Clothes, simply put, tell the world who the wearer is, including (and for many in the novel, most importantly) how wealthy they are. As such, clothing and accessories are their own sort of language, one that denotes a person’s economic standing, family ties, history, and, ultimately, whether or not they have taste. For instance, Eleanor and her Bible study friends regularly scorn well-off Asian people who line up outside of luxury brand boutiques like Gucci, Chanel, and Dior. Wearing this level of designer clothing, the women quip, certainly shows the wearers have money, but per the women, the wearers have no taste, since the brands are considered pedestrian. Alternatively, people like Astrid are fashion icons because they wear custom-made couture garments from next season’s collection and make bold fashion choices, such as pairing those custom and wildly expensive pieces with vintage garments. Each couture piece can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, highlighting how rich Astrid is, while her love of vintage pieces causes others to remark on her “timeless” and “effortless” style. The clothes truly make the woman in the ultrawealthy circle Rachel finds herself trying to navigate.
For her part, Rachel has no idea how to either speak or understand this language. She packs what she thinks are perfectly acceptable vacation pieces: linen shift dresses, denim skirts, some slacks, sandals, and her nice pearl earrings. However, her clothing choices become fodder for other women to mock her behind her back—especially as, thanks to others’ generosity, she begins acquiring and wearing more designer garments. For instance, when she shows up to Colin and Araminta’s wedding reception in an expensive designer dress that Peik Lin bought for her as a gift, women gossip that she must already be working to drain Nick’s bank account. The fact that Rachel arrives in Singapore wearing clothing from American department stores overshadows every other clothing choice Rachel makes: others see her department store dresses as evidence that she has no money, taste, or experience with wealth, and suddenly showing up in a designer dress isn’t enough to make up for any of her supposed faults.
Clothes Quotes in Crazy Rich Asians
He rented a cozy alcove studio on Morton Street that didn’t seem to contain anything of value aside from his laptop, bike, and stacks of books. He dressed distinctively but casually, and Rachel (having no reference for British bespoke menswear) never realized just how much those rumpled blazers with the Huntsman or Anderson & Sheppard labels cost.
“Did you see what she was wearing? Where did she get that cheap-looking tunic top—Mango?”
“How can you expect her to have any style? Think she gets it from reading American Vogue? Hahaha.”
“Actually, Francesca says that she’s not even ABC—she was born in Mainland China.”
“I knew it! She’s got that same desperate look all my servants have.”
“Well here’s a chance for her to get some decent clothes at last!”
“Just you watch, with all that Young money she’s going to upgrade pretty damn quick.”
“We’ll see—all the money in the world can’t buy taste if you weren’t born with it.”
She walked down the aisle on her father’s arm in a classically inspired wedding dress designed by Valentino, whom she lured out of retirement to make precisely the sort of gown that generations of European princesses had gotten married in, the sort of gown that would make her look every inch the proper young wife from a very traditional, old-money Asian family.
“The monochromatic fashion statement I was planning for the whole family is RUINED because of him!”
“And you’ve just ruined the whole trip for me!” Fiona suddenly blurted out. “I’m so sick of all this. Why is it so damn important for us to look picture-perfect every time we walk out the door? Who exactly are you trying to impress? The photographers? The readers of Hong Kong Tattle? You really care so much about them that you’d rather hit your own son over an accident that you caused in the first place by screaming at him for wearing the wrong cummerbund?”
Clothes Symbol Timeline in Crazy Rich Asians
