So my mom and my sis and I went cheongsam hunting the other day for my tea ceremony get up. Went around Chinatown and then Haji Lane…where I tried on thousand-dollar cheongsams at Hana. I must say they have the mostest gorgeousest cheongsams ever. Gorgeous. Handsewn. Absolutely lovely. And costing half my salary.

Pain.

Spent the afternoon doing the Karen Cheng pose. Here’s the first two cheongsams I tried on at Mama and Misse.


White-based with a green and black phoenix. I loved this one – except that its color scheme would probably cause my brother to spontaneously self-destruct. And the top was too starkly white, making it look awfully like either a servant’s samfoo or a mourning outfit. Grumps.


Thai silk. Looked boring and cheap (but wasn’t!) and I didn’t quite like it. This one was too big (looks fitting cuz it was pinned at the back for me).

Tried on a couple more that really weren’t too flattering – but my mom and I figured we would buy the fabric and get the Mama and Misse tailor to do it for us, because it was affordable and the cutting and workmanship wasn’t bad.

But we couldn’t find nice panel fabric cuz I wanted a design like the phoenix one – and we couldn’t find anything worth buying.

So my mother took me on a guilty pleasure trip to Hana, a boutique at Arab Street. Costly – though my mom had earlier indulged herself in a beautiful lime green cheongsam for my brother’s wedding (she says she’s going to wear the heck out of it to justify the price). The service was amazing – they pinned every single cheongsam for me at the back to show me how it would look tailored to my fit. They were attentive, personal, and wonderfully camp designers. Who can resist a gay brutha? Not me!

Most of them don’t fit well in the pictures because I could only snap the photos after they removed the pins for me…hurhur. So if you’re wondering why my arm’s always behind my back, it’s cuz I’m holding the cheongsam in place.


The first one I tried was in fire engine red with aqua flowers scrolling down the bust. I picked it out immediately because it matched our color scheme, heh. I liked it a lot.


I hated this one. Baby pink? You gotta be kidding me. Next.


Dark green with red flowers. Not too bad. I tend to look better in deep jewel tones because my skin is ridiculously white.


My absolute FAVORITE. I just had to try this on, black be damned. Who on earth wears black for a wedding outfit? Sigh. But I loved this. Love. LOOK AT THE AFASDFASDFSBEAUTIFOOL LACE. ON THE SHOULDER.


Also, it cost $1890. Excuse me while I weep silently in a corner.


They got me to try this even though I didn’t like the cut-out shoulders. I don’t know why these cut-outs make me feel so naked, when I feel perfectly natural prancing round in a tube. It’s odd. But these make me feel uncomfortably bare. Huh. Still, this one was C’s favorite on me.

I went home despairing because I cannot justify splashing half my salary and five times what I initially intended to spend on a cheongsam, no matter how beautiful it is, because the amount of wearage I get out of it simply would not justify the cost.

And then my mother finally told me that she has a brand new unworn cheongsam at home, red silk, long, and that if I really wanted to save the cash, I could alter it and wear it for the tea ceremony.

DONE.

Haha!

All I need to do, really, is find a nice frog button to sew onto the cheongsam because now it’s a bit plain the way it is. But I’m set, cheongsam-wise! Painless and free!

But I enjoyed being fussed over and wearing those gorgeous cheongsams at Hana :)

[6 bends in the road]