PUBLISHED May 15th, 2013 12:59 am | UPDATED July 22nd, 2024 03:16 pm
At Audi Fashion Festival and Blueprint this weekend, models and fashionistas will strut their stuff wearing the latest and greatest from the world’s iconic designers. The it-bag of the season will be on multiple arms; and bloggers, heralded for their ability to recognise particular items from designer collections will list the number of luxury labels worn by one individual with glee! But every so often, a unique and spectacular outfit will emerge from the crowd and leave everyone wondering, where did they get that from? This is when the up-and-coming, or “no name” designers, get a slice of recognition and buzz, when someone chooses to be a fashion pioneer. Because, I wonder.. who wants to be the same as everyone else? As an industry shouldn’t we attach the most kudos to the truly unique and never-seen-before, rather than someone who had the fortunate financial capacity to buy the whole of Chanel?
Now, please don’t get me wrong, I lust after a Chloe handbag as much as the next girl, but what irks me, is the emphasis that is placed on designers from overseas when, if you look at what is happening on the Singapore or even greater Asia design scene, we have plenty to be proud of right here. And while there are some incubators for this local talent and a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes to give these young emerging designers a platform and a voice, I don’t know if it has reached the general consciousness yet that we may have our very own Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen or Mary Katrantzou here, just waiting for their moment!
LASALLE College of the Arts already knows this of course. Each year they see hordes of talented young individuals develop and grow, graduating full of talent and promise. And this year we are delighted to be in partnership with LASALLE as they present their inaugural Asian Fashion Graduate Showcase 2013 featuring the most innovative collections by emerging graduate designers in Asia. Participating universities include Sangmyung University (South Korea), Shanghai Zhuangyuan Culture Academy of Art & Design (Republic of China), De La Salle College of St. Benilde (The Philippines) and LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore). The show will see over 80 garments on the runway vying for the ‘Best-of-Show’ award. It is a closed-door event for invited guests only, however we have two pairs of tickets for our members, click here for more details. And thereafter the exhibition will run for 2 weeks, displaying the designs. So do go down and take a peak.
And just to tingle those fashion tastebuds, we had a chat with the seven talents who have been chosen to represent Singapore as the best and the brightest in fashion. Remember these names, the voices of a new generation, Yang Fei, Herlianti, Li Xiao Ming, Teresa, Ivanna, Hailey, and Mei Yen, as they are poised to command centre stage in the fashion industry. You heard it here first!
What is fashion to you?
Mei Yen: Fashion is about craft, expression of ideas, a labour of love and countless sleepless nights.
Ivanna: Fashion is not about what people think about you. Some people might tell you, ‘you look fabulous’, but some people might tell you, ‘you are not fashionable enough’. Each person might have their own way to express their feelings, but they are a very unique individual that can decide how they want to live.
Li Xiaoming: Fashion is not only about designing garments, fashion is about having a fantasy and showing the passion. To me it can be everything in everywhere. fashion is wearing the thing I like and doing the things I am interested in, which can be fun and surprising. Fashion is my passion, vigour and power, I always design my dream in my way.
Herlianti: Fashion is an art that I adore. I choose to bring it as part of my life to build myself and to bless others.
How would you define Singapore’s fashion?
Teresa: Singapore’s fashion is like Singapore being multi cultural itself, it’s very diverse.
Yang Fei: It’s young and has potential to be big.
Herlianti: Mini hot pants and slippers (editor’s note: LOL!)
Hailey: Singapore fashion is definitely growing and it just makes me as a budding designer, feel excited about it.
When did you realise you wanted to become a fashion designer?
Hailey: I grew up observing people and garments; it was never a decision I made, it just so happened that my behavior became my full-time passion.
Teresa: I never wanted to be a fashion designer. I just really love drawing, painting and embroidering as a personal outlet of expression and hobby. But maybe the whole fashion thing started when I had this thought about instead of drawing or painting on paper and then framing it up just to look at, why not use fabric as another medium for my illustrations and paintings so that it could be worn on the body which would give a totally different effect. It’s like watching my illustrations come to life when worn.
Li Xiaoming: When I go shopping, I cannot find the clothes I want to buy, because most of the famous brand’s target middle-aged, their garments are too mature. I really want created to something for youth and myself.
What was the first article of clothing you ever designed?
Yang Fei: The first garment that I ever designed was for my Barbie doll, I designed a sleeveless top and a pair of paints with an old jersey t-shirt that from my father.
Mei Yin: It was a glove-like henna-inspired hand accessory.
Ivanna: I started to sketch clothing when I was in high school, during my class, I just loved to sketch in my text book. My first finished product was a floral printed skirt with pleats.
Describe the general process you go through to design and realize a piece of clothing.
Li Xiaoming: For example, in this collection I chose the season and style first… the idea of mixing the ancient Chinese elements with contemporary athletic mode which is based on the iconic baseball jacket to provoke the ‘New’ mix of east and west. I chose a strong silhouette so people remember my collection, then I did the creative research. The PVC jacket’s in this collection are unique, I want to be innovative so I applied traditional embroidery technique onto the surface of the PVC..to make it new and fun. Fabric innovation will bring a new aesthetic experience. I applied foiling technique with the gold color onto translucent PVC materials, because foiling can represent the emperor’s luxury life.
Herlianti: It usually starts from an inspiring piece of fabric, research, sketch and realisation.
Teresa: My general design process would be to sketch and draw A LOT and then filter through which are working as a print on the body and which are not. I also like to play a lot with scale, size and repetition when it comes to prints and patterns. After the print collection has been finalized, I would then start to design fashion silhouettes so that it complements my prints. This stage involves a lot of collaging and experimenting with placements of prints on the body. After this stage has been done, my fashion collection will then start to take form to be realized.
How would you define the style your line/piece exemplifies?
Mei Yin: It is inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray which carries a dandy theme. It’s about the feminization of menswear that’s influenced by a strong narrative.
Teresa: The design style that my line represents would be very laid back, feminine but in an awkward boyish “I don’t care” kind of way, but also very statement making.
Hailey: I don’t design for women who want to dress to attract the opposite gender. I design for women who want to make other women impressed.
Herlianti: Me, my heritage, and colors.
Ivanna: Playful, expressive, and I love detailing.
What are you most proud of, out of all you have accomplished and learned in the last two years?
Yang Fei: In this two years, the thing that I am most proud of is that I learned how to cope with a tough environment and eventually I have become an independent designer. And I am also proud that after my final year collection, I realized my future direction and what I’m going to focus on. I would love to use my own Chinese culture as background to design my prints, and keep a simple clean shape of my silhouette for my future design direction.
Mei Yin: I’m most proud of being able to realize my textiles onto garments and succeeding in a collaboration with my friend Hailey Lim.
Who is your fashion icon?
Teresa: It’s like a fusion between Tsumori Chisato and Bonnie Strange.
Hailey: Yohji Yamamoto
Herlianti: I dont really have one, but she can be anyone who always stay confident in any outfit.
Yang Fei: Twiggy is one of my muses to help me design younger target-market clothes, also the charisma from Audrey Hepburn is what I would like my ‘girl’ to be when they wear my clothes.
So there you are, Singapore’s up and coming, hugely talented fashion designers and the names you’ll soon hear whispered with trepidation…..except you heard it first!
Photo Credits: Art direction: Gregory Woo,
Photo: Samantha Lim, Gan Kah Ying And Khidhir
Assistants: Michelle kok and Daniel Teo
Written by Heh Zee