Sweet Suede

Christine loves her Fridays, which is why she appears to be in a buoyant mood today. “I usually have an at-my-desk karaoke session every Friday evening. I blast some music — ranging from  old school Chinese songs to Billboard Top 100 — and start singing and rapping. Sometimes I even force my colleagues to sing or rap with me!” It’s her way of winding down after a hectic work week, which she says often involves working 10 to 12 hour work days. “At a certain point, you just got to tell yourself, that’s enough for today,” she says. “Go home, have a beer with a friend, get some online retail therapy. There will always be too much work!” Christine says that although she kind of accidentally fell into this job, she’s loving the challenges that it presents. Despite it being overwhelming at times, she loves the sense of achievement she gets when she helps to achieve a client’s goals. It’s also great that she gets to enjoy a fairly casual dress code, which helps in her versatile and experimental sense of style. “I like this spring’s bohemian chic and ever minimalist Scandinavian styles. Sometimes when I am curious whether I can carry off certain styles, I simply just buy items off Taobao to try since it’s cheap.” She makes sure that she feels comfortable in whatever she’s wearing, however. “When you are comfortable, your brains will have better resources to think about at work rather than being occupied with how tight your jeans are, how short your skirt is, or how sheer your top is.” A fan of DIY, she enjoys making things from scratch or making little changes to her old clothes, and often looks for tutorials online. This sense of curiosity is something she advises everyone to apply to their work lives as well. “Never stop being curious. Keep learning. When you are curious, you probe more and start being proactive than reactive. That’s a value most employers will appreciate.”