Anymore [SF Eater]
  • Ella Emhoff and Amanda Gorman have been signed to IMG [Fashionista 1/2]
  • Even the White House Logo Got a Makeover [Fast Company]
  • How to Make McDonald’s Hash Browns At Home [The Takeout]
  • BTS Is Heading to ‘MTV Unplugged’ [NYLON]
  • The Most Popular Brand in Every Country, Mapped [Digg]
  • This Concept Video for Virgin’s Hyperloop Transit System [Mental Floss]
  • Why Aren’t More Asian American Costume Designers Helping Tell Our Own Stories? [Fashionista]
  • Former FBI Agent Analyzes First Date Body Language | WIRED [Source]
  • How to Adjust Covid-19 Social Distancing Pods When Someone Gets Exposed [Vox]
  • The Many Lives of Steve Yuen [The New York Times Magazine]
  • Jenny Han Talks ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ [Call Your Girlfriend]
  • ‘My People Are Dying in Silence – and I’m Here with A Megaphone’ [AdWeek]
  • Nordstrom Introduces Black_Space to Amplify Black Designers [High Snobiety]
  • I’ve Never Been More Prouder – Or More Heartbroken – to Be Asian American [Byrdie]
  • 38 Moments to Talk About From the “To All The Boys” Series [The EveryGirl]
06 Feb 2021

When Disney Makes You Choose A Side

Leave it to the younger generation to get the rest of us involved with a Disney love triangle. This is one of the reasons why I find TikTok to be such a darling. It has the ability to make things blow up and make you care about things you never would have previously. A few weeks ago, I noticed a trending sound – a new single – from a name I had never heard of before. Olivia Rodrigo, who is an actress on Disney+’s High School Musical show, apparently had her heart broken and wrote a gut wrenching song about it. The man taught her how to drive! And now that she does have her license, she can’t even use her license to drive over to his house because they are no longer together.

Also, I’d like to note that I’ve read and watched many TikToks about this scandal, but I feel like it isn’t confirmed that they actually were dating and just speculation. One half of the crowd actually believes this is all a PR scheme. Why? Because the boy in question and her co-star (nothing to write home about honestly) is now dating another Disney star, Sabrina Carpenter. Not only did Olivia and said guy, Josh, also release songs in the same time frame, but so did Sabrina!

Who really cares about the guy though? I’m going to drop both songs here and let you all decide which you prefer. Sabrina says her release is not in response to “Driver’s License,” but how can it not be? We know this can’t be a coincidence. Honestly, they are both bops. I just want to know why these two amazing ladies might be pining over some mediocre guy.