Recently back from France after a five year French language government scholarship, Lins, as he is fondly known among his friends, is currently lecturing French at a local institution. emmagem.com caught up with him to see how this francophile is coping with his transition into his Malaysian-ism.

Lins, an old friend  was emmagem’s French “correspondent’ for  a brief while . A multi talented man, he is also a self taught artist who was prolific in the late 1990′s and early 2000s, albeit part-time.  His main theme then was Chinese tradition which saw him doing collages from incense paper  amongst others and his very popular series was the chinese blue and white rice bowl in acryllic. This gentleman is also quite the culinary expert, cooking up a storm for friends at his then studio whenever possible, a place which he had to give up when he went abroad.

Anyway, we caught up at Marmalade cafe at Bangsar Village II and I am glad to say he hasn’t changed much. He is in the midst of adjusting back to a new life in big city Kuala Lumpur, which is quite different from small town Raub, to Le Poitier and now Bangsar. The thing he says that bothers him the most is the way people think  which he has had to unlearn the French way and relearn the Malaysian way, just as he had to do the opposite when he first landed on Le Poitier, where he studied.

He extols the fact that the French, like most Europeans to have  very strong views about the fundamental human rights, for instance, in education. Which is why, they do not have convocations to celebrate graduates because they see the celebration as rejoicing only the selective few whence it should have been everyone’s right. Incidentally , the French have the highest number of holidays in the world. Their work hours are also among if not actually the shortest in the world, I read somewhere. The French are also less of a conformist in the way they think and therefore their acceptance of differences and  ideas are less constrained.

However, though liberal,  the French are fundamentally a socialist country. Which means that as much as every woman in the world adores a Louis Vuitton on her arm, there are many in France itself who abhors the LVMH group for its capitalism and the fact that all ”The Made in France” bags are produced by workers only earning basic wages and enriching one man, Bernard Arnault…

As usual, we always get talking about fashion brands and this man knows his brands and he considers himself quite a bargain hunter.  Lins has quite a  collection of french designer goods amassed over the last five years especially his  LV’s and Lancel. The reason he collected them was because he found out that they were almost RM400-RM500 cheaper a piece compared to Malaysia, so he started buying stuffs for his wife and soon got hook himself. He says buying LV in France is really easy  because he can order anything online and it will arrive at his doorstep 2 days later all wrapped up. He opined that one should always buy LV at least once,  at the flagship Champs Elysee boutique for a one of a kind experience, well, but of course.

Lins’  philosophy in life  is “carpe diem” , seize the day , live in the moment” but his fashion philosophy is  buy wisely. Here is a man who would visualise all his pieces and match them in his head before putting his money down on any piece. So there are only maybe one or two odd pieces in his collection that just doesn’t go with anything else… he hardly ever purchases on impulse. Ladies , yes, we can learn a thing or two from this man’ s discipline in shopping. I mean, I visualise too , but usually of how the coveted piece would look on me and whether is there anything else I need to buy to complete the look… dang it, that’s where I went wrong, huh.

He also rationalizes that since the average lifespan of his shirts are about 15 years , it’s okay to spend  on some quality pieces and treat them as an investment. He usually buys whatever pleases him , since he has an artist’s eye for colour, he is very experimental with it  but the  touch and feel of the material is very important to him as  a deciding factor. He laughingly said that is  bad, course sometimes the feel is so good it just tempts consumption upwards and makes him throw caution to the winds.

Lately he is into collecting jeans , all brands. He doesn’t think one needs to pay RM7000 a pair of jeans, to get a good pair either.   But an absolute must for him are good shoes, because it really makes a difference in terms of comfort and he needs ‘em to trod the streets of Bangsar to find his Malaysian way again which hopefully he will translate the experience  into paintings sometime in the future…

Lins, 42 years old, lecturer, he  has on:

Shirt -Paul Smith, jeans -Dolce and Gabbana

Bag- Louis Vuitton messenger bag

Shoes- handmade moccassin from Christian Pellet, a traditional French brand

Watch- Frederique Constant,

Beret- no brand, he never leaves home without it

Possible related posts...

• Shopping: Stress Buster Or Just An Excuse To Spend?
• Living Carpe Diem
• Why Talking About Things Can Help
• Style Kandi Is Launched!
• It’s Time To CHANGE THE WORLD!