Saturday, December 07, 2013

A pair of black/white shoes

During summer I bought Aelig a pair of white shoes. She chose it, I guided her to look at many other pairs, but she came back to this one.

Then came the raining season. Each time we went out, I warned her that the wet floor might dirty her shoes. Once, she wore her black shoes, but brought along the white one to her friend's house. Anyway, the shoes became muddy and dirty.

One weekend we went to pick her up from my in laws, we discovered that my MIL has painted the shoes black. I know she did it with good intention, but it just didn't look right. One week later, the black paint was gone, the shoes become ...ugly. But what do I know? When my MIL saw it, she was impressed as she thought they look great!


Nevermind, there are Aelig's shoes, so how does she feel? We told her they look ugly, hubby asked me how could I let her wear the shoes to school. Why won't I? My daughter still loves them, she says they are ugly but she likes them, she has no problem wearing them around. Anyway, I have decided that she has an image to keep at school, so she can only wear them to the sitter's place on Wednesday and during weekend.

This makes me realize how different we are in our judgment on what is beautiful and what is ugly. Also how we perceive certain colors. When Aelig wore her black shoes to Malaysia (a gift from my MIL), my mother was surprised. In Malaysia kids are associated with joy and sunshine, so we like to wear them with colorful clothes. I told my MIL about it, she said that when she went to the shoes stores for kids, black and passive colors were in the majority. True, we were hunting for some clothes for Aelig in Kiabi, we left after five minutes, it was full with black clothes / skirts with a fashion that we don't adhered. We had to go to different stores in Lorient for something more colorful.


The fashion this year in Kiabi Atlantis outlet. We just don't like it.

Black and white are the base color in the Brittany area. It is used in their flag, and in the past women used to wear in black and white. However in my culture, black and white are usually associated with mourning. When Aelig's school had their inauguration ceremony for their new building, they requested students to wear in black and white. I admit I was uncomfortable to see a sea of students in black and white, as if they were mourning for their school instead of celebrating.

I love Brittany butter cookies. The one sold in this box tasted yummy. I thought of bringing them as gifts to friends and family in Malaysia, but I hesitated for the color on the box. Surely Malaysians have been modernized with all the Western influences, for example you will see women wearing black gowns during wedding dinners. However, there remain certain people stick to the tradition, I certainly wouldn't to offend someone with a black and white cookies box.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:55 PM

    I am also a fan of Brittany butter cookies, mostly for the great metal boxes that can be reused for everything! I also reuse "moon cakes" (月饼) boxes ;-)

    The shoes thing is totally one of the weird ideas my in-laws could have...!

    ReplyDelete
  2. To be honest, I am not a fan of bright coloured shoes or clothings. My daughter loves pink but sometimes, I feel overwhelmed by it. Some days, I even prefered my kid to wear darker shade than bright colours, afterall, after many days of pinks, wearing blue, black and white is a relief.

    By the way, my daughter have a dress similar as the one shown. She likes it, calling it one of the special dresses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lissa, there is nothing wrong with black and white, just preference. And my preference comes with my culture background.

      Delete