Goodbye, Fly to the Sky

April 12 marks the last performance for Fly to the Sky as a music duo in the kpop scene. Thereafter, Hwanhee and Brian will go their separate ways, although they may (out of the goodness of their twee hearts) get together once in a while to release singles under the FTTS name (hence 'not disbanding'). 

I have never been too enthusiastic about their stage perfs, but it was hard not to feel a pang of sadness knowing that I was watching their final perf. I've never really been into the kpop scene and FTTS were the only act I genuinely care about (despite my barbs about their fashion). So it's not without a touch of bittersweet nostalgia that I say goodbye to the R&B duo that was Fly to the Sky.

Last perf at SBS Inkigayo. Brian dropped the Andre Kim look (somewhat) and Hwanhee cut his hair (oh joy). I could even excuse the bright pink coat and the faint streaks of red.

The final bow:

And I leave you with one of my favourite pics of all time: the boys and their bright, infectious smiles. Good times, good memories, good music. Thank you for 10 sweet years, Fly to the Sky.

le jun

How to look ugly - 8th jib style

This post is borne out of frustration with men looking like they have screws loose in their heads, permanently. Sometimes you wonder what goes on in the heads of these singers when they take to the stage. Sure, you want to create a sensation, but do it right. Don't end up looking stupid just because you thought you were funky. If I can't get past how you look aesthetically, I won't be able to concentrate on how you sound musically. So really, get a brain.

How to fit into the space lifestyle:

I mean, hello? How stupid can these outfits get? Brian always looks like he had a permanent disaster in the salon (and now fitting room) these days, but Hwanhee just about takes the cake with this inflatable piece of shit. Don't they know how awful they look? Don't they even look in the mirror before they step out on stage? I mean, seriously... how can you want to perform in such a ridiculous get-up? Imagine bursting that bubbly vest... wouldn't want to be mistaken for farting on the stage, would you, Mr Hwang?

Next, the suspenders era. Hwanhee takes the "let's hang" phrase literally:

Hwanhee, you suck. The stripes remind me of Bananas in Pyjamas, and I thought we'd already moved past the kiddy times, but apparently Mr Hwang is channelling a return to his childhood - fond memories, surely. And what's with the suspenders? They're oh so shiny you might as well polish the table with them. What is it with looking like a cross between a grandfather and a cartoon character?

Suspenders II:

"Hi, I look silly and I know it". Not happy with Bananas in Pyjamas, Hwanhee reverses the colours and opts for a smarmy hairstyle to top off another jaw-dropping, eye-rolling look. Someone pass me the eggs, I wanna smash them into his face.

Suspenders III:

Not happy again, Hwanhee reverses the colours. The boy can't make up his mind. Woe betide. Black and white or white and black? Glove or no glove? To look screwy or not to look screwy?

Besides looking like nut jobs, FTTS also had a pretty dominant colour theme in most of their 8th jib performances. They've been sporting the black-white combo, to devastatingly painful, cringe-worthy effect. Both colours are very powerful, if used correctly to evoke the right emotions. And white does not look good on just anyone, especially a full-white outfit. Like leather, you should own the colour, not let it walk over you. Unfortunately, the boys didn't quite get it. 

Brian tries his best to look sexy, while Hwanhee opts for a solitary black glove amid the all-white outfit. Would have been a successful look except that Brian's hair sucks (Andre-Kim streaks, as I referred to in my previous post), and Hwanhee cannot carry off white properly. They look like they're having a failed orgasm.

Hwanhee's disaster in full-body:

Good enough to be a traffic lights post, right? White should seriously be left to weddings, especially on the bride. There's a reason why most brides wear white and grooms a mixture of white and black.

While Hwanhee practises at being a lamp-post or traffic lights, Brian channels his ahjumma-ness:

"I am emo and I flaunt it" should be Brian's motto for 8th jib fashion. Seriously, get a stylist and a life.

Channelling ahjumma-ness II:

"Lai lai lai, junk clothes for only $10 per piece, buy 5 get 1 free". Do you already see an alternative career for Brian? And I don't mean his half-baked Hollywood adventure.

And then we have the makeup :

"Look at my pretty cherry pink lips and eyeliner!" Hwanhee, seriously, can't you stop looking like a girl and start looking like a man? Is that too much to ask for? Apparently yes. So he tops off his fey look with a foppish hat, complete with a feather:

Oh look, there's a handcuffy-sort of key-chain sticking out of his pocket - more tacky than kinky. But hey, whatever floats your screwy boat, yes?

I sort of like this picture because it had a 'come hither' attitude that reminds me of SYLM, but that's about it. Sad to say, it only goes to show that the back/profile view (and half of it, come to that) is the most I can tolerate of FTTS' 8th jib asinine get-up.

le jun

Emo and Mop

Le Mai informed me today that Wheesung calls himself "Real Slow", for some reason that escapes both of us. Thanks to Fly to the Sky's recently-released 8th album, Decennium, which means there is new jib fashion, we now have Real Emo and Real Mop. 

I think it's pretty obvious who's Emo and who's Mop. For two guys who have been in the music industry for 10 long years (and announced they were splitting - more on that later) and have grown from squeaky-voiced kids into fine men (half the time), you'd think their fashion sense would have matured. Alas, no. 

This new jib fashion, complete with leather jackets, dark backgrounds in half of the pictures and awful clothes in perfs, throws us back into the hellish period that was Transition, aka 6th jib. That jib was awful (from the beginning and ending with Brian's solo album) because the boys overdosed on angst. Any good writer knows angst must be administered in moderate doses at appropriate times. Apparently FTTS stylists were not privy to such common sense - the same stylist who 'spruced' the boys up in Transition was back again for Decennium. Brian looked marginally better in Transition's official photoshoots, as he did again in Decennium; both times Hwanhee looked like he'd been mowed over.

Leather jackets are not my thing because you need to be really savvy with them and it takes a lot to carry off anything leather with style. I don't know what sort of style they were trying to achieve... that they could bond with black and leather? That leather stuff is the best thing since sliced bread? That their shiny faces stand out in all that emo-ness? Isn't there anything else besides leather?

Oh, apparently there is. Red streaks and hairpins. Mmm... that'd totally... kill my sex drive if my man came to bed looking like this:

70s hippie with shiny hairpins sticking behind his ear. I even sense a touch of ahjumma-ness. Brilliant, Mr Hwang. 

Or worse, this:

Reminds me of a slimmer version of Andre Kim. Y'know, the Korean designer whose freaky fashions are only suitable for the runway? Yeah. Mr Joo's getting there.

As if that were not bad enough, we had Hwanhee accidentally sticking one arm into a pot of black ink...

No, that was really his outfit - one black sleeve on an otherwise nice white shirt. What was he thinking? What the hell? This offends just about every sense a human possesses. White and black are very powerful colours when used effectively, but fucked up like this, you just look wrong. Hwanhee looked awful.

If Decennium's cover art had looked something like this, I wouldn't have been so pissed:

At least the people at Yesasia's marketing section had some sense. Maybe it was just as well they weren't part of the FTTS 10th-anniversary "screw-up fashion" team.

Why do certain people want to look bad when they know just how good they can look? That will probably be the million-dollar question that will never be answered, especially since FTTS announced they're splitting up. But oh no, let's not misquote Mr Joo now, he's real touchy about it. Sorry, they're "taking a break", they won't be pushing out anymore albums, but hey when they feel like being nice, they'll do a project or two together, maybe after Mr Joo is free from his oh-so-busy Hollywood filming schedule.

Please excuse me for being snarky. I am no longer a kid and I don't need euphemisms about a group disbanding. I'd have respected you more if you'd just come clean, instead of releasing news like this, then backtracking on Facebook and making it seem you've been grossly misquoted. Le Mai has her own thoughts about this, but we've discussed it, and it's safe to say we're both disappointed with how this has been handled. 

Hwanhee hasn't said much, but really, he doesn't need to. Brian's said it all.

le jun 

Hairy Encounters of the Third Kind

I can't believe I still remember the password to this blog! So a new year deserves a new post, so here goes. 

As we all know, Fly to the Sky enjoy employing the services of inept stylists. There is no way to explain just how horribly their fashion sense went downhill in the latter stages of 6th jib. There was a marked improvement for 7th jib, where both of them sported clean and classy looks - one of the best of the jib fashions so far. I really like it when men look like men, and not like some third-rate entertainer who's trying his damnest to get a cheap thrill out of loser audiences. So for much of 7th jib, the boys looked like the fine men they are, with excellent hairstyles:

 Alas, good fashion days seldom last. Let's look at the latest hair shenanigans of Brian:

The man turned 28 with a hairstyle that decidedly went... northwest. Why on earth would you turn up at your own birthday party looking less than immaculate? Some find it cute, but I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him like that. I suppose he thought a bright smile compensated for having a hairstyle that resembled a chicken's comb.

That chicken's comb hairstyle had its roots way back, and I'm sure we're all aware of how FTTS exploded onto the scene almost 10 years ago, with hairstyles that beggared belief. That was what Evie, a fellow FTTS fan, and I called the "coconut tree hairstyle", which basically means the hair was blond and expanded like bicycle spokes in all directions possible:

Looks like this are best consigned to the trash because they are so painful on the eye. Then again, half of kpop was like that in the late 1990s, so it was a miracle FTTS were taken seriously. 

Things improved for the 3rd and 4th jibs, with the boys going for shorter and neater hairstyles, never mind the occasional colour for Hwanhee. I particularly like their 4th jib look, with half the photos done in classy black & white, and the hair was nothing too outrageous:

Don't they look good here? A perfect blend of yin (Brian) and yang (Hwanhee). Hairstyles play a big part in achieving a suitable overall look, and what's the point of dressing snazzy if you have an ugly hairstyle to go with it? The minimalist 4th jib look is one of my favourites because it shows that you can look good with the basics (and maybe the occasional dash of colour).

But then there were the bad days, when one looked good but the other didn't:

I don't know what on earth possessed Hwanhee to think he could do the gypsy look successfully. His hair sucked to the high heavens and was a return of the "coconut tree hairstyle" days of that woeful 1st jib. The bandana around his head just made it worse, propping up the blond streaks that look like tv antennae. The effect was awful. While Brian looked suitably cool and collected (don't you wish he didn't mess with his hair that often?), Hwanhee looked bad. It was not "bad boy" bad, it was trash bad.

And I know entertainers like to give the audience a bit of value in their performances, but there's no need to go to the extreme:

Mr Hwang, you really do like to try my patience sometimes. I really hate your hairstyles here. They're ugly and you know you can do so much better. I can understand you wanted something fancy to liven up your concerts, but did you have to go to extremes? You entertain with your voice! Your powerful, sexy, husky voice, melded with the higher, more sensitive one of your partner, can create some of the most beautiful music in the world. But why must you mess with your hair and look like crap?! 

This is still one of the best hairstyles ever:

Short, sweet, sexy. A pity we're moving into 8th jib era and may no longer see the classy 7th jib selves. Let's hope 8th jib won't give us any heart attacks. 

le jun

Tie me up, baby - part two!

Okay, so adding on to Le Jun's post about how to wear a tie properly, I found a picture of Brian wearing it correctly - and I couldn't help but share it because I'm rather fond of this particular look on Brian. I agree with Le Jun's statement about how the tie-in-shirt look worked on Brian because of the mix of plain and simple colors, and then the rolled-up sleeves adding a touch of personality and charm to the man (ok, I'm just really biased on this second part, but still).

However, I will add on that wearing the tie the normal way (right picture) is better because 1.) it's simple, sexy, and sophisticated all at once without you having to wonder why it's tucked in to his shirt between two buttons (I mean, you might as well take a pair of scissors to it), and 2.) it's risqué, as Le Jun puts it, with that touch of "I don't give a damn," and "You can pull on this later, baby," attitude. Sorry if I'm getting carried away...



I suppose the tie-in-shirt look could work for the right occasions (cause it'd look uncomfortable and boring if it had been left out with his shirt buttoned up to the neck), but when in doubt, strive for what's already been tested and proven decades and decades ago. The loose tie around open collar with sleeves rolled up is definitely classy and timeless. Most men who know how to dress and groom would agree to this. For shorter men, having the collar open can be of advantage as well if the neck is more visible, though this depends on the guy, I think.

I won't say much else beyond this because Le Jun's already covered all the important points. And kudos to Brian for looking so damn fine.


- Le Mai

bringin' sexy bag!

The purse is a fashion accessory has transcended into the male realm - yes, we are definitely talking about the manpurse, and how it is more than just a fashion statement, or a practical bag for carrying things.

Well, I suppose you could say a manpurse has always been in the fashion world, but as of late, I find it really sexy for men to have and carry around, whether it's a short trip to the gym, or a long trip out of town.

Both men and women will argue against me on this, because 1.) Some men don't like the idea of carrying purses (as well as wearing make-up and skirts), and 2.) Some women don't find it appropriate for men to carry "purses", despite the reason/occasion.

Either way, I think for any type of men, masculine or soft, a manpurse should not be shunned or ignored. They can be useful, in addition to accentuating your overall style/look to bring our different qualities you wouldn't even know you have. Some people will assume your personality, character, and lifestyle based on how you dress - likewise, the purse can serve just as much a function if sported properly.


Let's take a look at a few examples from the sexy Brian Joo.

When a man carries a manpurse, the first thing I would think is that he has a purpose - obviously for carrying whatever he will need for wherever he is going. A man with a purpose is more appealing than a man without. As we all know, a purse is used for many reasons, and the most common reason is to carry our money, make-up, cellphone, glasses, and other necessities. The second reason is to compliment our clothes and show off just how fancy we all can be, depending on the price and brand of the purse, of course.

The type of manpurse, color, style, and just how much confidence one has in carrying a purse can say so much about the kind of man he is. Many men fear that carrying a purse will make them look like sissies, or even gay, but it is those who dare to tread past the stereotypes and typical ideals that are the most appealing to a woman with good taste. If a guy's bold and practical enough to carry a manpurse for good reasons, it doesn't mean he's gay. It just means he probably doesn't give a shit what anyone else thinks.

This post will remain as is for now - I gotta run. But this topic is to be continued...

- le mai

Tie me up, baby

Goodness, we've been lax. Real life caught up with us, so please excuse the lack of updates (and rantings) on this blog. Besides, Fly to the Sky have been going through too many wardrobe changes for us to spew intelligently (and objectively) on a regular basis. Nevertheless, here's a post!

During FTTS' early 7th jib days, they pushed out a very clean look which was a massive improvement over the disgusting fashion disaster that was 6th jib. Both boys cut their hair and opted for a more mature and sleeker look that says very firmly: "we are men, not boys". They went through a few (satisfying) variations of the clean look, and we shall look at some, in particular experiments with ties. 

Ties are often associated with a more formal look, to give a man (and the occasional woman) that extra dose of professionalism and authority. Most ties are simple and elegant as they're accessories and meant to complement the outfit. 

This is what we call Brian's tie-in-shirt look. It just means sticking the rest of the tie inside the shirt instead of leaving it out as normal men do. It seems a little weird at first glance and may take some getting used to. Something like that is a hit or miss. For me, it exudes a more sensitive, softer feel even though a long-sleeved shirt and trousers give off a more formal aura. Most men do okay with the standard shirt-trousers-tie, but not many can carry off a tie stuck inside the shirt. I think Brian was able to pull off this look without seeming like he'd lost his marbles, because first off, you need to just go simple - off-white shirt and black trousers with a black tie is a combination that's easy on the eye, no clashing colours and your attention is not immediately drawn to the tie, but to how gentle the whole look is. There's an air of sensitivity that befits a gentleman and this look works best with a long-sleeved shirt - either with the sleeves slightly rolled up as in the picture, or not rolled up at all. 

Here's how not to to wear a tie:

If you have nowhere to stick a tie, just leave it alone, it won't hurt you. Just don't stick it into your shirt pocket or whatever pocket holes that happen to be part of your shirt. That's just weird. It's funky, but the wrong side of funky, so when in doubt, play safe. You don't want to look a mess when you're in the public eye.

How not to wear a tie Part II:

This is overkill. Either wear the tie or the denim jacket but not both and definitely not with the sleeves rolled up. Don't pile it on thinking a tie will give the outfit a more formal or professional look, especially with a denim jacket. There's a reason why ties are associated with suits and not out to make you look like jailbait.

For a risqué look, try hanging it loose and adopting the appropriate expression, like this:

This loose-tie look is one of the best I've seen from Brian so far - a mix of 'come hither' and the right degree of sexiness, with a touch of 'I don't give a damn' attitude. Even though the picture is in black and white, I would recommend going simple with the colours - the tie can be in a dominant or matching colour but nothing overly garish or clashing. Does not work with short-sleeved shirts, so don't try. Best for sex after work.

le jun