AS 3,000 people packed the Association of Women and Research (Aware)'s Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) last Saturday, Vicki Lew, 29, followed the unfolding drama via a live feed on social networking site Twitter.
She had signed up as an Aware member earlier last week so that she could vote in a no-confidence motion against the 'new guard' led by then-President Josie Lau, but came down with a bad stomach flu and was unable to attend the showdown.
At one point during the raucous meeting, former exco member Sally Ang shouted at the jeering audience to 'shut up and sit down'. The outburst got the Twitter stream #awaresg abuzz, and one netizen jested that the phrase would look great on a t-shirt.
That immediately sparked Ms Lew to conjure up a design using the now-infamous quote 'just for fun'. In 30 minutes, the design consultant with nine years of experience shared a mock-up with 'followers' of the Twitter feed, who responded positively to the prototype.
As emotions ran high and more barbs were traded between the 'new guard' and supporters of the 'old guard', the feisty exchanges provided many more quote-worthy jibes.
Still following the Twitter feed, Ms Lew drew inspiration from these juicy tidbits and came up with four designs by the time the seven-hour marathon EGM ended past 9pm. Buoyed by the positive feedback from netizens, Ms Lew uploaded some of these designs onto a US-based t-shirt printing site and quickly garnered about 30 orders, she told Straitstimes.com.
'But using a US site meant that the t-shirts were expensive and then there's the high cost of shipping,' said Ms Lew, who then managed to get in touch with friend who ran a printing business and could also produce the t-shirts. 'We want to support local businesses, and also keep costs down,' she explained.
By 4am on Sunday morning, the t-shirts were ready for sale via a Singapore site. Since then, more than 150 t-shirts have been sold, with the original 'Shut up and sit down' t-shirt being the most popular. At last count, the next most popular item was the 'I'm on page 73' t-shirt, referring to self-declared 'feminist mentor' Dr Thio Su Mien's quote about the page number of an Aware publication on which she was featured.
Ms Lew attributed the surging t-shirt sales to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, where news of the t-shirts have 'totally gone viral' since the initial designs were uploaded on Sunday. While not sold on the actual Aware website, Ms Lew said that the newly-elected exco 'have been supportive' of the t-shirts, with talk to link the t-shirt sale site to the we-are-aware.sg site used by the 'old guard'.
Describing herself as someone who was actually 'not very vocal', Ms Lew initially felt that the Aware saga had nothing to do with her. However, as she followed the saga, she said the takeover launched by the 'new guard' exco 'got her thinking' about broader issues. 'I wouldn't have these rights, these luxuries, if someone did not fight for them,' she said, referring to the advances in women's rights. 'After this, it really showed me that I have to say something if things are not right,' she added.
For now, Ms Lew is walking the talk by donating 70 per cent of proceeds from the t-shirt sales to Aware. 'After the $90,000 that the exco spent, they really need it,' she quipped, referring to the amount spent by the Josie Lau-led exco in just one month.
Meanwhile, the sales site is collecting orders and will be printing the t-shirts in batches for cost-effectiveness. Ms Lew also intends to gift these t-shirts to the newly-elected exco members once they have have been printed.
