Hats

It is not a custom for us living in South East Asia to wear hats.  Well yes, there are baseball caps and the occasional beach hat, but that's about it.

I find hats fascinating, but just like clothes, you have to find a hat that suits your face and head.  Then the colors and material and type of hat to suit the occasion.  For example, a straw hat may not be appropriate for a formal wedding, or a fedora to the beach.  
Here are a few hats that I love.  I think large brimmed hats are best for this tropical climate, protects your face from the sun - and it looks fashionable too!

Large brimmed hat made of synthetic fiber from Cambodia

Round hat made of paper from Australia

(Left) Fedora made of straw-like material. (Right) Super large brimmed hat.  Both in a shop in Bangkok.

Sun hat made of synthetic fiber from Cambodia

Wearing White

Lately I have been accumulating a lot of white dresses, and that's not because I have been recently married.  Part of my job is representing a brand and the brand's main color is white.  So there you have it.

Wearing white is not easy.  You can easily fall in the trap of looking like a bridesmaid, you can make it dirty in a second and the color is very difficult to care for. Oh yes, and not to forget the oh-so-wonderful VPL!

So, here are a few tips if you are considering a white dress:

Simplicity
Keep your dress simple but with just the right amount of accents.  A dress that has too many frills can look like a bridesmaid's dress. Too plain can cause the same effect too.

Be Meticulous
It will be easy if everything is made out of cotton, machine washable and bleachable.  Well, with white dresses most likely it is dry-clean only.  Keep your white dresses in dress bags to avoid too much moisture exposure.  I found that oxidation can cause the dress to have brownish spots so you want keep your dresses nicely covered.  Use padded hangers as it can reduce possibility of a snag.

Dresses (L to R): Daniel Yam, Biyan, Daniel Yam, Max Mara, Elita

Watch Your Drinks
When wearing a white dress, avoid holding or coming close to a drink with color. The last thing you want is to spill a glass of red on your dress at a party.

VPL
The one thing that is annoying about wearing a white dress is the obvious VPL.  Even a g-string will still have that 'line' going across your waist, especially when your dress is figure hugging or of clingy material.  What I usually do, and this is the safest bet so far based on experience, is to wear a girdle. Yup, not nice, not comfy, but hey, beauty comes with a price :-).   A girdle works multiple ways: it doesn't give you that embarassing VPL, it flattens your tummy, trims down your thighs and makes your dress fall and flow smoothly around your body.  Overall confidence if you ask me!

White shoes - Not!
The last thing you want is to look like a nurse.  Opt for a different color, something radical like purple or shocking pink, but avoid dark colors such as black or dark brown as it will dampened the white color and just kill the look altogether.
If you must wear something 'white', try ivory, beige, gold or silver that can nicely blend in with the dress color, but don't look like you're running to the ER.

Beautiful Batik

I was searching for a definition of "batik" on-line, and here is what I found on Wikipedia which I think is perfect: 
"Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique.  Javanese traditional batik, especially from Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has notable meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colours include indigo, dark brown, and white, which represent the three major Hindu Gods (Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva). This is related to the fact that natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by nobility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater width indicated higher rank. Consequently, during Javanese ceremonies, one could determine the royal lineage of a person by the cloth he or she was wearing.  UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on October 2, 2009. As part of the acknowledgment, UNESCO insisted that Indonesia preserve their heritage."

Until recently, the only batik I had was from my school uniforms more than 20 years ago and a dress I made in 1989.  Other than that, I had none.  Even when the batik craze crept up in Jakarta a couple of years ago, I was the least interested to join the bandwagon.  Well, I was never a fan of batik.  I think it started because part of my school uniform was batik, and I remember the material being hot, thick and un-user-friendly.  In those days, batik was used by "old people", or for weddings, and the design of the "everyday" dress was never appealing.  It seemed old, boring and not hip at all.  However, a few months ago, a friend of mine gave me a simple batik lawasan dress which had a cute style, and I started to have some interest in it.  Then, one day I was at a department store in Jakarta and came across a beautiful designed piece, and suddenly I became fond of batik.  If I were to count, for the past 2 months I went from zero to 15 dresses made of batik!

The batiks I am featuring at the top of this entry are from this online Facebook shop called Batik Centil, owned by Vegi Handayani and Idha Jacinta.  Their pieces are ready-to-wear, inexpensive and designed very tastefully.  They sell one-of-a-kind items and if the item you like is sold out, you can order it (but not in the exact same design).  I think I am lucky to have measurements the same as what they make, otherwise it will kill me to wait for my order every time!