STOCKTON STREET, 2015
At first glance, it was Joyce Wing’s stylish oversize pink glasses that caught our eyes.
But then we saw a blue floral Mandarin-collar shirt peeking out of her San Francisco fleece jacket. When she pulled off the jacket, we were enamored by the details of her shirt: the modern Mandarin collar, the square hip pockets, the sharp cuffs.
Mrs. Wing, eighty-nine, lived in Boston for a few years. In 1963 she came to San Francisco Chinatown and worked in a Chinese grocery store, then in housekeeping at a hotel.
She also worked as a seamstress and had made the outfit she wore that day. Her look was very classic Hong Kong, which had more Western-style tailoring and fabrics due to the British influence. Many seniors we meet still wear the clothes they had custom made in Hong Kong in the ’60s, though Mrs. Wing’s subtle color combinations and pattern-mixing was something else (plus, she sewed it herself!).
Her calico shirt paired wonderfully with the red square-patterned pants. “I like pockets,” she said. “I made my pants with pockets on the inside.” She showed us: The pockets were made with a thin piece of fabric tucked on the interior, only accessible to her.
Many seniors like to create secret pockets on the inside of their pants or jacket to keep their cash and IDs safe. When I was growing up, my grandma always kept a few twenty dollar bills in her secret pocket, which she would gift to us grandkids on occasion, much to our delight.
After fawning over her outfit, we asked Joyce what was next in her day. In her bag was a whole chicken, which she was going to cook herself. “Nobody helps me, so I have to help myself,” she said about living on her own in Chinatown. She sighed and looked a little sad, but stressed the importance of keeping active: “I have to walk around so my feet can still work good.”
