I wore: Blazer by Witchery; T-Shirt by Stussy, from Parliament; Singlet Dress by allabouteve, from Parliament; Shoes by Diavolina from David Jones; necklace, thrifted.

Sometimes a piece of clothing can kind of touch you, or maybe revive a dormant memory – yes, I’m serious. For me recently it was this Stussy T-shirt, with its cityscape silhouette and quote from the song ‘Under the bridge’:

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner, sometimes I feel like my only friend, is the city I live in, the city of angels, lonely as I am, together we cry.

It made me ponder my relationship with the city I was born in, Shenyang, in northeast China. I honestly loved it there as a kid (despite the communism). The city was always alive and there were so many places to go and things to see. From street markets to 10 lane roads, apartment blocks to skyscrapers, there was so much diversity of shapes and sizes, sounds and smells. I can always remember the route I took to school, streets my friends lived in, and the time I fell into a snow covered open well (ah the perils of an enormous city where certain manholes are simply forgotten about)! I identified with the city, and every thing I knew about myself had something to do with a particular location there.

Then when my family migrated to Australia, I lived in small town after small town, hating it, until finally my family settled in Perth, which, with its some 1.5 million people, is hardly what most people would associate with a capital city. I couldn’t wait to get out of there! So after graduating from uni, it was straight to Japan. But unfortunately I was placed in another tiny town called Aioi, where my apartment literally faced off with a mountain range at the back. On a visit to Tokyo that year, I found myself overwhelmed by the number of people and the congested traffic. It was then that I realized, while I had continued to think of myself as a city girl, I had unwittingly become a country girl at heart, and a lover of the peace and quiet. It’s funny how life takes you to places you never expected to go. Now I’m working in Canberra, yet another small town. I wonder if I’ll ever get back to the city, and if I do, if I will be able to survive there.

So after reminiscing, I realize they actually didn’t have this shirt in my size!! So I actually hunted it down at another Parliament shop. The sales assistance probably thought I was such a weirdo, trying so hard to get a hold of this rather generic looking T-shirt.