Today I went to a restaurant with a very funny name: Pa Pa Walk. In Chinese, it means "crawling" and kind of has a cutesy connotation like waddling along or wiggling like a baby does. It has nothing to do with food though, so who knows.
Who cares what the name of the place is when they have oyster pancakes! They also had great papaya milkshakes. I wanted to try a lot of their specialty items like stinky tofu, beef noodle soup, chicken strip rice, fried chicken rice, fried pork chop rice, and so on. But a girl's only got so much room (sadly).
Most girls would be horrified by the notion of chi pao shopping right after lunch. If ever there were an unforgiving dress shape, the chi pao's got it. But I really had no hopes of finding anything I liked after hating hundreds of chi pao in many many stores. Shockingly, this store had a handful that weren't hideous, and one that I truly loved.
It's impossible to tell in photos, but something about this chi pao just says "elegant evening wear" rather than "cheap polyester costume." The silk is softer and smoother, and there's a layer of very thin batting between the outer fabric and the lining so that the dress has a subtle cushy feeling. And the detail work along the collar is exquisite. It's true what they say: when you see it, you know.
I found my necklace too (NOT this one)! It's being adjusted by the jeweler and I forgot to take photos of it. It's from the same line as the necklace above, but with white and gold pearls because it's for my ivory gown. I love when jewelers do something with pearls other than single pendants and full strands, especially when they incorporate some diamonds for a little sparkle!
Who cares what the name of the place is when they have oyster pancakes! They also had great papaya milkshakes. I wanted to try a lot of their specialty items like stinky tofu, beef noodle soup, chicken strip rice, fried chicken rice, fried pork chop rice, and so on. But a girl's only got so much room (sadly).
Most girls would be horrified by the notion of chi pao shopping right after lunch. If ever there were an unforgiving dress shape, the chi pao's got it. But I really had no hopes of finding anything I liked after hating hundreds of chi pao in many many stores. Shockingly, this store had a handful that weren't hideous, and one that I truly loved.
It's impossible to tell in photos, but something about this chi pao just says "elegant evening wear" rather than "cheap polyester costume." The silk is softer and smoother, and there's a layer of very thin batting between the outer fabric and the lining so that the dress has a subtle cushy feeling. And the detail work along the collar is exquisite. It's true what they say: when you see it, you know.
I found my necklace too (NOT this one)! It's being adjusted by the jeweler and I forgot to take photos of it. It's from the same line as the necklace above, but with white and gold pearls because it's for my ivory gown. I love when jewelers do something with pearls other than single pendants and full strands, especially when they incorporate some diamonds for a little sparkle!
9 comments:
I think chi paos will look less like polyester costumes once they are removed from the store...They give off that look when they are displayed in large quantities!
Oh, and I'm disappointed in you Pei. How can a blog that consistently has posts about food not have a thanksgiving addition? How will I know what you ate?
I was going to agree with you, but I thought about it and it's not true. Chi paos do look better out of the store, but honestly I've seen very few great looking ones on bridal websites. Maybe I'm just really picky.
And I apologize for the Thanksgiving slip up! I leave photography tasks to my sisters when I cook at my mom's house, but they're both mired in finals and are ignoring my requests for photos. Soon, soon!
I think it's also disappointing that even in my mom's generation, they were able to find chi paos that cost in the thousands of dollars because of the fine detail work and fabric quality.
Nowadays, it's hard to find chi paos that command those prices (especially in the States). So how can we expect a chi pao to compete with Western bridal gowns in style and beauty? Custom bridal gowns cost thousands of dollars, and the ones that cost $300 look just as much like costumes as $99 on line chi paos.
Now that is just lovely! :D
RE: Your comment above, another grand irony is that most wedding dresses now are probably made down the street from a chi pao factory. The only thing protecting them from the same decines in cost was that the industry put into place certain 'protections'. Even Mass retailers like Davids have taken on some of these 'traditions'. I had enough experience going to salons with friends to know, I never wanted to deal with one...
--Dommy!
that qi pao IS gorgeous. GORGEOUS!!
As my husband is Chinese-American, I wore a qi pao for the reception. I ended up ordering mine custom-made from efushop.com as I already combed the stores of New York to no avail. It was a very nice movable silk (so many qipao fabrics are so stiff). Catch was that it was an online thing -- the shop was in China. To make a long story short, I received my qipao one day before my wedding and it was too small in the hips! I took it to the tailors and had it altered to the best of his ability (they didn't leave a lot of fabric to play with). But the result was fabulous -- the qipao costed $105 and the tailoring was $70. I was busting out of the dress by the end of the night!
Here's a pic of it (see how it's kind of tight in the hips?):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsneedle/365001474/in/set-72157594485206235/
Your qi pao looks very nice. I'm sure you will look beautiful in it. Good luck with your wedding!
Thanks Ms. Needle! Your chipao looked lovely; the tightness wouldn't have been noticeable if you hadn't told me to look for it. I know a lot of people use eaststore.com and efushop.com. And they do a good job for on line vendors. I just wish there were a truly high end option in the same spirit as Western bridal boutiques (or even Indian ones). Somewhere you can go and see truly high end products, not just $100 dresses.
I think of efushop and eaststore as the David's Bridal and Alfred Angelo of the chipao world. Yes, their stuff is okay, and they look fine in photos. But sometimes, a girl also wants to see the Vera Wangs and Carolina Herrera's, just for comparison's sake.
Just found this site: http://www.racyming.com/welcome.html
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