A Cheongsam Revisit

I have to confess that I have run out of ideas for my blog. I have done a political post which apparently caused a hailstorm of rebuttals in other sites which put up the link to my post, but very few came to my blog to comment. I could do two posts on Buddy before that but that might be a little boring for the readers. I have wanted to do a follow up post on the cheongsams, but unfortunately there are not much materials available since the dress has largely disappeared from the store now that Chinese New Year is over. I only managed to find a few from Miz Apparels, Ong Shunmugam, George’s Couture and Hana, so I will show whatever I have, as well as a couple of designs that I didn’t put up pre CNY.

Hana has the usual short-sleeved floral-print cheongsam, which is nothing exciting though it’s still better than the one from George’s Couture.

This long matronly-looking dress from George’s Couture is honestly pedestrian.

Hana is currently having a sale for its cheongsams at either 40% or 20% off. Here are their signature dresses with pleated bottom. I thought the one below looks rather pasty. And why is there a butterfly brooch on the waist?

As for this dress, you might be mistaken for wearing your table cloth out.

At last, something nice. I think the below matching mother and daughter cheongsams are rather pretty.

Ong Shunmugum has it’s signature lace overlay cheongsam with peplum, which would be appropriate for granny. Yes I think the dress ages the wearer.

Then there is also the usual straight cut fitting design.

Close up of the faux buttons

Talking about Ong Shunmugum. Not long ago I was at my usual alteration shop at Hong Leong building, which is also where OS is located, and there was a plus size lady in the above OS cheongsam with a OS staff there. (I found out that OS always bring their customers to the shop for alteration service. OS is like Tong Tong and My Mandarin Collar, where the making of the cheongsam is outsourced and there is no in-house alteration service. This is a problem because it may require numerous alterations before the dress fits well.) Anyway back to this lady, she looked like she was squeezed into this cheongsam, and honestly the first thing that came to my mind was “Bak Chang” (rice dumpling in Hokkien and zongzi in Chinese).

I know I sound insulting, but women have to realize that they should dressed according to their body shape. And the straight-cut figure-hugging cheongsam, which unfortunately revealed the layers of fat along her waist, is really inappropriate for her. I overheard there and then that she wanted to alter the dress bigger. I am not sure if there is any point in doing that. She is better off getting another design like a cheongsam with flare bottom or pleated skirt. Alternatively, she can get inspiration from the 1920s straight cut loose cheongsam with bell bottom sleeves, possibly changing the design to a narrow A-line dress.

This pre-CNY dress from Seven, that I didn’t put up previously, is also an appropriate design for plus size women. Instead of bright red, they can consider colors such as midnight blue, royal purple or maroon red.

Details of sleeve which has a black bow attached

Another pre-CNY dress, which is from Allure, but not for plus size women. Lucky for the short length, otherwise the print makes it look auntie-like.