Singapore 60 Men Fashion On Vinyl Covers (Part II)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Now the boys. Just as fashionable as the ladies, they dress as well for that stage performance and look set with their tops, bell-bottoms or drain-pipes. Each gentleman cuts a dashing figure with his outfit.

Handsome and clean cut Randy Lee (left image), rhythm guitarist with The Stylers, is preparing for an evening bash with his boys in a dark grey 70s cut suit. He looks exceptionally confident in the simple yet stylish outfit. Tie and shoes to match. She's A Yum Yum, I Get So Excited, Mississippi Line and Love Grows (Where Rosemary Goes) are the four songs featured on this particular EP (Panda Brand: HREP 7003).

Chinese singer Chai Chen hangs his white jacket and flirts by the beach in white long sleeves and a maroon four-button vest and dark pants. Brown suedes complete the look. All he needs is to don the jacket and he'll be ready to croon Sayonara with his accompanying band The Travellers. Together with three Chinese songs, his recording under Jubilee (JE 5044) sold many copies.

With a short crop, Chinese singer and go-getter Peter Shu beats the lot in his eye-catching, always attractive red, black and white combination. The informal black vest with white trims and double whammy belts around his waist complete the picture. The stream-line white boots, accentuate his bell-bots. There's A Kind Of Hush, Love You Love You, Black Is Black and Proud Mary (InterWorld Record: WAA 1504) are the songs available.

Images: From record covers already acknowledged. Article: Andy Lim.

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Singapore Pop 60s Fashion On Vinyl Covers (Part I)

Friday, March 25, 2011

SINGAPORE FASHION AMONG CHINESE POP 60s ARTISTES:

Ladies fashion in the 60s seems to focus on colours and tones but less on accessories. Dresses are elegant and evening gowns are usually full-skirted. For casual wear, the ladies have British fashion guru Mary Quant's mini-skirt for leggy jaunts. And the word 'mini' comes from the iconic 60s Cooper mini-car.

Compared with their sisters in the West, our local Chinese pop singers dress conservatively when appearing on the covers of the vinyls they publicise. Sakura, Frances Yip, Mona Fong and Carrie Ku Mei (images) look resplendent with their pleasing, eye-catching and fashionable dress sense.

The light purplish dress with fluffy puffed sleeves that Sakura wears, is either for a concert or nightclub act. Note her bee-hive hairdo. Is she over-dressed? Not really. Carrie Koo Mei and Mona Fong are also ready for a formal evening concert in a darker purple cheongsam with psychedelic prints (?) to woo audiences with their stage presence and songs. I love their simple but charmingly styled hair and stilettos.

A very young Frances Yip appears set for a stroll in the park with her short, captivating sun-hewed print mini. Perhaps she's ready to sing a twist or shake 60s hit during a tea-dance. Or is she?

I am no expert, so do write in if you are familiar with Singapore 60s dress code and comment on the fashion sense then.

For those interested in the Chinese record covers above: Image 1: Sakura COLUMBIA/EMI ECHK. 614. Image 2: Frances Yip LIFE RECORDS/EP 2092. Image 3: Carrie Koo Mei and Mona Fong PATHE/EMI: 7EPA-206.

Images/original article: Andy Lim.

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Worshipping Butt Royalty: by Royal Teens

Saturday, July 17, 2010

SONGS I LOVE:

Who would have thought that The Royal Teens' song from 1958 would be taken so seriously today? Walk the streets in Singapore and we see our ladies in exquisite sensuality with their shortest of shorts. And in today's world nobody would stop them from slipping into something so much shorter, sexier and naughtier! Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the mini-shorts (image).

Pop Short Shorts:

The New Jersey rock and roll group, comprising 8 band members and 3 vocalists, made headlines with their ditty about the controversial and sexy shorts way back in 1957 after they had recorded the song, Short Shorts. It went to number 3 in the US and was a big hit in Singapore too. And the song, in case you are not familiar, goes like this?

Lyrics:

(Wolf whistle followed by: "Man, dig that crazy chick...")

Who wears short shorts/We wear short shorts/They're such short shorts/We like short shorts. And it goes on and on and on.

On Japanese TV:

According to Wikipedia, it's still being played in Japan for the opening tune of the Tamori Club on TV Asahi Corporation. The song has also been mentioned many times on The Simpsons and Homer the Heretic.

Image: www.stilespoints.blogspot.com/

www.microkitten.com/

Information: Wikipedia

Original article: Andy Lim with inspiration from LL's email images of Pretty Woman.

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Leggy Fashion Models, Drooling Band Boys

Sunday, June 20, 2010

A long time ago in the 60s and 70s, way before Jade Seah and Nadya Hutagalung appeared on our local catwalk, Singapore had its share of beautiful, leggy and sexy fashion models. One of the more popular modelling agencies that had these damsels was Joan Booty's.

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Annual dinner and dance events held by business organisations had top bands, pop artistes, comedians and variety shows to entertain the staff but they were incomplete without these agencies providing models to strut the stage of the hotels, theatres and nightclubs in Singapore. So wherever the get-together was held, these ladies provided the oomph and glamour and the more revealing the girls were, the larger the members in the audience and louder the wolf whistles.

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When I spoke to the 60s band boys about such events and the live music they provided as the models appeared on stage, one comment was, "We try to play the simplest tunes with the simplest chords because we'd rather drool over the girls and their swimming costume changes than think of our guitar chord changes." The statement is meant more as a joke because the bands take their music accompaniment of models on stage seriously, so woe betide those bands that are frivolous or non-professional because they will not get another contract the next time around.

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[Note: Spelling of 'boutique' to 'Bootigue' understandable but why 'gue' and not 'que'? The above advertisement appeared in a souvenir magazine for White And Blue Nite at the Victoria Memorial Hall on Saturday, 28th February, 1970. The dance was to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the P.I.E.U. Bridgestone Branch and sponsored by Bridgestone Singapore Company (Private) Ltd. Anyone attended this function?]

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The band in attendance was The Stylers and the compere was Larry Lai. Hey LL, you remember this one?

Original article: Andy Lim

Image: Randy Lee Collection.

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