Photography & art / November 2012 (Issue 19)


Baijaibei (100 good wishes quilt)

by Marie Yip Wai Shan

I had the idea of photographing the outfits of elderly Hong Kong women a long time ago. One day, as I crossed the road, my attention was drawn to the old lady walking in front of me. The nostalgic floral patterns of her outfit just blew me away. I thought, "Well, it could look good on me or even a young model on the runway!" From then on, I've been obsessed with trying to capture the patterns worn by Hong Kong's elderly women.

This collage of what I affectionately call "granny fashion" is inspired by the concept of the traditional Chinese baijaibei (100 good wishes quilt), which is a quilt made of fragments of garments collected from 100 neighbours, representing 100 good wishes to a new-born baby. This quilt is often sewn up by the infant's grandmother as a gift to the baby on its 100-day birthday. The baijaibei I have "sewn" gathers scraps of garments and accessories (like a straw hat and a handbag) from elderly women in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom (my own neighbourhood). I've also included the original snapshots, so you can see the grannies strutting their stuff in their full majesty!

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