The Snow White Chemise with Sarah

Hello everyone.

Much of our blogging so far has looked at production – but now that our clothes are finally ready for sale, we thought we could also blog about the end part of the process – wearing the clothes!

I’m going to pop in to the blog now and then and write about being the consumer in Melbourne.

I’ll do some outfit posts on our Madame Tây stuff, but also want to look at shopping from other ethical brands available in Melbourne or online. Since we started Madame Tây I’ve realised there are actually heaps of interesting clothing brands out there that are trying to be ethical and sustainable, and it’s not all hemp and twee-ness. I’m by no means any kind of consumer saint - my current wardrobe is filled with stuff from the usual chain store suspects. But if there are beautiful, well-designed alternatives available (which there seems to be more of these days), I think I could start shifting my wardrobe towards more ethical/sustainable companies pretty easily.

So, about the Snow White Chemise.

I recently went to Malaysia to visit my grandparents for Chinese New Year, and got a lot of wear out of this shirt in the hot weather. It's breathable and light-weight, with a loose fit, so it's a great basic for keeping cool. I like undoing the lower buttons and then tying a knot, to give the shirt more of a cropped shape. Here are some snaps from around my Ah-Ma's garden and the Taiping lake gardens.

Happy Lunar New Year of the Horse!

When I was flipping through old photographs I found this one of my grandparents, with my Ah-Ma wearing a sleeveless shirt similar to our Snow White Chemise! My Ah-ma tells me she made the shirt herself. She has always loved clothes and learnt tailoring when she was young.

photos by me and mum