Baju baru semangat baru

Starting last quarter I have been attending many meetings at government offices. I usually wore dark pants and cotton work shirts as most of the offices were quite far from the parking spaces provided for visitors.

Sometimes I wore skirts, especially offices where I knew there were some Pak Haji there who won't look at women in pants. (Pants saya adalah made of stretchable material, maka memang nampak agak ketat).

After a while, somehow I felt out of place when I sat down in their huge board room especially on Thursdays and Fridays where everybody would look in their best batiks or baju raya/baju tunang/ baju bertandang. (It's so obvious ok. Sometimes ada aweks yang pakai kebaya with laces and labuci-labuci).

I have been doing some window shopping in the Subang - Shah Alam shopping malls searching for nice looking baju kurung/kebaya. I managed to find 3 pairs of cheap baju kurung from PKNS during Ramadhan (dan secara automatic telah menjadi baju raya). However, I just couldn't affor the nice batik sold at SACC mall. Sepasang can cost you RM2,200 kau! Terjojol bijik mata aku tengok price baju kat satu kedai next to Thomas & Guys tu. They all look really elegant, some even resembles the baju kurung that Kak Ros usually wore to officiate events. (Note: Kak Ros and Big Hair adalah orang yang sama).

One day my friend, Yen from Kelate recommended a friend on FB. I didn't know who she was so I messaged Yen. She told me the girl is a tokey batik and she has some really nice collections of baju kurung, kebaya, jubah and caftan. So, I added her on FB and browse her photo album. Here's her website. Not many pieces are featured in the blog, more pictures can be found on her FB album.
I ordered this baju kurung below:

I liked the batik design immediately. I've seen enough of batik bunga-bunga and daun-daun in those government offices, so this geometrical design really caught my eyes. I booked and then paid for this piece. The parcel arrived two days after I made the online payment.

I told her to post it to my office address as sometimes there's nobody at home during day time. So when the parcel arrived, the receptionist received it. She called me to pick it up during lunch break and she asked me to open it in front of her. Since I was over excited, I ripped the package open and both of us were so impressed with the baju. It's crepe, so it's soft, quite thick and when you wear it, it fell nicely complementing your figure. I loved it immediately. In fact I wore it to office two days later. Hehehehe... First, I thought I was going to wear it for Raya Haji, tapi sebab excited tak hingat, terus pakai pegi office.

I wore it on 20102010, to mark the special date. It really is a beautiful batik piece as I was getting compliments from so many people that day (the picture above actually doesn't do the baju justice sebenarnya). I wore it to Subang Parade and actually jalan betul-betul depan satu kedai baju (which happens to sell baju of the same material - but almost double the price). I noticed a few shoppers were really staring at my baju (or saja-saja staring at me, tak taulah kan...) I caught a thirty something lady who turned to admire my baju a few times while queuing for coffee.

Oh, BTW this baju can be handwashed. No need to dry clean (like my last pair of silk batik which I bought 8 years ago). I am so happy and satisfied that I'm going to buy more. Hooray! Boleh chelen makcik-makcik gomen punya batik dah in the next meeting.

So, if you're interested in baju batik, click the link above and have fun! Selamat rambang mata.