Old Is Gold

We caught Lin Tong on one of the rare days, she says, that she isn’t dressed in a cheongsam or like an 80 year old lady. “I have turned up to work as though I work in the 1960s, and no one has said a thing.” Lin Tong clearly has a penchant for vintage clothing, and she describes her distinct sense of style as “1950s, early 1960s timewarp.” We would love to see her dressed that way, but her outfit today already hints at her true nature. In a vintage Japanese jacket, and shoes that were meant to be for dancing, Lin Tong defies office-wear conventions and does things her own way. And she actually does dance—both salsa, and tango nuevo.  If she wasn’t working in the civil service, Lin Tong says she wouldn’t mind “slaving away in theatre wardrobe”. She already sews her own 1950s style circle skirt frocks, so we think that her dream wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.