I was done for the day. Something about Penang, the current “It” city in Malaysia, had been exhausting me. As in most Southeast Asian cities, negotiating how to get across a busy street could take a lot out of a Westerner, and I’d been doing it all day. I’d just toured the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, and then had a slice of pie at the renowned China House. Now I was set to make my way back to my hotel via what I hoped would be a new route, featuring things that I hadn’t yet seen on similar walks of the day before, and the two before that one.
I didn’t make it far before I saw a clothing store that looked entirely like it belonged in contemporary Brooklyn, where I live. I was moved to enter, not necessarily by that fact, but surely in part by it. Another motivator: I’d been hoping against hope to find the one item that seemed to be lacking in my suitcase: a loose-fitting, breezy dress. This place looked as promising as any I’d seen so far on this trip, even in Singapore. I was moved to enter also by something less tangible but more important: the result of that sizing up I do every time I consider entering a shop, of whether or not I am bound to be left to my browsing un-hounded by a salesperson. I felt good about this one, and swung the front door open.
Sixth Sense turned out to be the stuff of dreams, similar to the one all New Yorkers have at some point about discovering an extra room in their square-feet-challenged apartments. I had discovered a clothing shop that looked just like the ones I can barely afford back home, but where that dress I’d been hoping for would set me back only $40 at full retail price. I bought that and a pair of rust-colored cropped pants, I think for $30.
Sixth Sense does great things with current aesthetic trends, both in the space itself and in its inventory, offering a tightly curated stock of understated women’s clothing and accessories from independent labels in the region that it sells alongside its impressive in-house line–all sized to be able to accommodate my five-foot-eight frame. It’s beautiful, and great for a mere browse, although I can’t imagine leaving empty-handed.
SIXTH SENSE | 157 Lebuh Pantai | 10300 Georgetown | Penang, Malaysia
