Cebu Escapades


Shades of Green

Yesterday I decided to be different with my colors by mixing & matching. That is, until I realized there's no harm done when sticking with the same color pattern. As long as you have different color tones when sticking with the same color scheme, it will still show a variety of your overall appearance. Try choosing a darker tone for your pants, it will compliment the upper-part of your outfit and vice-versa. Rather than wearing plain shoes and socks, I thought it would be nice to go with the American flag socks and Sebago shoes. It's cute and I guess you could say it once again adds more personality to the outfit.



Outfit: Shoes by Sebago, socks from Topaman, Zara pants, 'Jim Morrison' shirt from Terranova and button-up from Levi's. All accessories credited to SM Accessories.

Here There & Everywhere

Apologies my friends for keeping you waiting! I've been really busy lately with work, trying to get a new design for my blog and spending time with my mother while she's here visiting me in the Philippines. Lately I've been wanting to spend as much time with her as possible whilst I have the chance. No im not a mommy's boy haha, but since living overseas in a different country by myself, I have come to learn that family time is indeed quality time.

Yesterday I was blessed enough to have a shoot for Chalk Magazine. And I say 'blessed' of course, because it's you guys who have blessed me to be in this position. So once again I would like to thank you all who frequently check out my blog. I know a lot of you tweet and I don't get around to answering everyone, but I couldn't imagine any other person who's dedicated to answering back as much as I am. I specially would like to thank you guys also who go out of their way to read what I have to say. Stay tuned if you can, I've got so much catching up to tell you.



As mentioned earlier, I had come from a shoot where the theme was 'polkadots & stripes, in a shade of blue'. As you can see, my hands were full the whole day because not only was I carrying my laptop and camera with me, but I had to hurl around a bag of clothes. The blue and white stripped bag as seen in the photo was actually purchased from SM Accessories. Surprising huh? 

Outfit: Plain vintage shirt by Bench (550p), pants from H&M, Backpack from Topman and sidebag from SM Accessories



Burgundy Blue

So far my day has been pretty jam-packed, waking up at 6am for rehearsals. For those who haven't been updated, I'm down from Manila staying in Cebu up until tomorrow afternoon for an SM Teens Fashion Show. If you're by the area feel free watch watch me along with models Hideo Muraoka, Daniel Matsunaga, Samir Ayeb model for SM Department Store in SM Cebu at 5pm. 

The weather has been steady but I can't complain as I'm so happy to be out of Manila. Putting up with hectic traffic day-in and day-out can be frustrating, so I'm sure many of you who live in Manila or Quezon City would understand how nice it is to appreciate a different scenery. I've taken some really nice photos whilst being here, which I'm really excited to upload when I get back home.  



I normally wouldn't match a burgundy pair of sneakers with denim clothes but in this case, I only packed one pair of sneakers for my Cebu trip. I must say though, the dark tone of the shoes work well with the Cheap Monday skinny jeans. The print on my shirt is actually the logo for Cheap Monday for those who don't know. They're a really popular brand overseas and you can find a variety of their pieces in Bratpack stores.

Outfit: Shoes from Topman (P1,795), Cheap Monday skinny jeans & t-shirt, and shirt by Vanishing Elephant.

Replicate that Bow-Tie

Rather than seeing something you like and paying a ridiculous price for what it's actually worth, have you ever tried doing it yourself? Actually the way I see it, this is barely a 'do it yourself' project. When hearing the word 'tailoring', majority of people's first impressions are usually just clothing alterations. Nowadays there are many skillful tailors that can just about put anything together using a simple image to replicate. So instead of paying 3000 pesos ($60+) for a designer bow-tie, why not try and getting it done yourself. All you need is the materials and a general description for the tailor of what you're endeavoring.

The bow-tie found in image below is a Lanvin velvet bow-tie which I'm unsure of the retail price, but going by the brand, I can only assume it's worth beyond what you could imagine. I casually came across this image via the web, which then lead me pursue looking for something similar in different department stores.
Having no luck, I made my way to the local thrift-store to source for a similar material of that specific color and opt for a custom bow-tie. I came across a used Ralph Lauren button up, made out of a very similar material to the velvet I was looking for. The shirt had cost me 100pesos ($2.50) and tailoring 300pesos ($7.50), so if the experiment didn't go as planned, it wouldn't be much of a loss.



It was within 4 days it took the tailor to form the bow-tie, which is actually a while - as it can be done in merely 2 hours. But due to a busy schedule for the tailor and myself, I happily waited to come the end result. I was very pleased with the outcome aside from seeing the two bow tie pleats as seen in the picture below. Not to worry though, I wasn't expecting the tailor to get everything right the first time, and their was enough left-over material from the shirt to make five more.


I'd love to hear your feed back regarding the following post and feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks.


Great Chats, Good Company

After such a busy day yesterday, I fell sound asleep last night and probably had one of the best sleeps I've had in a very long time in Manila. It's quite hard to sleep early in Manila with all the opportunities to go out, party and have fun with all my friends. And its not just young people my age that like to go out, its the whole city! Haha fun people we Filipinos are.

Today I woke up nice and early to go to Manila Peninsula for a Fashion show rehearsal with Bench Clothing. Seeing it was at The Pen, I thought it would be nice to show up a bit preppy and show off my new sweater that I bought from Zara, Greenbelt 5. I wanted to blog about this because I got it on sale for around P1,500p. I thought it was a bit cheaper than their regular prices and there's a huge variety of colors to choose from. Im a big fan of sweaters simply because they're light and easy to layer-up with here in Manila. And just by simply adding the bow tie makes it really cute (I dislike using the word cute but works in this situation).




Soon after rehearsals we had a lot of waiting around, so I thought it would be nice to take a few snaps and show you all what everyones getting up to.

Yeh I had get make up on, unfortunately I couldn't avoid it.

Samantha said I was so irritating... I'll be the judge of that haha.

My mate Sean Go and Samir Ayeb (above) simply chilling back stage catching up with small talk. 

Fashion shows are always fun backstage when you put aside all the stress and build-up moments before the show starts. When I hang around backstage with all the models, it somewhat feels like I'm back at school and we're all on a field trip! We'll anyway I better go, Robbie is about to go 'on duty'. Hahaha Samantha was right, I am irritating.



Another Day, Another Dollar

Today's been a very busy day for me and also very rushed. This morning I had a shoot that started at 7am, hence why my blog post is up later than usual. The photos were taken by our shooting location in Eastwood. Haha unfortunately my quality of sleep last night wasn't the greatest, even though I had nearly finished a bottle of red to myself. Well, my plan to fall asleep early was a success, but up until now i'm all drained out.

When dressing for a shoot or a casting, I usually like to dress down and keep things casual/smart casual. But I do try to look presentable just incase I come across meeting new clients. Today, my whole outfit was purchased from Topman haha. It wasn't intentional but just by looking at the clothes, you can somewhat tell they're from the same brand. I think its something to do with the materials that shares a common interest.

This new bag I purchased from Topman cost me around 2,500p. It's quite durable and has the capacity to fit both my Macbook and camera.

The New Guy

Hope everyone had a good weekend, I know its a Monday and probably the hardest day to get through especially if you've had a big weekend. I could only imagine going to work having to sit in an office chair all day - haha I was doing that at one stage back in Australia. 

If you recently just started checking out my blog, basically  the reason why I started Robbie Off Duty was to keep myself entertained whilst modeling in the Philippines. I've always been enthusiastic towards personal style and a sucker for trying to take good photos. I suck at writing and I blog to try and improve on it. But I wan't you to know that my blog isn't purely a commercial blog - although it helps me get work and earn, and just like you guys we, all have to make money somehow. I'd like for you guy's to see that im not just another cute face looking to get famous (firstly I can't act) and I've now found purpose for this blog. You're all welcome to follow me on Twitter or add me up on Facebook if you have any questions to ask.

For those who don't know, I've been one of the lucky fashion bloggers to be nominated for the Globe Tattoo Stylismo award! Haha the funniest part is that I'm the only guy blogger nominated - I think thats a first! Well with honesty, I'm not expected to win nor shall I be competitive about it. I'm just thankful enough to be nominated in that particular category and to you guys that check out my blog. 


The event was held at 7th High Nightclub where I got the chance to catch up again with old friends and enjoy pigging out on gourmet condiments *winning*. Funny story though; I was running late and the event was on a Friday night. I ended up riding the MRT to Buendia in order to get to The Fort. There was so much traffic that from Buendia I had to run to 7th ave just so I didn't miss my announcement!

I also got the chance to catch up with my good mate Erwan Heussaff. There was copious amounts of chat that was tossed between us throughout the night regarding business plans, something I'm looking forward to in the future.

Timmy Yap spotted indulging his glass of red moments before his call on stage.. This might be the very secret of his towards fighting stage fright *take note* haha.

Tatt Council judges. Better be nice to these guys if I want to win the Stylisimo award.


Just lastly to finish up; if you manage to find the second to vote for me, it would be greatly appreciated. Like I said before, I'm not expecting to win but you're a good samaritan in my books if you can make the effort to do so. Thanks