Old Taiwanese couple get Insta-famous by posing in left-over clothes

An84-year-old Hsu Hsiu-e and her 83-year-old husbandChang Wan-ji have become Insta famous by modelling in the 'forgotten' clothes and they cannot believe it.

The old Taiwanese couple own a laundromat togetherHouli District, Taichung City, in central Taiwan. The coupe has owned the laundromat for the past 70 years.

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In these past 70 years, there have been several instances where people forgot their clothes in the shop and did not come to collect the clothes back.

This gave their grandson,Reef Chang, an idea. To save his grandparents from boredom, he convinced them to wear the hundreds of discarded clothes and model for pictures, just for fun. The old couple became Insta-famous withing days.

Their Instagram account, called WantShowAsYoung, has over 147,000 followers from around the world even though the account only has 19 posts.

"Their business is not always busy. They would doze off in the shop and their spirits weren't high. So I thought since our family has these clothes, I can remind people to pick up their clothes, and remind my grandparents their life can still be great even in old age," he told the BBC.

With the help of his friends who are 'good at fashion', Reef took the shirts, shorts, blouses, and skirts and mixed and matched it. He used some accessoriessuch as borrowed purses, hats and sunglasses. The couple posed infront of the washers and dryers to give it a 'magazine look' The pictures were set up to make them look like they were inHavana, Cuba for holiday.

"Dressed like that, I feel 30 years younger," said Wan-ji.

Wan-ji recalled his old days when he had started the laundromat at the age of 14, and said that people had started leaving clothes in the recent years only when clothes became cheaper and more accessible.

"In the past, clothes were very expensive. When I got married, it cost an ox-cart loaded with 20 bags of rice to pay for my suit. And back then clothes were so valuable that you could take them to the pawn shop if you needed money," he said.

The couple said that clothes pile up as people move to different citiesand forget to collect their clothes, or if someone passes away and their family doesn't bother to come pick up the clothes. They have donated hundreds of clothes, but are still left with hundreds more.

When Reef asked them to model, they weren't sure if anyone would like their style, although the couple claim to be very stylish and fashionable in their golden days.

"They didn't understand at first," said Reef. "They also don't understand fashion trends, but when they were young they were very fashionable. They thought why would people of this generation like clothes from their generation?"

However, with 147,000 followers, and counting, the Taiwanese couple is now convinced and thankful to their grandson and their fans.