The adventures of the famous Yellow Skirt in Singapore

Once upon a time…

In 2012, Melanie from Bagandaberet, did a post about an outrageously-yellow skirt.

After that, the idea was born to let the Yellow Skirt travel around the world, from blogger to blogger. And it’s been on the road ever since.

You can read all about the Yellow Skirt here. The places she’s been, the things she’s done!!!

Although Melanie and I never met ‘in the flesh’, I adore and admire her and her blog. She is quirky, funny, extremely artistic and creative, AND unique and extravagant in style and fashion. Oh, and last but not least: she’s nice. What’s not to love!

Needless to say that I was pretty stoked when I got the chance to be part of the travels of the skirt. I am blogger no. 33 who gets to be creative with the Yellow Skirt!

Last week it arrived here and I’m excited to show you the adventures of the famous Yellow Skirt in Singapore.

So many ideas for the skirt

When I heard the skirt was making it’s way to me (from the Uk, thanks Anna -from Anna’s Island Style-, also for the sweet card!) the ideas tumbled through my mind.

What about posing as Superwoman, with the Yellow Skirt as my cape? Or as the We Can Do It! woman, with the Yellow Skirt as backdrop behind her famous pose? I could turn myself into Brigitte Bardot, wear an off-shoulder top and have a picnic on the skirt as a cloth. And… Or…. What about….

Enough!!! Choose. Focus.

Frida Kahlo and the Yellow Skirt at Haw Par Villa

As soon as I focussed, it immediately became clear to me: Frida Kahlo!

I’m fascinated by eccentrics. By birds of paradise. They’re interesting, different, colorful. They brighten my day, fuel my curiosity and inspire me over and over.

Frida Kahlo intrigued me since the day I first learned about her. As a person, as a style icon and as an artist. If you do not know of her or want to learn more about her, check out this link.

Frida as I sketched her a couple of years ago:

Readers of my blog know that I am also fascinated by Singapore’s most unusual -and under- appreciated- theme-park: Haw Par Villa or Tiger Balm Garden.

I wrote several times about this delightfully weird and colorful place and took hundreds of fantastic pictures there. Click this link and be ready to be wowed by this unique place.

I’m sure that Frida would have loved Haw Par Villa! It’s folk art, it’s culture, it’s an explosion of color. A place filled with symbolism, stories, love, war and drama. Totally Frida’s cup of tea.

Frida would also have loved the Yellow Skirt. She always wore ankle-long skirts, to cover up her shorter, deformed leg (due to polio, an accident, and in the end: amputation).

What a great idea: Frida, the Skirt and Haw Par Villa!

But first: my contribution to the Yellow Skirt

The concept is that every woman who receives the skirt, adds something to the skirt, then does a photoshoot and makes a blogpost about it.

The additions vary enormously; from small to big, from drawings to stitchings etc. Very cool to see everyone’s creativity!

Once I started, a mini-story popped up. About my two worlds: the Netherlands and Singapore. I sketched and knitted and glued and glittered….

Time flew by…

To be honest, I got completely carried away, because once I finished I was embarrassed when I saw how much space I had used.

Oops….

Luckily the skirt is full circle, so there is a lot of fabric left. Phjew…

Still… Mea culpa, peeps, mea culpa.

Getting ready to take Frida and the Yellow Skirt to Haw Par Villa

Preparing tops, accessories, make-up (how-to-make-a-unibrow-a-la-Frida). I even tried on a light moustache like Frida had, but hey…enough is enough…

I say: one unibrow is already more facial hair than many a woman can handle.

Did you know that Frida meticulously combed her unibrow and moustache with a teeny tiny comb every day?! She was eccentric like that.

After Frida met ‘her’ Diego, she decided to wear only traditional, ethnic clothes from then on. Did I mention she was eccentric ?;-)

So I chose tops and accessories with an ethnic vibe. What do you think? Mission accomplished?

The yellow skull top reminds me of Day of the Dead symbols. Very Mexican, like Frida.

Ofcourse I applied matching nail polish!

Two cameras, charged batteries, bottled water (because hot, hot, hot), insect repellant (because Dengue and Zika), sunscreen, mirror….the whole shabam… a huge, heavy, blue Ikea-bag filled with clothes and gear.

Sylvia, from 40plusstyle, kindly offered to be my photographer for the occasion.

And then, minutes before we were supposed to leave our homes, the sky turned almost black. Oh-oh….it looked like it was gonna rain! And when it rains here, it usually POURS.

We decided to take our chances and go anyway.

We had a few drops here and there, but overall we kept it dry. The threat of a tropical thunderstorm though, made us rush through the shoot.

There was no sun, but maybe that was a good thing, since that made it a tiny bit less hot.

The adventures of Frida and the Skirt at Haw Par Villa

Act 1: Frida works out with two Sumo wrestlers

Frida Kahlo was a fragile, small-ish woman, while her on-and-off husband Diego Rivera was nothing less than an overweight giant. His belly was huge and round and strangely enough Frida loved all about it.

So I’m pretty sure that she’d taken a fancy in these Sumo wrestlers.

Haw Par Villa, or Tiger Balm Garden, as it is also called, was created by the inventors and makers of the famous Tiger Balm, hence the packages of Tiger Balm on the trunk in-between the wrestlers in the picture above.

Look at the face of that seal (???? what is a seal doing there???) behind the wrestler. It’s hilarious, isn’t it?!….hahaha…

Act 2: Frida crosses that bridge…

This bridge runs between two Chinese pavilions, over a pond that has a lot of turtles in it.

Act 3: Frida makes new friends on monkey-hill

Did you know that Frida had a pet-monkey? She did. In fact she had two. She also had a pet-fawn and many other unusual pets. Yep, eccentric, told ya.

Haw Par Villa has monkeys in several places, like this hill, completely filled with monkeys. Really a place for Frida! She probably would try to adopt/lure at least one of the monkeys, don’t you think?

Act 4: Frida goes vintage

In Frida’s days, -the first half of the 20th century- photography was not as common and omni-present as it is today. Luckily there are quite some pictures of Frida. Most of them are in black-and-white.

And of course we have her self-portrait paintings. She really was the Queen of painted Selfies.

I edited these pics for a vintage feel, to relate to Frida’s pictures.

Act 5: Frida stays over at the house of Mrs Rat and Mr Pig

It’s said that what we see here is in fact a lustful pig sexually harassing a female rat. Not a pretty picture.

Instead, I choose to see this scene as that of a loving couple, letting Frida join in as if she were a house guest.

Here she sits, just chilling, in a cosy green room in the house of Mrs Rat and Mr Pig.

Auntie Rat, as Frida sometimes calls her, is such a sweetheart. “Take some mandarines for the road, dear.” “Thanks, Auntie Rat, but you keep them. You already spoiled me too much!”

Mr Pig lovingly pinches his wife’s cheek, while Frida says her goodbye and farewell with a kiss.

They are sweethearts, but why does Mrs Rat wear half a croissant on her head, and why is her hubby a. in his underwear (well, we know the answer to THAT question, don’t we?!) and b. wears a wastebasket on his head???

Questions, questions, dear friends….

Act 6: Frida and the (too) intense diorama

People are drowning. Others run after each other with big cleavers.

“Oh dear, so much violence and drama going on here…I think I better look the other way…”

It sure was an exciting afternoon for Frida and the Yellow Skirt.

Time for a change of scenery.

The Yellow Skirt goes glam

As you may know, Singapore has a very glamourous and modern side to it. It seems only fair to the Yellow Skirt, and to you, to let the skirt shine in Singapore’s newest, most fairy-tale pretty gardens.

I wrote multiple posts about Gardens by the Bay. Click here to read more and see beautiful pictures of these spectacular gardens.

Which style icon could be more suitable for wearing the Yellow Skirt in such an environment than Iris Apfel?! Another bird of paradise that I admire enormously.

Now I don’t have short grey hair, like Iris does, but I did find me a pair of oversized glasses that are Iris-worthy. Ok, almost. Hers are bigger.

Sequins…check. Colorful faux fur…check. I hope that’s ‘Iris-y’ enough for y’all.

The gardens are pretty by night, with cute little lights and all. But once there, the circumstances turned out to be too difficult for photography, light-wise. So we could only shoot at a spot that was lit up by a big lantern.

Behind me is Singapore’s most iconic building: Marina Bay Sands. It’s a hotel and on top is an amazing infinity pool.

The building that is coming out of my head (in the picture below), the one with the curved line, is The Sail, where we lived for four years.

Singapore has it’s equivalent of London’s Eye: the Singapore Flyer. Ofcourse;-) it’s higher than the London Eye.

And yes, the glasses came with that yellow bow attached.

Well, that’s it, folks.

It was my pleasure to show you and the yellow skirt around in my Singapore. Looking forward to follow it’s future travels and adventures around the world.