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!

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.