I had bought two pairs of pants recently from Sant Rolane, at Lucky Plaza, a company selling clothes of diverse sizes from xxS to xxxxxxxL! Alteration is free of charge, and by the time we get the altered clothes, it makes us feel as if they have been made to measure! I had bought a few blouses from them, and found the material to be good and pricing quite reasonable. Moreover, Vicky, the sales supervisor, is efficient and amiable. Sant Rolane, which originates from Hong Kong has a total of ten branches in Singapore. Sant Rolane has different pricing for different sizes.
Hence, it pays not to put on weight for the smaller the clothes, the cheaper they cost as less material is used! A sensibly unique but definitely fair system of operation!
Most of the pants which I had worn in the past had rubber bands and hence, it would be the second time that I bought pants with zippers! (The first time I had bought a pair of old jeans for twenty five Canadian cents at a garage sale when I was a student in Canada). To my surprise, I realised that though my pants were comfortable at first, they kept dropping due to the stretching of the rubberised materials. Fortunately I was wearing a blouse that had reasonable length, but it was quite awkward when I had to pull my pants up now and then!
Hence, I decided I should buy a belt to hold the pants in place. I was surprised that the belt did not have holes and all I had to do was to push through a buckle and voila! the belt held the pants very well. I was very happy and felt excited by the novelty of wearing an imitation leather belt for the first time in my life. ( An animal lover, I would not buy things obtained from animals and reptiles.) I felt like phoning my eldest sister Lee Lee, to tell her about my new belt and my first experience of wearing it.
However, when I wanted to remove the belt I found that I could not move the belt out of the buckle.! It was fortunate that I did not have a full bladder, or I would have to snip the belt with a pair of scissors. I decided to go back to the store where
I had purchased the belt, to ask for instructions on how to remove the belt from the buckle. Luckily the store still had stocks of the same belt I had bought. I took a belt and asked the assistant to show me how to buckle and unbuckle.!
When I went home, I tried again, and still could not get the belt out of the buckle. A closer observation revealed that the one of the metals had actually cut into the leather. I decided to use a fork to push the catchment and finally I managed to get the belt out of the buckle! Phew! It had taken me 20 seconds to put on the belt, but almost 30 minutes to remove it! I was glad that I did not give up by snipping the belt with a pair of scissors, for although it costs only S$6.00, I dislike wastage of any kind. Despite all the hurricane of effort and attempt, the belt was still in one piece and I could use it again.!
I had learnt my lesson and must always ensure that I know how to handle a belt with "modern gadgets" before using it. Sometimes we think we know, because some things are familiar enough, yet when it comes to the crunch, we realise a little too late, that we have been overly presumptuous and confident.!
Gan Cao
