Meet the creative crew behind FourEyes: Alex Blanco, Chin Tay, Danny Simmons and Mino Kim. They are four unique, stylish and friendly fashion bloggers from New Zealand whom I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing while I was up in Sydney for the MBFWA2014. They aren’t afraid of experimenting with colours and textures; or even cutting off the sleeves or hems of their garments to try something different. This, I admire very much.

Not only do they have an eye for fashion, they have an eye for photography. They have collaborated with a variety of NZ fashion designers, judges for the NZ Young Designers fashion show, and even written and published their very own street style book. Their impressive book has over 300 pages of colourful and awe-inspiring street everyday people. Must get your copy here.

The one thing that impressed me the most was the detail they put into their outfits – including their camera straps which they co-designed with Saben (NZ Designer). See their range here.

Here are the boys from left to right, we have Alex Blanco, Chin Tay, Danny Simmons and Mino Kim.

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To keep this blogpost short and sweet, I’ve decided to introduce each Foureyes member everyday of this week. First up is Alex Blanco!

“Keep things simples and don’t over-complicate your outfits”

Alex wore a pretty simple outfit – a Zara blazer with leather sleeves which he altered himself by chopping the sleeves off! Shorts, a t-shirt with a leather upper half to tie in with the blazer and a pair of silver shoes. The sunnies are from Zambesi.

Alex wore an all white look with gold metallic detailing on the jacket purchased from Thailand. The pants and t-shirt are from Zara, and the shoes are from Country Road which he painted in white because he couldn’t believe how hard it is to find a good pair of white shoes! Why didn’t I think of that?

Alex, where do you draw your inspiration from when putting your outfits together?

I like classic shapes and usually start with a central piece and build a look around that. I think that way, you can keep your look simple and not ‘clutter it’ with too much.

What did you enjoy most about MBFWA2014?

I always love the creative energy and buzz that comes with fashion week and think that MBFWA has such a high level of designers that show as well as street style at the venue that it’s always such an inspiration to attend the event and soak it all in.

What do you enjoy most about being one of Foureyes

The most exciting part about what we do is that we never know what we will get involved in next and who we will meet along the way (like yourself)! For example, we have worked on projects such as working with a milliner to create a range of hats and even published our own book that is now on sale all around New Zealand.

I had the pleasure of joining the talented Jon Pulitano, Hair Director of Redken and his team to capture all the magic and creative flair that went behind the Gail Sorronda show at the MBFWA. The concept of Gail’s show was all about beautiful alien mermaids moving into another realm – metamorphosis between the underwater world and the futuristic world.

Jon’s creativity was inspired by textures that reassembled the underwater world such as mermaids and shapes that resembled futurism and alien-like silhouettes with a fashionable twist.

So how did he do it?

Jon prepped the model’s hair with the Redken pillow proof blow dry express primer to reduce the hair drying time. Then he layered the hair with a generous amount of Redken Rootful 06 root lighting spray and dried the hair in a backward motion to keep the sides flat and sleek. A rectangular section at the top of the head was taken and moved towards the crown and lightly back combed the hair with a light spray of Redken Fashion Work 12 hairspray. The hair was crimped from the roots, working it’s way down from the crown towards the hairline but leaving the hairline out. The crimping was what gave them the height to create the futuristic silhouette. Once crimped, the hair was smoothed out in a backward motion using Redken Fashion Works 12. Then random sections at the back of the head was braided, some from the roots to ends, and some just the ends. Once the braids were completed, the braids were heated with a flat iron and finished with a generous amount of Redken Smooth Lock Heat Glide Serum to give it a high shine and wet look. Lastly, the top of the head was sealed with Redken Forceful 23 Stronghold Hair Spray.

Thank you so much for having me backstage!

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With all the social media hype leading up to Alex Perry’s Spring Summer 2014/15 show, Alessandra Ambrosio had made a spectacular entrance and finale to his “Varsity” show.

Alex Perry had created a sophisticated collection of pencil silhouettes, structured and short trumpet skirts and crop tops. Pencil dresses were cut open at the back or featured see-through lace panels at the back. Tea dresses with shimmering beadwork and high impact circle skirts. The theme throughout was leather-effect fabrics with black, navy, cream and orange and prink colour blocking.

It was worth the one hour wait and being squeezed out of the media pit while I propped myself on top of the sub woofer to capture all the glitz and glam. Here are the highlights from Alex Perry’s runway show from my perspective.

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Representing Jess Dempsey from What Would Karl Do and UK online retail store, boohoo.com at MBFWA this year, here are the highlights from day one.

My street style images are also up on boohoo.com Facebook page too here.

Please credit my work accordingly if you intend to use these images on your blog/website/instagram. Follow @heykarenwoo for more updates! Thanks.

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Please credit my work accordingly if you intend to use these images on your blog/website/instagram. Continue Reading →

Aurelio Costarella summer 14/15 is a modern interpretation of the classic 1920/30’s Parisienne silhouettes inspired by the work of Man Ray and the style of his favourite muses, Kiki de Montparnasse, Tamara de Lempika, Nancy Cunard, Lee Miller and Juliete. Aurelio’s runway show started out with a bang of intense colours, ranging from red, fushsia, violet, citrus, then a series of mint, cobalt, turquoise, then antique, black and gunmetal and finished the show with a palette of classic antique and white. Fabrications include silk chiffon, leather, eyelet lace, intricate beading and embroidery in metal, and graduation of ostrich feathers. Here are the highlights taken from my perspective.

Please credit my work accordingly if you intend to use these images on your blog/website/instagram. Follow @heykarenwoo for more updates. Thanks!

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