An elderly couple running a laundromat give new life to old clothes
Wan-ji Chang and Sho-er Hsu have gone viral on Instagram modelling clothes left behind at their laundromat, encouraged by their grandson Reef Chang.
Two Taiwanese octogenarians, grandpa Wan-ji Chang and grandma Sho-er Hsu have become internet celebrities at 83 and 84 respectively, thanks to their grandson Reef Chang, 31.
Wan-ji and Sho-Er are the owners of a laundromat, and have been married for 61 years. The laundromat they operate, Wan-Sho Laundry in Taichung City, Taiwan, will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Reef came up with the idea to dress his grandparents up in clothes left behind by customers over the years and share them on an instagram account called Want Show as Young, with each post ending with “Don’t forget to pick up your laundry!”
Little did they know they would become so popular, with 607,000 followers within five weeks of starting. The grandson, Reef Chang, says he began the project because he was aware that clothes left behind at the laundromat were serving no purpose and he wants to remind people to pick them up or help them find a new owner.
Reef adds that his grandparents’ life was “very boring” and he couldn’t “bear to see them sitting in a daze every day.” So he started styling them in leftover clothes in “a hope to give them some change and fun in their later life!”
Reef’s grandparents didn’t need much persuading to play dress up with clothes left behind, but they certainly didn’t anticipate this level of attention. “They thought no one would like it. Hahahaha,” Reef writes TRT World.
There are around 300 pieces of clothing left behind by customers over the years, Reef Chang says. These 300 items were “collected [over] sixty years” and were left behind in a totally random pattern, “not regularly by week or month,” he adds.
According to Reef, his grandparents are very happy “because many netizens [have] encouraged them and praised them, [and it’s] as if [they have] many more grandchildren in the world.” Reef adds that “They also feel that they have done a good thing. Tell many elderly people not to limit themselves.”
Reef says his grandparents “like each set very much!” But their most favorite is “matching with their own old clothes. Because they will think of many things before, their eyes will seem to glow. It's as if they have returned to the same year.”
Reef says he wants to help his grandparents find new homes for the clothes left behind at their laundromat. He also wants to promote sustainable fashion, and to protect the earth. Reef adds he wants to “encourage everyone to care about the elderly.”
According to Reef, two customers remembered the clothes they forgot about because they saw the laundromat on the news. He says even though in the past he may have been away for work or study in another city, he “will still help when I go home” and that he has been helping at home “since I was a child.”
The best takeaway, Reef Chang writes, was to see his grandparents smile. He also points out that tens of thousands of fans from all over the world say “this is the most heartwarming thing in such a bad year.”