Back In Time

We couldn’t pass up on capturing Asih’s gorgeous, vintage kimono top. She says that it’s kind of her signature, and likes to incorporate ethnic clothing pieces, like a kebaya top or haori (Japanese kimono outer jacket), into her daily outfits. “They usually have superb craftsmanship that I think is wasted if they’re only worn as costumes or on special occasions.” As a freelance design writer, Asih says that her favourite part of her job is meeting and interviewing people and having designers walk her through their creations and share about their working process. “The worst part is when you realise you have 2 hours’ worth of conversation to transcribe.” She would have gone back to her first love, however, if she wasn’t in her current profession. “I’d love to be a period drama costume designer,” she says. “I’d be dressing people in costumes, and on the hunt for antique and vintage pieces all the time for a legitimately good reason.” Although she’s dressed in monochromatic shades today, Asih shares a funny story about her childhood obsession with the colour red. “I loved the colour jealously, and I wanted my relationship with this particular shade of red to be exclusive. At the time my parents subscribed to this parenting magazine which has a comic supplement inside it; it told the stories of personified vegetables. One of the characters was a sentient chilli pepper, who was red, my particular shade of red. I was so jealous of his red skin that I took the time to painstakingly cover each of his pictures with white-out correction fluid,” she says. “Then I started grade school, and part of the uniform was a red pleated skirt; again, in my particular shade of red. I gave up, because no amount of correction fluid that I could steal from my dad’s desk could cover the sea of red skirts. I had to accept that red and I were not exclusive. I like all colours under the sun now, and wouldn’t even remember that episode in my life if it weren’t for all those comic inserts with the whitewashed Mr. Chilli Pepper.”