It’s a honor to collab and feature my mother on this project with “Where Did All The Flowers Go”. Never in my life I thought I would be able to work with my mother on something creative and fashion related like this. Shout out to the homie David Z for the idea!

We had the shirts ready to go but didn’t have a set model. Last minute the day before I text my mother asking if she was free to help me out on and model something. She deadass responded in chinese and I had to translate it because I can’t read or write chinese. In her response she asked if I have enough money.

Dao Min Tom from Kaiping in China from the province of Guangdong. Her maiden last name is Seto and her mothers maiden name is Guan. There’s so much history there that I’m learning about. She’s now close to 70 years and healthy as you can see. She exercise daily before going out to buy groceries for the family. My mother enjoys shopping at Macy’s when she’s not playing mahjong with her homies. My favorite dish that she make for me is the “Gai bo jai fan” which translates to Chicken Clay pot over rice. Very popular in Kaiping, especially in their village of Chikan.

One thing about my mother that I love is that she never put herself first. She would feed the village before feeding herself. She’s the backbone of our family and I’m grateful for that because a healthy family need that. I used to give my parents a hard time when I was young and restless growing up in Chinatown NYC. Things are much different now, I do whatever I can to make sure my parents are happy and healthy.

Lead with love, never forget your roots.
Styled and shot by yours truly.
Photos taken with Contax T2 and Fujifilm x100v

with love,

Gee Moon Tom