in one of my previous entries, i described a certain apparel as a baju ‘western’. i’m not sure if it was an 80’s or a boarding school or even a SDAR thing in those days, but a baju ‘western’ is a checked long sleeved shirt made by the likes of levi’s, lee or any jean company there was out there. it was really the in thing to wear, especially when denim was basically contraband at school, and nothing was ‘cool’-er than wearing a shirt (legally in school) that is of the same brand as the jeans that we weren’t allowed to wear. if you’re as old as i am, you’d probably associate these shirts with the kutus that would wear them with skinny jeans around the puduraya area, probably with a satchel emblazoned with the kyokujitsu-ki.

fashion is indeed fickle. for you fashionistas, you do the ‘brown is the new black’, ‘black is the new brown’ and ‘black is the new, err… black’ routine, probably in the span of one season. the last time i wore anything remotely resembling a baju ‘western’ was in the late 80’s. for you lot that still have your 20-year old lee checked shirt (and the same 1988 thoracic/abdominal girth), it is recently back in fashion (okay, the plaid shirt was in for a while during the grunge golden years, worn with below knee jeans, and doc marts – think pre-vs. jeff ament)! last thursday saw the purchase of my first one since god knows when at uniqlo.

what goes well with checked shirts? tight fit trousers lah. not only that, your trouser cuffs weren’t ‘allowed’ to have a circumference of greater than 13 inches or that was considered ‘bell’ (as in bell-bottomed). please don’t ask. at school, my batchmates described these tight fitting trousers as fitung habas (fitting habis). just check out some of the trousers in the photo above (the non-fitung habas ones seen above were probably donned on the more belia types, eg prefects). yup, once again, fitung skinny jeans have been the staple for the like of indie kids and hipsters alike (thanks, ili, for the clarification given a while back) in recent years.

and what do you wear with your baju western and skinny jeans in the late 80’s? high cut basketball trainers with the jeans tucked into it. laugh all you want. no prizes for guessing – it’s back as well. i used to wear a white puma in sixth form which was worn to death, thanks to a photo of james hetfield during his alcoholica days. and see what these chaps are wearing – catwalk lagi.

it goes to show if you like fashion, you can keep your out-of-fashion stuff in storage with some ubat gegat for the next n years, and take them out when it’s in again. i don’t know where that old puma hi-cut had gone. in all honesty, i cannot imagine if my feet would fit into them if i still had it. however, fate would have it that i would possess a new hi-cut puma to wear 20 years later. chantek, kan?