bring the blundstones, ditch the aritzia
packing lessons from survivor castaway jess chong
This might come as a surprise because I hate camping (or any activity where you need to shop at REI, tbh) but I am a big Survivor fan.
My siblings and I watched a few seasons when we were kids, all huddled around the family computer in the living room. I remember thinking it was so cool and chic when the would girls wear their buffs tube top style. (I just really wanted to become a teenager and wear tube tops).
My partner got me into Survivor again during the pandemic: it became our vicarious escape from the boredom of home quarantine. We would order a big lettuce-y, herby platter from our favorite Laotian restaurant and binge watch old seasons.
I’ve been keeping up with the latest season and was immediately curious about contestant Jess Chong because of the Bay Area connection and our shared identity as Asian-American women. Jess spoke about how seeing the rise in Anti-Asian sentiment during the covid pandemic motivated her to go on Survivor to humanize Asian people and show how we can be “messy and crazy and funny and sad and all those things.” She openly voiced her struggles with sleep deprivation and ADHD onscreen, and I was rooting for her! I felt that her tribe members were unnecessarily harsh in the way they iced her of the majority, leading to her going home.
When I looked up Jess’s Instagram and realized she was a sewist, I knew I had to reach out! Survivor and fashion may be a niche overlap but I’ve always wondered what it’s like to wear basically one outfit for weeks on a deserted island.
Jess chats with me about her Survivor suitcase, her packing thought process—and how we could have had cheongsam representation on the jury.
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You had to pack for the possibility of 26 days on the island. What were you allowed to bring?
I was allowed to pack two outfits: One for the challenges, and one for camp life (I guess you can call them my “civvies”).
How did you decide what to pack? What was your thought process?
Finding everything for my outfit was like a crazy scavenger hunt. I had about a week to find everything, and one of those days was a federal holiday so if I bought anything online, I was REALLY taking chances with the shipping time.
When selecting my outfit, I used the following criteria:
Am I allowed to pack it?
Does it look like what I’d wear in real life? In real life, I dress super practically and androgynously. I commute by bike, and you never know what the weather will be in San Francisco.
Would I be OK with my family seeing me in this outfit? I optimized for not showing parts of my body that I didn’t want everyone to see. This was MUCH harder than one would assume!! I had a really hard time finding shorts that made me feel comfortable enough to move around in for challenges/hauling stuff around the beach. Every pair of women’s shorts I found were either too short, or too slim in the thigh, or too wide in the thigh, or made of fabric that we weren’t allowed to have on the island. In the end, I had to resort to buying men’s shorts for my challenge outfit.
What exactly did you end up packing for each outfit?
My challenge outfit was:
Cotton men’s board shorts from Cotton On
A linen shell tank from Old Navy
Amphibious shoes from Xero
My “civvies” outfit was:
A seersucker shirt from Macy’s
A mockneck tank top from Athleta
Seersucker pants from Uniqlo.
Linen shorts from Amazon
A big nylon turtleneck sweater from Aritzia. This was the WORST item I packed - it developed holes within the first 2 hours and barely kept me warm!
Briefs from ThirdLove.
A swirly purple bra from ThirdLove.
My Blundstones! They are my favorite clothing item/accessory ever. I’ve been wearing Blunnies since 2011 and I will never go back!!
Upon arriving, did you wish you packed something different? Why or why not?
Yes!! I wish I packed a wool sweater instead of my crappy hole-prone nylon turtleneck sweater! It barely kept me cold at night and kept snagging on the bamboo shelter.
How did you wash your clothes on the island?
We washed them in the ocean, and hung them over bamboo on a sunny spot on the island! For the duration of my time out there, we didn’t have fire, so my clothes never properly thoroughly dried. We smelled real bad!
In the pre-season interviews and cast photo, you wore a blue and black zebra print set that you sewed yourself. Tell me more about that outfit!
I actually brought a couple of different options with me (all sewn by me!), but opted for the blue tiger print set because I wanted something fun, but also easy for me to move around with. I was born in the Year of the Tiger and have always loved the color blue. I also wanted to honor the people and small businesses who have given me the most wonderful creative outlet!
I bought the fabric at Fabric Outlet SF, which is equidistant between my house and my office (very dangerous!!!) and saw the vision for the faux jumpsuit as I unfurled it from the bolt.
The top is a mashup of the Bathurst Top and the Atlas Top from Stitch Witch Patterns, and the bottoms are Pomona Pants by Anna Allen Clothing—I modified them to add pockets to them!
One of my favorite things about Survivor is seeing contestants glammed up when they voted off and show up in the jury. What outfits did you pack for the possibility of joining the jury?
I packed a bunch of crazy jumpsuits as well as a cute, colorful little cheongsam dress from GOD in Hong Kong as a kind of nod to my heritage.
Were there any ways your sewing/crafting skills lent itself to camp life?
Had I lasted longer, I would have woven palm frond hats for everyone!
Truth be told, I received quite a walloping in my time in Fiji. But I think you will be delighted to know that I went to a sewing camp called Camp Workroom Social shortly after I came back, and it was the PERFECT palate cleanser to my difficult experience as a castaway. It was the balm to heal all wounds!! It was lovely to come together with a group of interesting, supportive, kind, and lovely women—we learned how to sew bras. It restored my faith in humanity!
Thank you for chatting, Jess!
*All images courtesy of CBS/Paramount Pictures.
omg fashion and survivor colliding this is the best corner of the internet. i always wonder about how castaways pick their clothes!! and i cant lie when i watch survivor i always think about what i would wear on the island hahaha
scream!! I also loved Jess on survivor and had no one in my life to talk about the show with!! this article is TOO good.. loved learning more about her (she was among my faves 🥲) and getting survivor outfit insights 🔎