So my cousin Vic recommended a place for me to shop the last time I was in HK to find a souvenir for Hairy. He told me to shop at G.O.D. – Goods of Desire. G.O.D. is also close to the phonetic sound for the Cantonese words “to live better.”

oven mitt

On this trip, we discovered that Vic has also become friends with the designing founder (I think?) of G.O.D. and we had lunch with him in the little restaurant that shares space with one of the G.O.D. stores.

match your computer mouse with your china!

You can read what the store is all about on the site, but essentially, their mission is to bring a young, modern twist to fashion and home decor by updating more traditional Asian themes and cultural references, in order to help define the current Hong Kong/Asian culture.

tissue cozy based on a popular brand of sliced bread

I came home with an awesome new purse, which is probably only awesome to a small part of the population. The hang tag on my purse included a line about how Hong Kong culture is so recognizable, yet rarely recognized, and I think my purse is the perfect embodiment of this.

sorry for the crappy photobooth pic. i don’t have my camera here!

If you’ve ever spent much time in the airport with the Chinese people waiting for their baggage, you may have spotted the iconic and giant red/white/blue bags stuffed with people’s belongings. My understanding is that they are super cheap and made of a strong but lightweight nylon and are very handy to travel with because they fold up extremely easily but can be filled with so much stuff. The red/white/blue pattern is extremely recognizable, and the material is also used all over Hong Kong for things like awnings and tents in the street markets. I believe it has somewhat of a lowbrow connotation: a material for the (lower income) masses. I can’t find a picture of one online. How weird! The closest I’ve come to is some references from the Hong Kong Heritage museum. So this is why I think that using this pattern for vinyl(?) purses and tote bags is so genius. It’s taking something lowbrow, and re-packaging and re-selling it as a hip, modern accessory. My purse even comes with scuff/dirt marks!

Also, while searching Flickr, I came up on this outfit that this girl made. It’s brilliant!

uploaded to Flickr by namida21

First installment of Hong Kong Highlights!

p.s. my shoot-em-up fingers in the intro + the music starting was not planned ahead! awesome.

It’s kinda small. You can click on the pic to go to the Flickr page and see “All Sizes.”

So this was the piece I made for the show that Idle Hand, the tattoo shop I get my work done at by Holly Ellis, is putting on for their 5th anniversary. As far as I know, it’s still there? I have no idea when it’s over, but the opening party happened while we were out of the country. If you live in SF, you should go check it out!

It was super fun to make, and now I want to make a spaghettios cowl! Or maybe Froot Loops! Also cheese puffs and/or cheese balls! Etc etc ETC!!!!!

Here is also a silly video to see it in motion, if you haven’t already seen this on Flickr. I made it just to show you how there are varying amounts of macaroni on the cowl, for your every mood!