Its about my trip to Singapore. Observation of the fashion there and what people as in locals do relating to fashion faux pas. Its humorous and a little article.
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Author: Rakhi Shah
What comes to your mind when you think of Singapore?
SHOPPING?? SHOPPING?? and more SHOPPING??? Well you could say the ‘The Merlion’ or the ‘Zoo’ and maybe the ‘Bird Park’ too springs up in your minds eye. Uhm!! maybe even The Financial Centre and Oh My God lastly the ‘Singapore Eye’. But still Singapore is known for its trendy shopping and luxury brands and that’s what any girl would think of when, well you mention SINGAPORE.
So when last month my sister who is getting married in a couple of months suggested that we go to Singapore for her trousseau shopping I was jumping with joy. Well she is my kid sister and she wanted me to help her select only the best. But that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t shop for myself ( visualise me at this moment rubbing my hands and smiling with a weird gleam in my eyes)
Off we went, just the two of us on our shopping adventure. We decided that we’ll stay at Orchard Street because that is The Mecca for shoppers. We reached our hotel early morning all groggy from our flight and decided to have breakfast and sleep for couple of hours before hitting the malls. Once done with breakfast we changed into our ‘PJ’s’ and jumped into the soft oh so soft bed. After tossing for about 15 min I got up and looked at my sister. She was lying in bed wide awake and staring at the ceiling. She turned her head and we both looked at each other and smiled. The Grinch smile. HA!! We jumped out of our super soft bed ( I said that already right? ) and quickly got dressed. Well quickly would be about 30 minutes. With both of us using the bathroom and changing and deciding what to wear.
Out of our cool air conditioned hotel we quickly realised that’s its actually quite warm in Singapore. Very humid, much like Mumbai. But that didn’t dither people. The entire street was brimming with people.
With tourists in their shorts and flipflops, cameras around theirs necks and a smile on their faces.
Business men and women in their black and grey suits in their patent pumps walking briskly, chatting or texting on their Black Berries.
Moms with their toddlers running around, jumping with popsicles.
And of course there were the cootchy coo couples dressed in shorts or hot pants with tank tops or cute ruffled dresses holding hands and lazily walking around. Basically people from different walks (no pun intended) of life.
However they all had one thing in common. Most of them actually I am sure all them were carrying some sort of shopping bag or the other.
Once we started shopping we realised that the Spring/Summer trend there was skinny jeans also know as jeggings with gothic and printed long t-shirts. Luckily both of us are UK size 8 so skinny jeans here we come.
The next two days ( we went for only three days) we shopped mostly for my sister.
We bought like I said jeggings, with long loose shirts to go. Plaid shirts which are very much in vogue. Cotton and linen trousers. Shorts and many many t-shirts. Lost count after the tenth one. Long maxi kind of floral printed dresses which were also very in. Apt for our Mumbai heat. Lots of beach accessories like waterproof beach bags, sequinced flip flops, funky hairbands. Since she is planning to go for her honeymoon to some exotic island in the Caribbean these would be the perfect ensemble.
Because its her trousseau shopping we needed some nice branded bags and clothes to go with the entire melange of clothes I thought ‘What better place to shop for brands than Singapore’. The entire Orchard Street is filled with brands that you can’t pronounce with models emphasising how ugly we mere mortals are. Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Prada, Mui Mui, Armani, Chanel, Cartier are to name a few.
After every 10 steps is a Louis Vuitton store. I am serious. Not exaggerating. And you actually loose count of the number people who are walking down Orchard Street with their Louis Vuittons dangling preciously from their shoulders or finger tips.
Since Louis Vuitton is the rage there we decided to go have a look. It was slightly confusing. There are so many of them we didn’t know which one to go to. I expected the staff to look all snobbish and British. Thought they’ll have their noses so high up in the air that we’ll be talking to their chins. But surprise surprise!!!! They were most courteous and friendly. We felt so welcomed even though we were dressed in our linen shorts, sweaty t-shirts and dusty flip flops. Oh ya!! did I mention that the on coming AC ventilator had sent our hair flying in all directions.
Although what was surprising was that the entire shop was packed, make that filled to the brim with people. And they all looked like serious buyers. What was even more surprising was that most of them already had their old LV’s on one shoulder and were trying a new one on the other one. I know this because I was squinting my eyes and trying to get a better look to believe this. I actually wanted to click a picture on my mobile to show it to my friends back in Mumbai so that they would know that I am not exaggerating when I tell them this. But my sister just mouthed ‘stop that’ when I removed my mobile from my sling purse. So there we were amidst all the chaos, buying ‘A LV’ for my sister. We were euphoric once we were out of the shop. However it was short lived cause there were so many men and women with not one not two but three LV carry bags strutting around Orchard.
By the end of our third day our suitcases were brimming with clothes. I say our and not my sisters because I really couldn’t resist it. I tried, believe me, but in vain.
On our fourth day we were catching our flight to Mumbai, but before that we had to get our tax refunds. When we went to the officer with our shopping slips and suitcases, he was just interested in seeing one item. Take a guess. Go on I insist. My sister’s precious Louis Vuitton.
All in all it was a perfect trip. We nestled in our seats and watched the inflight movie.
What better movie to watch than ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’.
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Comments:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The content of the article is sure to attract all female viewers! The ideas are great- tried to include all minute details to create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. But a little brush up is required in language and grammer.
The article is nice and witty. But maybe needs a dose of maturity to make it appeal to a larger audience.
Liked it.It can be improved.More content will be fun