the search for kua (裙褂)

*back dated entry*

this post is on the search for kua for my wedding.... La belle also provide rental of kua but they only have 2 designs, 1 is peony & 1 is dragon+phoenix... peony is OUT cause mama say is like for "dead" people, again... my whatever expression.... for the dragon+phoenix kua they have, is more of a sequin design, so mama reject cause she only want gold+silver thread embroidery.... as a result, i have to find alternatives from outside store since she somewhat insist me on wearing kua for my actual day... personally i dont mind wearing cause some of the designs are not bad but it isnt a necessity for me.... but mama insist... what to do... so after some internet search, i managed to find afew stores in SG that do rental of kua... there might be more but i only can find a handful....

1. some wedding shop at people's park complex, level 2 (above the market/hawker center)
sorry... didnt managed to catch the name nor the exact address of the place as i just happened to stumble upon this shop when i was searching for cloth in chinatown... the shop mainly sell wedding stuff like tea sets, double happiness stickers, etc.. but they do have rental of kua but only 1 design...

the kua on display

 personally i thought this kua looks pretty nice... but apparently mama bet to differ cause she say the designs are sew on, not embroidery... at first i didnt understand what she meant but when i saw the actual embroidery kua then i realised the differences... but seriously, i think both will look equally nice on pictures lo... anyway the rental for this kua is $100 for 3D2N, deposit $500


2. Gemini Body shop @ 57 pagoda street
this store is on the right side of the street when you came out of the chinatown station... again, the shop focus more on wedding stuff than the kua... similar to the shop at people's park complex, they only have 1 kua but i think that 1 is really embroidery...

photo taken from http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/39662-chinese-wedding-dress-kua/

photo taken from http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/39662-chinese-wedding-dress-kua/

i didnt manage to take picture of the shop so i just kope them from this site... the rental for this kua is $250 for 3D2N, deposit is about $300... personally i feel the sew-on design kua look nicer....


3. House of Etiquette @ 16 Jalan Masjid, #01-01
this store really focus on kua & some wedding/evening gowns.... even mama say they have a wide selection of kua, at least in SG...  the store has 3 categories of kua, the simplest = princess, not so much of embroidery but still look pretty nice.... middle = queen, much more embroidery.... super gao = king, full of embroidery till you will look like a gold/silver bar....they also do sell some wedding goodies but comparatively lesser to other stores

the princess style, photo taken from original site

queen style, of cause ignoring the headdress... photo taken from original site

king style, really look like a gold/silver bar right??? photo taken from original site

the staff there was really nice & patient, we spent like almost 2hr there trying out the different kuas..... the staff first took my measurements, i predicted it to be L since that was the size i tried in La belle but surprisingly my size was actually M... & even more surprising is that M is actually not a common size... apparently most girls who rented their kuas belong to size S and L...so the staff only managed to find 1 piece of princess & 2 pieces of queen style for me to try...

princess style

queen style 1

queen style 2

actually we are not supposed to take picture unless we are renting the kua but the staff was very nice to excuse us =P.... of cause if you compare the designs, i would say queen style will be nicer, look more formal since it has much more details but seriously the rental price is too expensive!!!! princess style = $268, queen = $568, king = $868.... i was like OMFG when i heard the price.... like seriously, do you have to spend so much $ just for a dress that you wear for afew hours???? but well... they do have wide selection of kuas IF you are not M size...

4. Little white wedding shop by Golden happiness @ Katong Shopping Centre, 865 Mountbatten Road #01-45
this store has ALOT of people, i was really surprise since most of the wedding shops i went are pretty empty.... as usual they focus on wedding goodies... they do have afew designs of kua but for the embroidery kind, they only have 1 design & sadly... the workmanship wasnt that good which also correspond to the much cheaper rental fee...

the shop

some of the wedding goodies

the embroidery kua

kua selection

 for them, the kua rental was pretty cheap, since we dont intend to rent from them, we didnt ask for the exact price but from the poster at the entrance... the rate is at $68-268


5. I wedding @ People's park complex, level 1 
mama happened to come across this store, really very ulu, deep inside the people's park complex, at the far end, closer to the outram park mrt side rather than chinatown mrt..... again... focus on wedding goodies & only 1 design of kua.... didnt manage to take any picture but the condition of the dress looked really worn out.... & the rental is like $580!!! like WTH..... if you compared to like house of etiquette, that kua is only in the princess to queen range & yet they charge so much for such a dirty dress....

the shop... sorry ar... signboard reflection too strong

goodies sold at the store

after looking at a couple of stores in SG, i would say house of etiquette is definitely THE store for rental of kua but sadly the price is out of my budget.... so after this incident.... mama is actually spark the idea of going back to HK to rent the kua since most of the kua came from HK/china.... & which is why I am flying back to HK tmr (6th May)... haha... really sudden.... super last min decision... leave SG in 1 wk from the day i bought the ticket.. cause cathay is actually have promotion, so my ticket only cost $286.2 including tax!!! like OMG cheap!!!! let see if i managed to find any good stuff in HK =)