Weekly Recap: Style Week OC 2014

Who needs NYFW when you have Style Week OC? Every year in September Orange County has fashion shows at Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum Center showcasing the latest fall fashions and FIDM designers. These last two weekends I have been working backstage, experiencing the craziness, and getting super excited for fall!

Last week the first two shows were at Fashion Island. There were in-store events for the participating brands in the fashion show earlier, and then on Saturday night FIDM had their benefit show.

The first show at the Spectrum featured different brands from around the shopping center. During the second show Saturday night, Nick Verreos from Project Runway and Under the Gunn showed off his new Nikolaki collection and four FIDM designers were featured in the Celebrity Cruises design competition.

Did you attend Style Week OC? What were your favorite looks for fall? (P.S. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where you can find even more behind the scenes fun!)

xx, Ciera

Weekly Recap: Summer and Pop Up Fashion Event

It’s finally SUMMER! The last day of my first semester of college was last Thursday- and although now it’s summer vacation and I should be relaxing, it seems I have been as busy as ever with work, errands, family, friends, and life in general.

On Saturday I worked a special pop-up fashion event at Irvine Spectrum. It featured summer clothes and accessories from the stores Foreign Exchange, Irene’s Story, and Kaitlyn in three closets around the mall. There were three models also showing off the latest trends that went around to each closet dancing to music. Each store also had special in-store events, including food, drinks, free gifts, and discounts. Although I did not get to go into any of the stores, I had fun watching the models and handing out flyers.

xx, Ciera

Weekly Recap: Macy’s Lawrence Zarian Event

Hey loves, just wanted to give you all a quick recap of what’s been going on in my life lately… I’ve been SO busy with school that I’ve barely had time to sleep! These next couple of weeks are also going to be pretty crazy with work, tests, projects, reading, and studying, so I will try my very best to find time and keep up with posts.

Last Saturday I went to Macy’s Thousand Oaks for a spring fashion show event with Lawrence Zarian from Live! with Kelly and Michael. He showcased how to style the newest spring fashions while promoting his new book, 10 Commandments for a Perfect Wardrobe. Benefit sponsored the show and I received a free sample of their They’re Real! mascara. Nothing Bundt Cakes were there as well, serving little bites of vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet bundt cake. It was a fabulous show and a wonderful break from school!

xx, Ciera

 

My Weekend Getaway

My Valentine’s/President’s day weekend was spent in one of the most interesting cities in California- San Francisco. My dad used to live in the city when he was younger so I love being able to go back and explore where he spent his time growing up.

When we first arrived it was cold and cloudy- around 50°F, to be exact.

We stayed at the W Hotel, which had the coolest mix of a modern and oriental theme. It had a bar and lounge downstairs, filled with lots of orchids and flowers and mirrors.

I got to do a few exciting things while on my little mini-vacation, including going to a concert, eating at the Ghirardelli Factory, trying out new cupcakes, visiting some of my Chinese relatives, and of course a little sightseeing. I’ll be posting more about it over the next few days so stay tuned!

xx, Ciera

Weekly Recap: Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year everyone! I celebrate this holiday every year with my dad’s side of the family, so I was ecstatic to be able to work an event at Macy’s last Saturday. The celebration included a DJ, free Chinese henna tattoos and brush paintings, a style meet up with Jenny Wu from Good, Bad, and Fab, an informal modeling highlighting the newest black and red fashion trends, as well as a nail station and dragon parade. I was in charge of the gift with purchase booth and spent two hours giving customers who spent over $25 a free pair of chopsticks or a free tote bag if they spent over $75. We ended up running out of both products before the event ended. Overall the day was a huge success and a lot of fun. Afterwards I got my nails done for free! Here’s a few photos from the event.

恭禧發財 Gong Hey Fat Choy (Happy New Year!)

xx, Ciera

Weekly Recap: Casablanca Bridal

The Pelican Hill Resort has been having weekly weekend lunches throughout November and December featuring key lines, accessories, and clothes through Fashion Island and other stores around Newport. Last Saturday was the last one of the season, where they showed off wedding gowns from Casablanca Bridal. The gowns were absolutely breathtaking (and most importantly, sparkly!) and I think I fell in love (with all of them.) Here are a few pictures from the informal.

So tell me readers, what’s your dream gown? Strapless? Mermaid? Princess? Leave your thoughts below!

with love, Ciera

Weekly Recap: Style Week OC

Happy Sunday everyone! This last month I have been *ridiculously* busy, trying to balance working retail, dressing, babysitting triplets, and also going to school full time. Not going to lie, it has been a little crazy but definitely has kept me on my toes. Also, my phone had to be reset so I had trouble getting all my pictures back to post from the shows and street teams I have been doing for Style Week OC, but now I have found a little time so here you are… 🙂

There is so much that I have been wanting to post but have not had the time, I will try to keep posting and you all updated as much as I can!

 xx, Ciera

Class of ’13!

 

It’s really, truly, FINALLY over! Thursday at 4pm, I officially graduated from high school! Honestly it still hasn’t kicked in that I am no longer a high schooler and am now college bound, probably because these last few weeks have flown by.

There was Senior Honors Night, where I received the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence and awarded a golden rope for Scholar with Honors.

On Tuesday I was awarded my $2,500 LAFD Best Essay Scholarship. Entitled “The Climb”, I wrote about my experience on my People to People student ambassador trip to Australia when I climbed down Blue Mountain with my friend Nicole. Even though I was a little nervous, I was asked to read it aloud during the ceremony, which went better than I expected. The best part was at the end when I got to hold the big check 😀

Finally, graduation was Thursday. Even though my gown was way too big, I liked the baby blue color all the girls got to wear (guys wore navy blue, and Magna/Suma Cum Laude honor students over a 4.0 GPA wore gold.) Some people were sad to leave high school, but I am ready for new beginnings and excited to see what the world will bring me in the future.

with love, Ciera

Weekly Recap: Macy’s American Icons and SAC California Counter Culture Fashion Shows

On Thursday I worked backstage at Macy’s American Icons fashion show, which was dedicated to showcasing the amazing talent of all-American designers, such as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. It was a pretty packed and crazy show- one of the models got stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it to the show, so all the other girls got an extra outfit added in.

So, I have a confession to make… I have never seen a real fashion show, from the audience, actually in person. When I dress backstage, there is never enough time to see what’s going on outside, which is probably the only downside to the job. I did see part of the fashion show I helped organize at my high school, from the side, but that doesn’t really count.

The fashion program at Santa Ana College put on a fashion show featuring designs and signature lines by students in the fashion program at the Yost Theater. I loved the theme of California Counter Culture because it was so organic and truly celebrated the laid back and carefree attitude of California. Kaitlyn Jenkins, who plays Boo Jordan on ABC Family’s Bunheads, hosted the event, and afterwards me and my sister got a picture with her. She was so adorable!

You can see more pictures of my outfit here.

xx, Ciera

Weekly Recap: La Brea Tar Pits, Thrift Shopping, Scholarships, and More Fashion Shows

These past two weeks have been so crazy hectic that I have barely had time to breathe, much less sleep, or blog. I thought that the end of senior year would be easy and relaxing, but of course it is the complete opposite. Now, where do I even begin? (I’ll try to keep this as short as possible.)

Best Friends hosted a pet adoption event at the La Brea Tar Pits with over 50 rescues and over 1,000 adoptable animals. My aunt’s rescue Good Dog-Dog Talk had a booth there, where I volunteered at all day Saturday and Sunday, taking turns walking and petting them. All the dogs were so adorable- I wanted to take all of them home!

Tuesday and Wednesday were Spent running around Macy’s, pulling handbags and exchanging sizes during the Padre fittings.

I spent 4 hours taking my AP Statistics test on Friday, so afterwards I decided to treat myself to a little retail therapy. The Salvation Army by my house has a 50% discount on all clothes on Fridays, so me and my sister did some summer shopping there as well as Nordstrom’s Rack. Later we got dessert from Snow Station.

Saturday was another crazy day packed full of excitement. G by Guess hosted a free event at the Wango Tango Village with live performances, tons of booths, food and drinks, and a Guess fashion show that I worked backstage. There was so many different things to do, and the best part was everything was free! I ended up going home with an iPhone sound amplifier, nail file, sunglasses, headphones, along with free coke, ice cream, and popcorn.

Then, while I was walking around the Village, I got a call from the LAFD Scholarship Board of Directors letting me know that I was the winner of a $2,500 scholarship! This was the first scholarship I had ever applied to, which made it even more unbelievably exciting. Talk about beginner’s luck!

The day was still not over yet, as I had another fashion show that night for the Padre Foundation at the Marriott hotel. Padre stands for Pediatric Adolescent Diabetes Research Education. This show in particular was one of my favorites because all of the kids who were modeling were absolutely adorable and ecstatic about getting to walk with the professional models.

Both shows ended up a great success. I have another show I’m dressing for at Macy’s on Thursday, so I will keep you posted.. 🙂

xx, Ciera