My mum is a hoarder. Hence I was exposed to a lot of vintage stuff (they were just old when I was a child as they hadn't passed the 30 year mark of qualifying as vintage then) since I was a child. I remember playing dress-up with a very flouncy, layered petticoat, pretending that I was a Moulin Rouge showgirl doing the can-can dance. I also remember playing with this wire box-purse and had quite forgotten about its existence till I saw a similar bag online and asked mum if she still had hers (why wouldn't she?). But I was really happy and grateful when she found it, and easily too.
Mum kept my first swim suit, a faded green suit with black geometric prints, I remember wearing that to swim at Yan Kit swimming pool, the first swimming pool in Singapore. Now when I hold the little doll-like suit in my hands, I feel how different the material is compared to the softer, smoother fabric they use nowadays.
She also kept a few of her 1960s mini dresses, I love her drop waist green and black dress and her orange scooter dress. She also kept the spangley vest she made herself and she also made me a little dress in the same fabric. I am sure I remember that dress to be too prickly and pokey to be comfortable, but I wish I had that little dress now. Mum's mini dresses were so short I don't know how women those times kept their modesty. Perhaps they walked very daintily and didn't raise their hands and sat with their legs crossed all the time.
All I have been wishing is that she finds my very first watch. It was a Mickey Mouse watch with a red strap, Mickey's hands were the hands of the watch and she bought it for me when I started Primary One. I love that watch and I am sure being the hoarder she is, she would have kept it but that it has been misplaced somewhere and will pop up one day...
Labels: design, family, life, memories, vintage
We deliberately decided to have no window dressing for our windows in the living room. These windows open into the common corridor and we don't usually open them for privacy reasons although I do like to keep the door open for circulation and neighbours invariably look in (and sometimes gawk) as they walk by. Besides we tell ourselves the mid-Century style room has no window dressing and we are keeping in line.
