All of us love that the store is nestled in the middle of Chinatown - the daily walk to lunch in every other direction brings forth not just amazing food but also a slew of quirky mini-adventures including random converstions and character sartorial sightings. The attractions lie not in the obvious areas of plastic STB-rendered Chinatown (Chinatown food complex, though I do like the hoards of old/middle aged men playing chess) but on the fringe in little alleys and the flats. Octogenarians have, absolutely, the most interesting fashion get-ups. Charming that they don’t even try. If holding a camera was a natural extension of myself, I (and all at the store) would have scores of sartorialist pictures of the passing old and hobbling -we compliment and admire a couple everyday. “ooh, check out her Kandinsky floral blouse with chevron cardigan and ah-ma paisley trousers - mismatch until nice.  With straw heels!!”

Such a waste that we can never whip out the camera phones  fast enough. Especially when one of the +9 designers of Iamwhoiam showed me the blog Advance Style, it made me really jealous.

Here’re a few good ones that I love from the blog. Mad love!

lovely kooks! Those walking sticks are amazing.

Here she is again, without her friend

Image Source: advancedstyle.blogspot

No doubt western old-people’s fashion differ greatly from our own, but the our ah mas and ah peks can certainly hold up their own in their best sunday pyjama stripe and floral drawstring trousers. A few stellar examples that I’ve commited to memory (worded because snap-happy action isn’t a natural reflex):

1) Ah Pek Fey - wearing a navy kimono belted with a pink floral scarf and paired with black silk shorts (VERY SHORT). He had a fan printed with water lilies.. and was singing at the very top of his voice in SOPRANO to Puccini’s Un bel di vedremo from M Butterfly… which blasted from his ghettoblaster (really, the 80’s sort with lights indicating how powerful the sound is) and fanning expression and antics to the opera aria. FEY as anything! Spotted at the kopitiam junction of Circular and North Canal Road.

2) Ah Ma Teeny - pink floral Samfu blouse paired with very large purple cotton twill trousers (fastened and folded down twice at the waist with a elastic belt and tied at the calves with shoelaces because she was so tiny) with yellow-tinged “nude” stockings and then ankle sports socks stuffed into rubber sandals. She was a fashion commitment. Spotted at Kreta Ayer HDB, surveying the world with her hands behind her back)

Best places to sight Octogenarian fashion and eavesdrop on the best random conversations: Thief Alley behind Club St (there are two old-school out-in-the-open barbers with their barber chairs there, one always has more business than the other. I don’t think they’re friends). Hong Lim Complex (the most random and hilarious conversations in the air, also old people who gather to stare), Tanjong Pagar flats, and Kreta Ayer anywhere.

Note to self: will work on the camera reflex.

In the mean time, if anyone has pictures of local old-people’s style, please do send them through to editorial@frontrowdaily.com. We’re now collecting.

The sneaky dog. antebellum, one of the labels under the +9 local designers’ collective, recently unearthed some pictures that he had taken of his S/S08 collection. Very annoying since we at Front Row expect to be privy to everything that +9 is doing! No Exceptions please… we want to be in the inner circle of everything. It’s because we’re excited.

Some background on +9: they’re a merry band of 9 individual fashion designers, all based locally, and stocked exclusively at Front Row. The clothes used in this batch of images from antebellum’s S/S08 were originally menswear, but owing to popular demand, is now available in XS to fit the lasses. Ain’t that fine!

Here’re some images to explain the Front Row angst:

photographer: K Hon// www.wall-management.com

stylist: Chia Wei Choong // antebellum ss09

model: Aline

antebellum is now available at Front Row | 5 ann siang road

Rumours have been abound since last season, that the imminent Martin Margiela might be leaving the fashion house he set up in 1988. And now, JC Report and New York Magazine have dredged out more evidence that the rumour might in fact, be truth.  This piece of news, however old, could possibly cause depression among the fashion crowd, because what will we do when one of fashion’s most innovative, audacious, intelligent and (let’s face it) desirable designers, is gone? Where will we purchase clothes that fit well, last long, garner compliments, and excite us?

SS07

FW07

SS09

Word has it that after the house was acquired by the Diesel group in 2002, differences have (unsurprisingly) cropped up between the main man and the Italian group. Diesel’s marketing-driven approach did not sit well with the famously reticent man, who prefers to let his work speak for itself. The lacklustre Fall/Winter ‘09 collection further fueled fears that the man himself had already left the building, with the team taking over his reins.

This is reminiscent of when the Prada group acquired Helmut Lang and Jil Sander, only to have both primary designers fly the coop. It’s a pity that the businessmen are unable to reach a creative compromise with the legends that they hired. Hiring a new creative director (Raf Simons and Haider Ackermann have been rumoured to have been approached) means that a new vision will have to be put in place, and the direction of the original master lost. And if the original spirit is watered down and compromised, than what they, the money-diggers, bought, is merely a vestige of the past.

What a pity.

I’m all for jumpsuits. I own one, but da*m, I wish I had these.

Source: Facehunter

They might be a b*tch to wear, especially when you’re half-drunk and you desperately need the loo. But they’re so easy! No need to think about what to match them with, just throw on and go — a perfect fix for Monday morning blues.

I know people who would never even go near one. They think jumpsuits are (1) too cute, (2) too young (like rompers), or (3) too attention-seeking. I think (1) there’s nothing wrong with cute, especially for weekends, (2) they’re not too young at all! If they are, what about the colour baby pink? (3) Well, there’s good attention, and there’s bad attention. Just make sure you wear one that fits well (check the crotch) and wear it with a grin.