How Fashion Advice Columns Shaped Singapore’s National and Feminine Identity
By Kimberly Ong
Singapore’s fashion advice columns from 1960 to 1994 demonstrate how journalism and consumption practices shaped national and feminine identities. Fashion journalists were intrepid messengers, making sense of the dizzying world of increasingly globalised fashion. They projected and represented the collective anxieties and hopes of Singaporeans and thus contributed to fashioning the Singaporean identity on the industry and everyday levels.
Introduction
“So if you want to be the best-groomed woman, carry the make-up you need – and only the make-up you need. Keep everything down to the barest essentials, and be tidy. It will help maintain your fabulous face of fashion.”
– “The Lucy Huang Page,” The Straits Times, 17 July 1960
Grooming and fashion trends, characterised by their ephemerality, are cultural signs of the times. Fashion advice columns are thus saturated with meaning as they act as a public conversation and record of fleeting ideals. In one early example of a fashion advice column in Singapore, “The Lucy Huang Page” in 1960, the writer speaks with jaunty authority as she emphasises the practicality and importance of the maintenance of appearances in public – tidiness as a means of control over the presentation of self, and buying into an identity (“the best-groomed woman”) through fashion and grooming. This is an example of how fashion journalists, especially during the pre-internet era in Singapore, were intrepid messengers, making sense of the dizzying world of increasingly globalised fashion. They projected and represented the collective anxieties and hopes of Singaporeans and thus contributed to fashioning the Singaporean identity on the industry and everyday levels.
Singapore Becomes Fashionable
Singapore from 1960 to the 1990s — from pre-independence, independence in 1965, to the self-conscious process of nation-building after — was a critical period of building its national identity. Such negotiations are evident in Singapore’s newspaper clippings from 1960 to 1994. Fashion advice columns, in particular, reveal the crosscutting effects of globalisation and re-ethnicisation on national identity, and finally the emergence of shopping as a marker of national identity towards the 1990s (Chua 2005).
Figure 1. “They’ve given the sari glamour…” 26 April 1960 (Taken from: The Singapore Free Press)
As Singapore experienced considerable economic development, such economic changes created the basis for relatively swift cultural changes. This is reflected in the consumption patterns of Singaporeans, which were charted as increasingly cosmopolitan. We witness local fashion trends being determined by and adapting to global influences while incorporating local cultural practices. Dresses made from sari fabric but adapted to alternative silhouettes embody this: “Fashion-conscious women are adopting the choli (blouse) and the draped blouse based on Western styles,” says a 1960 column. In a 1982 column, the writer gave advice on how to wear the new trouser silhouette, but tailored to the pear-shaped Asian woman and acknowledging its past in the samfoo or Punjabi outfits.
Figure 2. Shake a leg, 5 September 1982 (Taken from: The Straits Times)
The Significance of Fashion Advice Columns in Newspapers
As Singapore intensely developed into an urban city space, journalism became one of the most important means of mass communication. Fashion news, through the aid of newspapers, was disseminated faster and to more people than ever before. From the banal and lighthearted to the didactic and practical, local fashion journalists, including Esme Baptiste, Judith Yong, Joy Meng, and Evelyn Tu, were arbiters of taste and messengers of trends.
Style signalled a form of social discipline of the body, and fashion was part of Singapore’s cultural infrastructure, together with its politics and economy. In this regard, fashion advice columns acted to institutionalise new identities and dispense information to enable readers to adapt to the dynamic socio-cultural environment.
Until the 1950s, traditional attire was a common sight on the streets of Singapore (Yeo 2017). Following the rise of women in the workforce in the 1960s, their spending power increased and encouraged foreign brands to enter the local retail market (Yeo 2017). The 1960s was a period in which Singapore freshly emerged as an independent nation-state. Caught between colonial legacies and independence, it is perhaps unsurprising that much mention of fashion trends was derived from the West. One of the first mentions of fashion and beauty is in the column “Lovely to Look At,” by Joy Meng in the Singapore Free Press (1960). She advised her readers on a “new look in make-up” that was all the rage in Paris, London and Rome: the “Chinese Look” as worn in the film The World of Suzy Wong by actress Nancy Kwan. In what was arguably a manifestation of internalised orientalism, this showed how Singapore looked towards an image of Asianness filtered through Hollywood’s lens, thus reproducing an ideology of the East while maintaining the West’s status as the dominant culture.
Figure 3. “Australia Goes East: Great Demand for Asian Models,” 5 May 1960 (Taken from: The Straits Times)
People who visited Singapore, such as models or brand representatives were often quoted on their opinions on Singaporeans, suggesting how the Singaporean public saw itself through the eyes of others amidst the development of its own fledgling identity. In an article featuring Caucasian Singaporean model, Monica Goorney, in 1960, she noted that in Australia “there was a definite leaning towards the East, just as there is in the rest of the world.” She met with two other models, Ailson Davis and Betty Edwards, in Singapore for work, who said they “felt that although they have not seen much of Singapore, the standards of beauty and style here are comparable to those in Australia.” Local Asian voices were noticeably absent. In another beauty column in 1960, readers were updated about the latest hair trends in Paris: “Roland who recently returned from a five-month study tour of Paris and the Continent has kept us informed of what our Western sisters are doing,” reinstating the status of Paris as the apotheosis of fashion.
Therefore, fashion advice columns revealed the need for self-empowerment according to a western criterion perceived by the nation-state. The columns were sites which allowed for the possibility of this imagined state – a manifestation of the search for a Singaporean identity, and in turn, setting the stage for a modern nation.
At the same time, fashion columns often reflected the diverse nature of fashion in Singapore, pointing towards the hybridisation of the cultures by its people. Journalist Esme Baptiste, in her article, “They’ve Given The Sari Glamour” (1960), states that “the sari, though strict in its graceful flowing lines, is becoming more glamorous,” noting how fashion-conscious women were turning the sari, a traditional Indian garment, into a piece of high fashion. By 1990, when imports were opened up to other parts of the world, fabrics were sourced from India, with the mention of traditional sarees and Punjabi suits in the world of high fashion.
As Singapore witnessed significant economic progress and material affluence towards the 1980s, it sparked a reconsideration of Singapore’s cultural orientation, and a re-ethnicisation through dress as a way to negotiate globalisation. “Western-style trouser suits may be in the news these days but what many of us forget is that the samfoo and the punjabi costumer have been around for close to 150 years – long before Mrs Edith Merchant and her ‘stuffy’ judge,” wrote journalist Judith Yong in 1970, deriding her Western counterparts for disliking trousers. In 1990, Singaporean novelist Catherine Lim reflected on the cheongsam, stating, “I was a true product of the colonial era. My entire childhood was permeated with the influence that the British exerted everywhere they went to rule in those heady days of the empire.” To reclaim her roots, she turned to the Chinese cheongsam as “the perfect response to the call of both ethnicity and vanity.” This comes against a backdrop of the rise in local affluence in the 1990s, where Singapore’s per capita income rose higher than almost every nation in Europe (Chua 2005). The rise in affluence, according to official discourse (Chua 2005), has been achieved by ‘bootstrapping’ the traditional values of the people, with the cheongsam for Chinese women in Singapore symbolising ‘Chinese-ness’ or ‘Asian Values.’
Figure 4: “Why I wear the cheongsam,” Catherine Lim, 4 June 1994 (Taken from: The Straits Times)
By the 1990s, consumerism appeared to have become a marker of Singaporean identity on an everyday level (Chua 2005), with columns advising on how to shop in 1992, even witnessing the beginnings of consumer profiling such as in the article, “Shoppers: Which type are you?” This points towards a period in which Singapore was seen as a shopping paradise for both residents and visitors globally (Moscove and Fletcher 2001). In another column, titled “They Dress to Look Trendy” (1992), we witness the emergence of identity and belonging through fashion. Interviewee Chris Ho emblematises this approach to fashion when he said, “I’m a dedicated follower of rock fashion. I’m not anti-establishment. I’m against homogenous conformity – looking the same as everyone else.”
Figure 5. “Before you shop,” 12 March 1992 (Taken from: The Straits Times)
Performing Femininity
Social regulation of the body is reflected through fashion advice columns of this period, establishing and promoting fashionable and beauty ideals, particularly among women, that simultaneously serve to reflect and perpetuate patriarchal norms through marriage ideals.
The postcolonial state, as Aihwa Ong and Michael Peletz (1995) states:
In its varied tasks of building a national identity, meeting challenges from community-based interest groups, and representing itself as a modern nation, is continuously engaged in defining the composition and form of political society. This making and patrolling of the body politic is an ongoing struggle that often entails the inscription of state power on women’s... bodies.
Though women were entering the public sphere with the passing of The Women’s Charter in 1961, marriage remained the pivotal experience for women from the 1960s to 1980s. In a column titled, “You must be chic at home, too,” (1960) the writer stated, “…looking feminine and dainty is one of the finer points in holding the attention of the man in your life.” Again, in a column on boudoir photography in 1984, the demand for boudoir photography saw women dressing up for photoshoots to send as gifts to their male partners. The wife of the boudoir photographer in question, Deborah, expressed her approval, stating that “it made me feel feminine.” In September 1982, Agatha Koh interviewed four women through the different stages of ageing, with an emphasis on children and marriage. One woman said, "I always believe anyway that in a marriage, the husband always comes first," an idea that resonated amongst the other women featured. The following year, Lee Kuan Yew would announce during his National Day Rally speech that graduate mothers were accountable for declining birth rates, the future labour force, and therefore the future of the nation, sparking the introduction of pro-natalist policies targeting well-educated women.
Figure 6. “For him- personal photos as presents,” 11 December 1984 (Taken from: Singapore Monitor)
Fashion columns maintained that femininity was an ideal that could be achieved through grooming and modes of bodily discipline, thus reinstating Simone de Beauvoir’s (1949) observation that, “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” Unrealistic beauty ideals continued to permeate the languaging of advice columns: “A woman is not supposed to look made up, so her inner beauty and personality can shine through more clearly,” a make-up artist said ironically in 1994 whilst promoting the best uses of makeup and lipstick.
Bodies that did not conform to the conventions of the mainstream culture risked exclusion, scorn, or ridicule. In a report on Paris fashion trends in the 1960s, Barbara Griffs advised readers, “…you’d better start dieting right away because otherwise you won’t get a look in.” When introducing a fashion trend, one writer mused, “This style is as popular as ever — at least among that section of the female population which can wear them in comfort…which excludes the heavies and those with ‘piano’ legs” (1960). The tone of such advice columns, however, changed in the 1990s, when society grew more accepting of bodily differences, with headlines such as “Big is beautiful,”(1990) where “big can look better and fashionable.”
But if patriarchal power was asserted through the languaging of advice columns and fashion, so too could it serve to subvert and challenge it. Within a dynamic and modernising Singapore, a popular consciousness of wider society was emerging, and this was reflected through such advice columns. A 1980 article critiqued advertisements that enforced exclusionary ideals on women such as advertising that perpetuated the image of women as sex symbols or inferior, and it further stated the hopes that consumer pressure could prevent such sexism.
Figure 7. “You’ve come a long way, baby - or have you, really?” 3 March 1980 (Taken from: The Straits Times)
As women gained more autonomy in the public sphere, fashion columns similarly moved with the times. They advised professionals on how to groom and dress, such as in the article, “The right outfit might land you that coveted job” (1990). The intentions of the columns expanded from feminine aspirations to empowering individuals to have control over their self-image. For example in a 1994 advice column that wrote about harmonising colours, a certified image consultant Mrs Allistar Rochstad says that knowledge of colours and the correct application of them in one’s dressing “creates the image you want to project – be it power, sophistication, professionalism, etc.”
As such, fashion advice columns were integrated into the everyday realities of Singaporean society, and could be seen as a practice of strategies towards physical ideals. The advice reveals the hegemonic beliefs of the times, the subversions of such beliefs, and the negotiations of identities amidst globalisation.
Conclusion
Fashion advice columns from 1960 to 1994 in Singapore serve as documentation of identity formation on the individual level in parallel to the building of national identity. Singapore constantly reinvented itself, amalgamating local knowledge with the widening geographies of production, trade, and communications. Such cultural changes are embedded within these columns, where features on how to dress and groom serve as significant sites of socio-cultural exchanges of ideas; where we can witness the crosscutting effects of globalisation and localisation in everyday life.
Articles Referenced
[1] So ravishingly pretty (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600717-1.2.34.1?ST=1&AT=search&k=%22So%20ravishingly%20pretty%22&QT=%22soravishinglypretty%22&oref=article
[5] Australia goes East (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600505-1.2.77.1?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=fashion&KA=fashion&DF=01%2F05%2F1960&DT=31%2F05%2F1960&NPT=&L=English&CTA=&SortBy=Oldest&filterS=0&Display=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[6] Budgeting for beauty (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19600812-1.2.96
[7] Fashionably ethnic (1990) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/timeszone19900614-1.2.10
[8] Pants: Now where’s the justice? (1970) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19700308-1.2.43.1?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=fashion&KA=fashion&DF=01/03/1970&DT=31/03/1970&NPT=freepress%7Cstraitstimes&L=English&CTA=Article%7CAdvertisement%7CIllustration%7CLetter%7CMiscellaneous%7CObituary&SortBy=Oldest&filterS=0&Display=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[9] Why I wear the cheongsam (1994) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19940604-1.2.67.6.15?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=fashion&KA=fashion&DF=01/06/1994&DT=30/06/1994&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&filterS=0&Display=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[10] BEFORE YOU SHOP (1992) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19920312-1.2.63.20.14?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01/03/1992&DT=31/03/1992&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&K=Fashion&KA=Fashion&P=2&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[11] Shoppers: Which type are you? (1992) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/newpaper19920619-1.2.37.1?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01/06/1992&DT=30/06/1992&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&K=Fashion&KA=Fashion&P=4&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[12] They dress to look trendy (1992) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/newpaper19920901-1.2.15.4?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=Fashion&KA=Fashion&DF=01%2F09%2F1992&DT=30%2F09%2F1992&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&filterS=0&Display=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[13] YOU MUST BE CHIC AT HOME, TOO (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19600209-1.2.45?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01/01/1960&DT=31/12/1990&NPT=&L=&CTA=&SortBy=Oldest&K=fashion&KA=fashion&P=4&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[14] FOR HIM – PERSONAL PHOTOS AS PRESENTS (1984) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/singmonitor19841211-1.2.31.2?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01%2f12%2f1984&DT=31%2f12%2f1984&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&K=fashion&KA=fashion&P=2&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[15] Woman through the ages (1982) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19820926-1.2.73.1?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01%2f09%2f1982&DT=30%2f09%2f1982&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&K=fashion&KA=fashion&P=2&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[16] Less is more, says make-up expert (1994) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19940303-1.2.60.6.1
[17] It’s definitely the end of fashion for the freaks (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19600229-1.2.43
[18] Arroe toe is still in fashion (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19600301-1.2.97?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01/01/1960&DT=31/12/1960&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article%7CIllustration%7CLetter%7CMiscellaneous%7CObituary&SortBy=Oldest&K=fashion&KA=fashion&P=4&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[19] Big is beautiful (1990) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/timeszone19900614-1.2.8?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01/06/1990&DT=30/06/1990&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&K=Fashion&KA=fashion&P=3&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[20] You’ve come a long way, baby – or have you really? (1980) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19800303-1.2.160.13
[21] The right outfit might land you that coveted job (1990) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19900304-1.2.50.8.8
[22] Show them your true colours (1994) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/newpaper19941215-1.2.77?ST=1&AT=advanced&DF=01%2f12%2f1994&DT=31%2f12%2f1994&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&K=fashion&KA=fashion&P=3&Display=0&filterS=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
References and Further Reading
[1] Beauvoir, S. de. (2015). Volume II. In The Second Sex (pp. 293–351)., Vintage Classic.
[2] Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519–531. https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893
[3] Chong, T. (2010). Manufacturing authenticity: The cultural production of national identities in Singapore. Modern Asian Studies, 45(4), 877–897. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x09000158
[4] Chua, B. H. (2005). Life is not complete without shopping: Consumption culture in Singapore. Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore.
[5] Hack, K. (2010). Singapore from Temasek to the 21st Century: Reinventing the global city. NUS Press.
[6] Kwa, C. G. (2017). Singapore chronicles: Pre-colonial Singapore. Institute of Policy Studies.
[7] Moscove, B. J., & Fletcher, R. G. (2001). The New Century: Lessons learned from Singapore's shopping sector during the 1990's. The Annals of Regional Science, 35(4), 501–522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001680100065
[8] Ong, A., & Peletz, M. G. (1995). Introduction. In Bewitching women, pious men: Gender and body politics in Southeast Asia. introduction, University of California.
[9] Saparudin, K. (n.d.). Malay Women’s And Men’s Magazines Of The 1950s In Singapore & Malaya . Singapore. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/files/pdf/vol-4/issue-4/v4-issue4_WomenMenMagazines.pdf.
[10] Svendsen, L. (2018). Fashion: A philosophy. Reaktion Books.
[11] Yeo, Z. (2017, October 12). The way we were: Fashion through the decades. BiblioAsia. Retrieved September 2, 2022, from https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-13/issue-3/oct-dec-2017/fashionthroughdecades
[1] So ravishingly pretty (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600717-1.2.34.1?ST=1&AT=search&k=%22So%20ravishingly%20pretty%22&QT=%22soravishinglypretty%22&oref=article
[2] They’ve given the sari glamour… (1960)
[3] Shake a leg (1982)
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19820905-1.2.113.6?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=fashion&KA=fashion&DF=01%2F09%2F1982&DT=30%2F09%2F1982&NPT=&L=English&CTA=Article&SortBy=Oldest&filterS=0&Display=0&QT=fashion&oref=article [4] Lovely to look at (1960)
[5] Australia goes East (1960) https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600505-1.2.77.1?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=fashion&KA=fashion&DF=01%2F05%2F1960&DT=31%2F05%2F1960&NPT=&L=English&CTA=&SortBy=Oldest&filterS=0&Display=0&QT=fashion&oref=article
[6] Budgeting for beauty (1960)
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19600812-1.2.96
[7] Fashionably ethnic (1990)
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/timeszone19900614-1.2.10
[8] Pants: Now where’s the justice? (1970)
[9] Why I wear the cheongsam (1994)
[10] Before you shop (1992)
[11] Shoppers: Which type are you? (1992)
[12] They dress to look trendy (1992)
[13] You must be chic at home, too (1960)
[14] For him - personal photos as presents (1984)
[15] Woman through the ages (1982)
[16] It's definitely the end of fashion for the freaks (1960)
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19600229-1.2.43
[17] Arrow toe is still in fashion (1960)
[18] Big is beautiful (1990)
[19] You've come a long way, baby – or have you really? (1980)
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19800303-1.2.160.13
[20] The right outfit might land you that coveted job (1990)
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19900304-1.2.50.8.8
[21] Show them your true colours (1994)
