RETRO CHIC

Loads of items were left unclaimed at their laundromat - then their grandson had a fun idea and it turned this Japanese couple into social media superstars

- NADINE RAMONGANE

THEIR clothes are chic, their hair stylish, their eyewear on point and when the camera starts clicking, their slow, fluid movements make it look like they were born for the spotlight.

Videos of Chang Wan-ji (86) and his wife, Hsu Hsiu-e (87), have become a sensation on social media – and it’s all thanks to their grandson, Reef Chang, and clothing abandoned at the laundromat they own in Taiwan.

Over the years there have been customers who failed to collect items they dropped off and the couple felt unable to throw anything away. So the items lay around gathering dust – until the pandemic arrived in 2020 and Reef (31) started thinking of ways to alleviate his grandparents’ boredom.

He dressed the couple in the forgotten clothes, styled them with accessories from their own cupboards and then shared the pics online. It was just meant to be a pandemic hobby, but it became an almost overnight success.

The couple were naturals in front of the camera and pretty soon they’d racked up nearly one million followers on their Instagram page, Want Show As Young, where they pose in everything from bucket hats to oversize suits.

“I just wanted to do something that would bring them joy,” Reef tells YOU on the phone from Taiwan. “And I wanted to encourage environmental awareness and recycling. I never thought this many people would like my pictures. It’s kind of weird but nice.”

Tragically, his grandmother died earlier this year – but her smile and style live on in social media.

HIS grandparents worked together at Show Laundry, a small-town laundry and dry-cleaning service in Houli, Taiwan, for more than seven decades.