Following the success of the School of Kawaii’s first workshop is the second workshop entitled, “Complete the Kawaii Look,” with kawaii senseis Ashley Dy of Candy Kawaii Lover, Chai Mungcal of ohmylittlegirl, and Anne Piñero of The Craft of Anne Kate Piñero. Held last May 23, 2015 at The Bunny Baker Cafe and Cake Studio, “Complete the Kawaii Look” was a three-part workshop that covered the topics of Fashion, Beauty, and Photography and was targeted to aspiring fashion bloggers, or just simply anyone with an interest in Japanese and kawaii culture! ♥
The first speaker, Ashley Dy, focused on discussing about fashion and how to pose. Here is a brief background on her:
“Ashley is a blogger, writer, photographer, visual merchandiser, beauty and fashion influencer, and kawaii ambassador. She started her blog as a hobby by promoting her fashion sense and style. Her initiative quickly established ties with the fashion industry both in the corporate and personal bloggers like her too.
She brought a different view of fashion in Japan by promoting personal and sponsored apparel, shoes and accessories, and has also worked for different international brands and big names in the beauty industry such as Lancome, Essie and Maybelline. Aside from writing for her own blog “Candy Kawaii Lover”, she has also written several Japanese travel articles for Cebu Pacific’s (PH Airline Carrier) SMILE magazine and FilJap, a magazine for Filipinos in Japan.
A few years ago, she also had a stint as a visual merchandiser in American Apparel Osaka. She also participated in Kawaii in Manila 2, where she brought Harajuku fashion in the Philippines. She was also named as the first Kawaii.PH ambassadress along with her active participation in the event.”
The workshop started off with an ice breaker where Ashley taught the class how to do different poses, how to pose in front of the camera, and finding the pose that would best suit you or work to your advantage, like the cat face pose, sleeping pose, etc. She also taught the class how to pose for an ootd (outfit of the day) shot, and taught them techniques on how to make your body look longer and slimmer in photos.
Aside from that, she also talked about Japanese fashion, and how you can combine, alternate, and work with the clothes you currently have in order to imitate the looks in Japanese street or high class fashion. Following that lecture, she provided a couple of minutes for each table to talk to each other about their styles and asked them to later share their discussions with the class.
The second speaker, Chai Mungcal, discussed about beauty and makeup. To get to know a bit more about Chai, here is a brief background on her:
“Chai Mungcal is a Manila-based photographer and the blogger behind Oh My Little Girl (ohmylittlegirl.net), a blog about Japanese pop culture and kawaii culture, girly lifestyle, personal style, dreams, and everyday life as a wanderer of the world. ✿”
For her part of the workshop, she demonstrated how to put on makeup on one of the students named, Reika Amakura (who is also a cosplayer). She explained makeup application down from putting on foundation, applying blush and eyeliner, up to the complete finish! In addition, she also made it really easy for the students to understand the process–even for those who are learning to apply makeup on for the very first time!
The students then also got the opportunity to try applying makeup (care of Prettyfab) on their own while also using the techniques that Chai taught them in her lecture.
The last speaker (but definitely not the least!) was Anne Kate Piñero who discussed about basic photography. Apart from being known as the co-founder of Kawaii PH, here is a more detailed (yet brief) background on her to get to know her better:
“Anne Kate Piñero is a visual designer and photographer from Pasig City. She graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree of Industrial Design in 2012 and took further studies about photography in Philippine Center of Creative Imaging in 2013. She started to reboot her style in photography from hobby to a higher step in from then on. She also contributed a fashion editorial with StyleBible.Ph, online portal of Preview Magazine last April 2015. She produced Kawaii.PH looks volumes 1 – 4 and Kawaii.PH/looks photobook specials entitled “Smile” and “I am a Kawaii Girl” for Kawaii Philippines.”
Lunch was served during the third part of the workshop, since it was already close to noon. So, the students had their lunches (care of The Bunny Baker Cafe and Cake Studio) while listening to Anne’s lecture about basic photography. Anne started off by showing several of her portfolio works and by explaining her past experiences in photography. Next, she went a bit more into detail by explaining the technical side of photography. She made it really simple by explaining technical terms, such as ISO, aperture, etc. in layman’s terms–easy even for a mobile phone photographer to understand! For the convenience of the students, she also provided a handy “cheat sheet” about the photography terms.
Finally, she asked the students to apply what they’ve learned by taking some photos of their own. She was also able to supple some personalized feedback by checking on the works of each of the students. She then capped off her entire lecture with a quick review of all the technical terms she had discussed with her students.
Aside from the lectures, there were also additional activities such as a raffle of sponsored products for the best dressed student, and raffles of other products to a randomly chosen few!
A pop-up booth was also included for those who wished to purchase merchandise from Mad Tee Party, Whimsicute, and Shop Candy Kawaii Lover.
In addition, it was also the perfect time for the students to network and get to know each other since they were all kawaii and Japanese culture enthusiasts alike! It became a really fun experience where those who shared the same passion and interests could comfortably talk and get to know each other~!
Thank you to all those who attended the second workshop! We hope to see you all again in the following events to come! ♥
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Article by Armaine Yapyuco and Micaela Cruz
Photos by Francis Clemente