Nostalgic Good Morning Towel is now a $530 fashion item

Remember the Good Morning Towel most commonly spotted around the necks of uncles and aunties at the Kopitiam? 

Japanese menswear brand, Doublet, featured the nostalgic and humble Good Morning Towel in its fall/winter 2020 show. Instead of a towel, it now adopts the functionality of a knit scarf.

What’s even more unbelievable is that it costs $530.

The theme of the show was ‘We Are the World’. Doublet created a Japanese-style cafeteria for its Paris Fashion Week presentation based on Masayuki Ino, the designer’s childhood memories of typical Japanese family restaurants. 

The Good Morning Towel was commonly used by hawkers, rickshaw pullers, labourers and other hardworking forefathers of Singapore to wipe their sweat as they work under the hot sun. It has Chinese characters that mean “wish you a good morning” when translated.

Unlike the original Good Morning Towel, Doublet’s version had a few twists to it. 

Instead of the English and Chinese words that read Good Morning, Doublet’s scarf reads “knit scarf”. The Chinese characters in the crest was also replaced by two Chinese characters that read “fall” and “winter”. 

The number below the crest was also changed to the number 20, which suggests that the scarf is part of their 2020 collection. Last but not least, the original towel is made of cotton while the scarf is made of a blend of wool, acrylic and nylon.

The scarf went viral after SGAG made a post last week and Singaporeans filled the comment section with some pretty interesting responses.

Facebook user, Jester Valhadow Klaw, commented: “This one better make me [look] handsome after [a] haircut by my mum”. Another user, Jaden Chr, commented: “suddenly all the kopitiam uncle selling secondhand [sic]”.

The best of the lot came from user Poor Seng Kang, who wrote: “You can’t put a price tag on a piece of history. Priceless.”

This is not the first time daily items have inspired high fashion.

Remember the $2,000 Balenciaga tote that was inspired by Ikea’s giant blue bag? According to Business Insider, Balenciaga designer Demna Gvasalia made a similar bag as he was inspired by the longevity and functionality of Ikea’s iconic bag.

With many more examples like the Celine and Jil Sander luxury totes that resemble grocery bags, we can definitely expect more to come from these high fashion brands.

Who knows what could be next – perhaps a pouch or mini bag inspired by tissue packets that Singaporeans use to chope seats at coffee shops?

Doublet’s knit scarf is now available in-stores at Dover Street Market Singapore for $530 and $660, depending on the size you get.

As for those who prefer the OG towels, you can get a dozen of them at Lazada or Shopee for just $10.50 and $9.94 respectively.