MODERN THREADS OF TRADITION

PHOON MEI CHI PUTS HER SPIN INTO TRADITIONAL TAILORING

-  STUART DANKER

WHILE FEBRUARY marks the Lunar New Year for 2024, it’s also a time when performative- and handmade-arts start to emerge. Lion dances, for instance, take centre stage largely throughout this festive season. The creation of the lion heads themselves also peaks around this time of year.

Another niche that sees an uptick is the tailoring of traditional clothes. Outfits like the cheongsam have been around since the 1920s, with its true roots stretching ever further back to the 1600s. With this much history behind it, the cheongsam can easily be misconstrued as purely traditional.

That’s where Phoon Mei Chi comes in. Working through her brand byMeichi, she focuses on providing traditional dress to the masses, but with a healthy dose of modern influences.

Why streamline the traditional cheongsam? Because according to her, she once thought that the cheongsam only belonged in the realm of elaborate tailoring too.

“I always harboured this stereotype that if someone were to wear a cheongsam, that they’d only do so for their wedding day,” she says. “But my biggest lesson so far is that there is a market for women wanting a keepsake cheongsam. Something they can reach for when going for teatime with their girlfriends. And we achieve this by ensuring the dresses look more modern.”

But before we appreciate the modern, we must first ask: “What makes a cheongsam a cheongsam?” And to that, Phoon answers, “The collar. I have tweaked so many elements of the cheongsam to suit my clients, but there’s one thing I will always maintain, and that’s the collar.”