I know what many people think of when Tangs is mentioned – 'mom's shopping centre'. Now, now, don't be too quick to judge. Tangs have been around for a long time indeed, and as time progresses, so have they. Unbeknownst to most of the younger generation, Tangs have updated their collection and store approach, and they have brought in a lot of the latest fashion brands around.

Starting from their stores, for instance, the themes of each outlet are very interesting and modern. For Tangs in Empire Mall, Subang – it replicates a walk-in-closet with chic shelves and bedroom decor, ensconced in a dark mahogany interior with chic, discreet lighting.

As for Tangs in One Utama – where we gathered at – it has an old-school, kitschy feel. One would immediately notice the chilli red scooter placed at the entrance, which my boyfriend immediately hopped onto. The decor inside has a mix of wooden floors and walls, colorful patterned floor tiles and very interesting wall adornments; from avant garde rhino heads to typewriters and dial-up phones.






Gathering in Tangs One Utama for the Fashion Social bloggers event, the organizers walked us through some brief introductions on the company. Did you know that Tangs is already 80 years old? Founded by Tang Choon Keng in 1934, Singapore – they have branched out to Malaysia with a total of 5 stores (2 in Singapore, 3 in Malaysia). It seems like the fourth store in Malaysia will be opening in Malacca by the end of 2014. Are you excited yet, fellow Malaccans?




One of the key points in the presentation was also a focus on fashion bloggers – and how they have come to influence the world of fashion as we know it. Top fashion bloggers like Bryan Boy and The Sartorialist are a great example of the new change and shift in the fashion world where people are not only depending on magazines or print to sell us fashion. In fact, fashion bloggers do it better as they have an amazing talent for influence (not to mention, a massive following).




That was followed by a brief tour around Tangs One Utama, and introductions to a few new brands that they have. Some of the younger fashion brands available are Super Dry (Japanese fashion brand), Portrait, Closet, Headline Seoul (Korean fashion brand) and even homegrown Malaysian brand, Pestle & Mortar – just to name a few. They even carry the infamous Spanx (made famous by Beyonce) in the lingerie department, next to Wacoal. So you sort of have all the best few brands in Asia and also some from the West, curated and available exclusively in Tangs. If you like unique fashion options, this is the place to go. How's that for a game changer?






Now, the agenda of the day was to channel our inner 'fashion blogger' (or stylist, if you may) by picking out a look for our models, in my case, my boyfriend.

The organizers have chosen this modern-cut, spotted, navy blue button up shirt from Closet for him, and the rest is up to me to decide. It's pretty exciting to have a life-size man-doll to play dress-up with. *grins* And the catch, we only have 20 minutes to dress our models.

We scoured Tangs for matching clothes that would complete his look. Everything from shoes, to jackets, belts and even bow-ties came into consideration. We were mostly going between Closet and Portrait as these two stores carry the most variety of men's clothing. Everything from jackets to vests, bow-ties and a wide selection of shirts are accessible for guys – who just wants to look like a new era society man.




Together, we picked out the proper color combinations for the look,  and made a few different selections for his jacket – till we decided on this wonderful powder blue piece from Portrait. His pants selection was tricky, because it was the sales period in Tangs, and many of the bigger sizes were gone. We have to dismiss some of the earlier choices for his pants, as they do not have the proper size but we found one at last, hidden in the corner of Closet.

The dressing room was pure mayhem, with bloggers dashing in and out (some modeling themselves, and some like me, screaming at our models to hurry up). We had a situation with the pants size, and I had to dash one floor-up to get a slightly bigger size. That minor hiccup aside, an Obey cap we picked out to match with his shirt, looked real bad on him.. so we had to omit that. However, the end result was pretty great. :)





And now, for the before and after...



Not bad, no? I was pretty pleased with the end result. He looked dapper without trying too hard, with a nice touch of hipster-ness but not overly done. I am thankful for my four years experience of styling models for photoshoots that I art direct myself. The years of hard work paid off! :)







This proves that if my day time job fails and even if my blogging fails, I can always be a fashion stylist. Also, if you think my styling is pretty neat, please like it on my Facebook page! :) May you be rewarded with happy people and smiley faces wherever you go for clicking 'like'.

That concludes the Fashion Social event, which ended with some complimentary Tangs cash vouchers for us bloggers (and some Starbucks ones too, which we treated ourselves to, right after.) Which came just in time, because I saw a bag I liked and, it was on a 50% discount. I just had to buy it, my inner shopaholic will not let me walk out of the shop without this bag.




It's a bag made out of recycled material (yay for eco-friendly products) that are cut into circular shapes and sewn together to create this Blossom bag. Remember what I said about Tangs catering to unique fashion tastes? There you have it. The proof is in the blossoms.


www.tangs.com.my