Our SSEAYP Attires

To join the SSEAYP program, pre-departure, we had to do many many things. Among the more important tasks were to get a whole load of sponsors for our attires. It’s customary for PYs of a certain country to wear the same shirt, or colour on a particular day on board Nippon Maru, as pre-assigned by the Attire Committee.

Now, wearing uniform may not sound so appealing to you if you just happen to bump into this site, but trust me, after SSEAYP, you’d miss having a whole bunch of people you love wearing the exact same clothes you’re wearing. Now when we come home to Brunei, we find ourselves still yearning to be told what to wear by the Attire Committee.

The following are photos of the types of attires we wear on board Nippon Maru for SSEAYP.

Attire A1: The Official Attire for the Brunei Contingent of SSEAYP

On a scorching hot day, the BPYs08 were scheduled for their attire shoot. We started as early as 7am with individual portrait shots for our name cards at the car park of Pusat Belia. Nabil was late. Thus, his coat seemed to be of a different colour as it was taken under different lighting.

The A1, is the most formal of all our attires, and is commissioned by the Government of Negara Brunei Darussalam especially for the Brunei Contingent. While wearing the attire, one is considered on official duty and carrying the country’s name on our shoulders. Therefore, while wearing the A1, we are subjected to many rules and regulations in order to protect and preserve the integrity of the country’s name.

Everything is scrutinised from the way we do our make-up, to the way we stand, so everything must be perfect. Rules and regulations vary with each contingent, some A1s are so respected that no sitting on the floor is even allowed. For Brunei, we were not allowed to smoke, or for non-Muslims, drink (or even sit at the bar) while wearing the A1. Also, while it is not explicitly prohibited, we were strongly discouraged to have our meals while in the A1.

Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah was our next destination. As we were early, parking was not a problem at all as compared to the heat of the day. We took our SG photos as well.

Attire A2: Worn mostly during welcoming and send-off ceremonies

Basically the A2 is just the A1, without the jacket.

We were all around Yayasan during the shoot. We took a group shot of us in A2 outside Portview Restaurant but that didn’t look as nice as this one here. This spot was lastly decided on as we were leaving Yayasan for the next destination when we saw how beautiful the Kampong Ayer looked that day.

Attire B1: National Attire worn to promote cultural exchange

By now, it was noon.

We were all extremely tired and some of us suffered more as we were fasting during the month of Ramadhan. This was made more difficult as we all had to carry all our attires around for other shoots.

Something which we could all laugh about now was that we were actually asked to leave this venue below because we were noisy and we had all our attires lying all over the place. We, the national contingent were being unceremoniously thrown out of this venue! Hehe. But this very picture taken at the venue unwelcomed to us is the picture that ended up on the cover of our Profile Book!

Another thing about our attire B1 was that we actually bought the whole roll of kain songket (used for the men’s sinjang and the ladies’ skirts). Tini and Yassin, members of the Attire Committee, after a voting, actually bought the textiles for us but we had to measure and cut the textiles ourselves to distribute to one another.

I remember Wan, Michelle and G-Zul at the task! SSEAYP has made us done anything and everything! Good, that is. LOL You guys remember cooking at the Pantai Berakas Forest Reserve for like 100 over people?!

Attire C: Smart and casual, this is worn mostly during institutional visits.

We have 3 Attire Cs. This one below is the Attire C1 which is given to us by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. It is basically our A1 tudong, a dark green striped blouse to be worn with black slacks.

Prior to our departure, we were invited to have dinner with both the Ambassador of Japan and the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports at the Ambassador’s residence. The event was comfortable enough as the diplomats we met there were very friendly and hospitable.

There is Abang Azeez, our SSEAYP Coordinator whom we love so much. He has been with us, constantly advicing us and helping us out in whatever ways he could before we left for SSEAYP.

Attire C2 below is a blue Guy Laroche blouse worn with black slacks and comes with a coloured scarf. The two items are both sponsored by our darling NL, Kak Yati. The boys’ C2, in contrast with the girls, is a shirt in a very light shade of pink, and worn with a black dotted tie (not in photo). Our YL says, real men wear pink. (Ghia!)

Attire C3 is sponsored by Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) . BIBD sponsored us each an overnight bag as well which has our names sewn on it! I usually use it as a homestay bag.

Attire D: Sports Attire

I wear this onboard whenever I’m cold even though it was BIG! This attire is again a gift from KKBS. The Adidas tracksuit comes complete with trackpants and has “35th SSEAYP 2008″ written at the back.

The rest of the attires below are casual wear that we put on for our day-to-day, onboard activities. They are all sponsored and we thank the sponsors for their generosity.

Attire E1: Baju Belia

Attire E2: Baju Kenali Negara Kita (KNK) – Black

Sponsored by Tourism Brunei.

Attire E: Baju KNK – Blue

Also lovingly sponsored by Tourism Brunei.

Attire E: Masayun – Blue

An individually customised polo shirt, one of the shirts sponsored by Syarikat Masayun. This is one of the BPY’s favorites. G-Zul and Maurina made quite a scene at Masayun when they were designing the shirt while Adz and Manis looked on. As always they have the exact opposite tastes in everything! Haha.

Attire E: Masayun – Maroon

Another one of our shirts sponsored by Masayun Enterprise.

Attire E: Baju RanoAdidas

Rano agreed to sponsor us following our involvement in the Bazaar Amal at D’Other Office and Maurina’s subsequent ambush on the poor guy. Just as well, because this was one of the BPY’s favorite attires! Thank you Ranoadidas!

Attire E: Baju HSBC

We only wore this shirt in Japan, as we didn’t bring it on the second stretch of the journey. We are still very grateful indeed to HSBC Brunei for sponsoring this shirt!

Attire E: Baju Goh Hock Kee (GHK) – Yellow

Another one of our individually customised shirts sponsored by the very generous Goh Hock Kee.

Attire E: Baju GHK – White

They also gave us a t-shirt in white also individually customised.

*****

As you can see, most of our attires are either black, or dark in colour. According to a fellow PY Maurina spoke to, this, coupled by our erm, rather plump disposition, quickly earned us all the title Mafia Contingent of the 35th SSEAYP. Hehehe. The theme of Mafia is a recurring one throughout all our SSEAYP-related conversations. Sigh, I miss SSEAYP!

At the end of the programme, some of our shirts were traded with other PYs for their shirts, to keep as a memento or token of remembrance. However, our YL, AYL and Attire Committee was very clear that our official attires, A1, B1, C1 and E1 must not be given to anyone. We might be using them again in Brunei!