Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Being Plus-Size Women: My Personal Disappointment

Being a plus-size woman in Indonesia, well i guess it's almost everywhere, is tricky. It's quite hard to find the right clothes to wear but still look trendy, find someone who loves you no matter how big you are, and find the role model or platform that inspire you the most to boost up your confidence.

The last point that I mention above, adalah alasan gue kembali menulis dalam seri ini. Pagi tadi, seperti biasa, gue membuka aplikasi favorite gue, Instagram, untuk mengisi waktu yang sedang senggang. Lagi asik scrolling through my instagram feed, gue menemukan sebuah foto dari akun bernama 'tasbynara'. Dalam foto tersebut, ada tas yang sepertinya dipromosikan lewat akun tersebut. Kebingungan menghampiri gue ketika melihat foto tersebut, alasannya adalah gue itu tipe pengguna instagram yang jarang-jarang follow online shop kecuali gue memang tertarik dengan produknya atau gue kenal sama yang punya online shop, and as long as I can remember, gue gak pernah mengikuti akun tersebut (secara tas yang dijual bukan kesukaan gue). Setelah gue perhatikan siapa saja mutual followers di akun tersebut, ternyata umumnya dimiliki oleh para plus-size women dari Indonesia yang memang gue tahu, salah satunya adalah teman baru gue yang sama-sama punya interest di plus-size life, Monica. Tanpa pikir panjang, gue langsung menghubungi Monica via Line untuk menanyakan tentang akun tersebut. 

Setelah diperhatikan dan didiskusikan dengan Monica, rupanya akun tersebut sebelumnya adalah akun @OOTDBIGSIZEINDONESIA yang merupakan salah satu akun yang cukup rajin me-repost outfit para wanita bertubuh besar di Indonesia. Di situ lah kekecewaan gue muncul.

To be honest, kecurigaan gue muncul sejak melihat jumlah followers yang mencapai 10K saat gue pertama kali men-follow akun tersebut. Bukannya apa-apa, jumlah 10k itu bagi gue pribadi agak mencengangkan aja untuk akun yang terbilang baru dan memunculkan topik yang terbilang baru juga di Indonesia. Kecurigaan gue makin muncul ketika akun tersebut jadi sering mengunggah iklan-iklan, entah sebagai bentuk paid promote atau endorsement, ketimbang me-repost outfit wanita-wanita bertubuh besar, seperti tujuan awalnya. And this morning, kecurigaan gue terbukti bahwa akun ini tidak 'setulus' apa yang gue harapkan.

Mungkin belum terjawab kenapa gue kecewa terhadap akun tersebut. Bukan bermaksud melarang-larang untuk membelli atau menjual akun yang punya followers, itu hak kalian para pengguna Instagram, tapi gue kecewa karena selama ini gue merasa akun jenis itu bisa jadi wadah yang baik untuk membantu para plus-size women di Indonesia untuk lebih percaya diri, salah satunya dalam hal berpakaian. Memang sih, saat ini ada beberapa akun serupa lainnya, tetapi sangat disayangkan aja kalau harus kehilangan satu akun yang bisa saling membantu plus-size women untuk makin baik. Sampai detik ini gue gak tau, perubahan visi misi si akun itu karena memang dijual atau di hack, tapi gue menyimpan kekecewaan tersendiri kalau ternyata tidak di hack. Gue sendiri merasa akun itu, dulunya, adalah salah satu wadah yang cukup membantu gue dalam hal meningkatkan rasa percaya diri dalam berpakaian, terlepas dari paid promote-nya yang bikin gue sering merasa risih. Karena itu, kemudian gue memutuskan untuk men-unfollow akun tersebut sebagai suatu bentuk kekecewaan gue. 

Sebagai seorang plus-size woman, gue berharap bahwa akun-akun lain yang juga sering me-repost outfit para wanita bertubuh besar di Indonesia tidak melakukan hal serupa dengan mengumpulkan followers banyak untuk kemudian menjual akun tersebut untuk menjual dagangannya. 

But hey, chin up! Inspiration can comes from any unexpected place, right? Mati satu, tumbuh seribu! There are some similar accounts that you can follow and lot of plus-size women in Instagram that really welcome to be your insta-friends, so you won't be alone after all (based on my experience, that's the best thing that happened to me!).

Remember, ladies...you are beautiful not because of your size, but because you're comfortable with yourself!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Fashion Addiction: Pin, Patch, Pleasure

I still remember the time when i got addicted with pins. During my junior high school time, i put a lot of pins on my bag to make it looked cool. I lost some of my favorite pin like my Bubble's face pin that i got for free. Lately, pin and patch are on the spotlight. It totally looks rad on denim, or in my case..in every place that I want. My addiction with patch started when I saw Ucita Pohan's photo on her instagram. I saw some patches that so kawaii! And my favorite thing about those patches is I can put it everywhere! I don't have to sew it (since I'm quite bad about it), i just have to stick it in any place that I want. I put my first patch that I bought from Gogirl! Magazine Bazaar on my laptop and if I get bored, i just peel it and put it on the other place. The patches trend, i guess, made a come back after Anya Hindmarch Sticker Collection. The original sticker is actually quite pricey, so the patches that i usually bought are the alternative for you to get that similar look. 

Right now, there's a lot of online shop that offering some cool patches that you can sew/iron/stick on your clothes (and any other surface). My favorite shop, on Instagram, for patches is iPatch (@ipatch.id). The price range is 40.000IDR (for alphabeth series) to 50.000IDR (for other series). You can get their patches online (minimum 2 pcs) and offline. There's another sticker patch shop that I like (but still have no money to shop :p) named Patch Me Please and Stick Me On. If you like to sew 'em up (and customized it with your own design), you can find a lot online shop on Instagram with lower price (start from 15.000IDR). For pins, especially enamel pins, you can find 'em on Pinfolks (@pinfo_lks). The enamel pin started from 50.000IDR. They have 4 kind of pins: brooch, pairing pin (which is actually my favorite because of the price deal), collar pin, and kilt pin. Beside pin, they also sell necklace. The pin and patch shops that I recommend in this post are local shop, so much cheaper and easier to buy.

Anyway, if you have read my previous post, I went to artotel for free one night stay and did a little photo shoot on the BART during the day for my Instagram and Blog. I took these photos at 10 AM and i was sweating like crazy! I was so relieved that the sweat did not really ruin my look hahaha. I learnt that the best light comes from the sun, so yeah if anyone wants to take a cool photo, especially OOTD kind of photo, do it in the morning or in the afternoon (around 3.30 PM). Thanks for Ucita Pohan for the suggestion <3. I actually brought an outfit for the OOTD photoshoot that I planned to take on the saturday afternoon. Because of my health condition, i had to forget it. This look actually kinda unplanned but I feel so satisfied with the end result.

Anyway, if you pay attention to the clutch, there are several patches and pins that I add to make it more merrier. I sew the eyes, peace sign, star patches (they comes with the clutch, thanks to Gogirl Magazine!), and Indonesian flag (My mom bought this for my yellow jacket) patches by my self. The 'N' and Nerdy pin are from my pin addiction back in early 2000s. If you ever went to Cilandak Town Square at that time, i guess you remember there's a booth, named Fun Badges, that sell lot of pin and you can also made your own pin from them. That shop really satisfied my pin addiction at that time. Still wondering where are they now?.  For the 'N'  and 'Coffee' patches, I got them from iPatch.

Unbranded top | Grey Jegging by Dauki | Blue Running Shoes by Reebok | Clutch by Gogirl! Magazine | Gaga Pin by Pinfolks

Roll up your pants to get cooler look


that drunken fierce look...

Clutch Detail

Lady Gaga Pin by Pinfolks


From Where I Stand



Not His Story: Sleep with Art


Finally have something to blog about!

So, few months ago, Diana Rikasari's shoes brand named UP SHOES held a giveaway with a super artsy hotel chain called ARTOTEL . At that moment, I thought it will be great to test my luck for that giveaway. So, i followed the giveaway's rules to join. I didn't want to expect too much for this kind of giveaway but turns out, I'm the one of two lucky giveaway winner! Say what? Alhamdulillah.

I already decided to use my prize (to have one night stay at the ARTOTEL Thamrin, Jakarta) this weekend (May 14-15) with my partner in crime a.k.a. my cousin a.k.a. Dyah. Our first plan was to stay at Artotel and watched Captain America: Civil War in 4DX3D studio at CGV Blitz, Grand Indonesia on Saturday night. But, we changed our plan since we already watched it (for free, thanks to Fox International Channel for the giveaway prize (how lucky i was!)) in 2D few days after the movie released in Indonesia. So, the second plan was to enjoy our stay, went to Bar at The Roof Top (BART) on the 7th floor of the hotel, and joined Car Free Day on the next they. Unfortunately, my health condition during the first day of stay wasn't good enough to have some fun. I think it's all because I went to sleep late for the last 5 days (thanks to my thesis) and got enough rest, even though i feel like i sleep the whole day haha :p

Anyway, my room type was Studio 20 on the 5th floor. I love the room interior that designed by Wisnu Auri. Unfortunately, the view from the room didn't look like what I expected but i got enough light during the day (which is a good thing if you want to take a lot of photos). I made a brief room tour video that you can watch to see that cool room.
The video was made using Foodie application on my iphone 5s and combined with Movie Maker.

After 4 hours of sleep (thanks to my heavy breathing caused by asthma), I woke up at 6 on the Sunday morning and joined the Car Free Day as I planned. Then, I enjoyed the hotel breakfast on Roca Restaurant. Done with the breakfast, me and Dyah went back to the room to refresh ourself before heading to BART to take a lot of cool photo for our Instagram (and my blog, of course). FYI, BART is open at 5PM, so before that, there's actually nobody on the roof top. For me, Artotel is a perfect place to sleep with art, literally, and great place to take a lot of artsy picture. I hope i can stay at Artotel 3rd hotel in Sanur, Bali since they have infinity pool! Anyway, thanks for Up Shoes and Artotel for the prize!
What I had for breakfast: Hashbrown, Brokoli Cah Jamur, Ikan Asam Manis, Sausage, and Smoked Beef + Juice
Post CFD photoshoot at the BART. No Filter Needed!
Oversized Tee by BSSAR. Lady Gaga Pin by Pinfolks

'Off to Gym' Oversized Tee by BSSAR