Timeless Style

All photos used belong to Kim Wright.

I received an email today from a magazine in Singapore.  Would I consider being included in some article for their December (Christmas) issue, and in exchange they would highlight my upcoming dance/book projects?

For some reason that email called forth, my mother.

 In another editorial feature of a similar slant, I was asked who I considered as style icons.  Easy!  I answered, Tina Tan Leo, Kate Moss (changed my mind since), and my mother.

My mother is the sort of woman that walks into a room and conversation halts.  She can't help it.  It's called X factor.  Or perhaps these days, it's the color of her hair- unabashedly white, that silences.  (Cultural note- no self-respecting Asian woman past a certain age would allow this to happen to her hair.  God Forbid.)

If Kim is standing in line at the post office, complete strangers become friends and start telling her their pain...

My mother loves to shop!  When she goes shopping?  It takes forever as she can't bring herself to spend X on Y, and needs to go home and think things through.  Then she goes back to the same store the following day, and the day after, and the day after.  By that time, the SA who has been serving her would have received a sincere invitation to stay at her house when she ever visits Queenstown.  For the sake of my sanity, I never, ever go shopping with Kim.

A friend who finds Kim quite enthralling, once said that if she had a younger sister that beautiful, she would never allow her to be cast in the role of her bridesmaid on her wedding day.

But I suspect Kim's older sisters have only always doted on her, and continue to bask in her beauty.

Here's what my mother taught me about style.  Style is defined by authenticity.  You just have to inhabit yourself.  There is only one unique you, no one else comes close.  So hold your head up, read a book, go look at art, eat something, walk tall.

Style is not to be confused by trends and brands.  Why blindly follow when the stylish woman knows it is only her taste that matters?

Kim would never be caught carrying an "IT" bag.  Give her a Great Dane hanging off her arm instead!

Style is that fine line we tread between cultivating our inner landscapes, and not taking ourselves so seriously.

Style is about comfort and being sensitive to the fluctuating environment.  In winter climate, wear good shoes, more black.

 In spring and summer, throw on brighter colors.  They do wonders for your spirit and skin!

Style is embracing the now, and not trying to cling onto what will fade with time.  Style is dressing with discretion and courtesy.  Kim has great legs, but the last time anyone saw them, it was in the swinging 60s.  Before I was born.

Last night I wrote about my uniform.  Looking at the above pictures, I can't help but note certain similarities in our dressing.  Tall boots, black, color around the face, chunky scarf, and requisite dog.   Sometimes, mother does know best.