Mallscapes: Made In China

Seeing that KLue's theme this issue is indulgence, I thought I'd do just that by bringing a little more of myself into my final article for Mallscapes.

After relocating to Shanghai for three months, I think it’s only fair to end my contributions to this little column. While truth be told I could possibly spew minute observations involving mantou (Chinese buns) skins and peach fuzz for another year, it would hardly be relevant to the wonderful mall trawlers of the Klang Valley.

But I digress.

In August last year, I wrote about the attempt to cure potential homesickness with the familiarity of malls. In a bid to come full circle, this month we will get to see the little things we take for granted in Klang Valley's malls becoming an indulgence for me.

While Shanghai is a progressive and fast paced city, there are many aspects of consumer life that needs fine tuning, sheer volume and rock bottom prices often won't do. Progressiveness offers the shopper potentially of great levels of shopping in the future, but what about now? I think the promise of great shopping in five years won't do the serial window shopper any good.

So let me count the staples of Klang Valley shopping that have become a sheer indulgence for me.

Firstly, carefully curated stock in Klang Valley's little boutiques. While I know the fun in shopping is the hunting, Shanghai can often make you do a lot of hunting and very little shopping. It’s possible to have walked two shopping districts in a day to find nothing you really want to buy. And when you do, the prices are phenomenal, or they’re mere designer knock-offs. It really makes you appreciate the hard work boutique owners in the Valley put into scouring the hellish wholesale markets of the region to find great things to stock their stores with.

Secondly, cheap and decent looking flats, as in the shoes, have become almost like a luxury item for me. After scouring the equivalent of two Sungei Wang Plaza worth of boutiques, I have barely been able to find a decent pair of  cheap flats. It baffles me how this city where everyone walks for miles sell so few flats. A Shanghainese friend who used to study in Malaysia was tempted to bring back a dozen pairs of Vincci flats on a recent trip to KL. Suddenly, Vincci stores are to us what H&M stores must be to New Yorkers.

Thirdly, interesting clothes that are not grade A designer knock-offs. In Klang Valley, we still have hope that the great cutting on that el cheapo dress came from a student designer in Bangkok and not a grade A knock-off factory. In these parts? Tough luck.

Finally, plain tank tops and T-shirts. On some days, living in the increasingly trend driven neighbourhood of Xujiahui leaves me feeling like I've stumbled into a poor version of a Gackt music video. It isn't so much that the youth here think only of dressing up like their counterparts in Shibuya, Japan, and Apgujong, Korea but there really aren't many alternatives.

Most clothes sold to anyone below 60, and sometimes even above, contain a staggering amount of embellishments. There has to be more lace, rhinestones, glitter and sequins in these shops here than the factories that make them. A plain T-shirt or tank top in these parts can be a bit of a luxury. And I used to wonder why Uniqlo is such a hit in these parts just for putting out the plainest clothes in 10 colours and not so cheap prices. Now I'm hounding Uniqlo outlets twice a week.

So it seems that in months past, what constitutes indulgences for me have evolved to be nothing more than plain T-shirts and cheap flats. So that makes me wonder, what really is indulgence?

Text Kathia Sya