Knock Offs Are Obnoxious

My friend Alexa posted this to my Facebook page. I absolutely love it! It sums up so much that has been bothering me. 

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, I say it's a lack of creativity and a form of laziness.

 In fashion it is inevitable that styles and designs will be emulated. The whole concept of product development centers around "shopping the market" for trends and ideas and then tweaking those ideas to fit your brand. I get that. And when an "idea" is in the air, it is often in the air for multiple people. 

 But what I have a HARD time with is out right copy cats! People who can't come up with their own concept and who have the audacity to ride the coattails of the true trail blazers. It takes a lot of work to not only be creative but to actually put that creativity into action.  

My mother loved designer handbags, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Coach, etc., as well as expensive perfume. And she always told me that if I couldn't afford the real thing, to just go for something plain and simple rather than sport an imitation. 

I am 110% against being a FAKE person, especially when people spout one point of view and then live out their life life according to a different set of rules. Be whoever you are and don't be ashamed of it!

Buying imitations is like living a life full of hypocrisy. You want people to think you have the real deal, but you were not willing to shell out and pay the price of the REAL deal. I guess it comes back to my over-riding theme that nothing in this life is for free and there are consequences to all actions. If you want something bad enough, WORK hard for it, but don't go and take someone else's ideas to get where you are. That's a knock-off and it's obnoxious. 

Themed Parties

Today was my sister's baby shower. The theme was "Harujuku Lover's" after Gwen Stefani's clothing line. My sister and I are big Gwen fans, and we also wanted to throw props to our Asian heritage -- even though we are Thai and not Japanese ;-)

Since we were little my sister and I would throw "themed birthday parties". We would spend months upon months creating decorations and coming up with games for our themed birthday parties. 

Our mother would buy us butcher paper from Costco and we would make these elaborate cut-outs and decorations. If the theme was "Where in The World Is Carmen San Diego?" or "The Rainforest" we would draw jungle animals and then decorate our backyard to look like the rainforest.  Our entire house and backyard would be decorated with handmade props and posters and everything would tie back to our party theme. 

Over the years the we had the following birthday parties "Christmas In August", "Disneyland","The County Fair", "Wheel of Fortune" (my dad even built us a spinning wheel and we had our very blonde friend come dressed as Vanna White), "Dillard's Department Store", "Hollywood", and a "1950's Diner" among others. 

There would be competitions and games and often fashion shows. I would make my friends parade up and down our long diving board by the pool -- it was the perfect runway! I had a pink clipboard and I would whip that thing out and tell everybody what to do. I was pretty bossy and assertive as a child! 

My father would spend hours cooking a huge Thai feast, and 10 -15 little girls would come over for several hours of "themed fun". Those birthday parties were magical and the memories are very precious to me. 

Today took me back to those childhood birthday parties. And I can't help but get a little teary-eyed. Two very important people should be here, and they are not. There was no mom to watch my sister open baby presents and play host. There was no dad to help with the food preparation and "catering". And it breaks my heart thinking my sister is going to be a mother and not have her mother here to help show her the way. 

This month marks 9 years. I am not quite sure I am ready for this...but then again we never really are ready for most of the things life throws our way! But I know this is only a smaller piece of the bigger picture....I love you Jaime, you are the BEST sister ever...and I love you mom and dad...you were incredible parents...gone but never, ever forgotten!