SO YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?
Meet the emerging labels upending streetwear and the face of Singapore style with their punk attitude.
FOR ANYONE WHO’S SAID THAT THE LOCAL FASHION DESIGN SCENE IS STAID AND CONSERVATIVE, MEET THE EMERGING LABELS THAT ARE UPENDING STREETWEAR, HOW IT’S RETAILED AND THE FACE OF SINGAPORE STYLE WITH THEIR PUNK ATTITUDE – AS SPORTED HERE BY THEIR VERY OWN MUSES AND FRESH FACES ON OUR MODELLING SCENE.
FASSBENDER & MELLON COLLIE
While natural-dyed clothes have been gaining ground as the slow fashion and sustainability movements grow, Ethan Lee’s vision for this label that he founded two years ago takes a slightly different tack from its earthier cousins. For one thing, he technically doesn’t retail per se. Instead, he positions the brand as a dyeing service. Interested parties can reach out via Instagram (@fassbenderandmelloncollie) with requests to customise their own or sourced garments with the distinctive, slightly ghostly tie-dyelike motifs that Lee achieves with the help of ice (it helps to disperse the dyes in a more organic, erratic pattern – the whole beauty of his approach, he says).
The 25-year-old first dipped into the world of dyeing at a workshop conducted by Buaisou – a collective of indigo farmers and dyers from Japan – in 2015 and has put his own spin on the process using anything from cochineal bugs to fermented persimmons as materials. His former experience in retail management is what’s helped shape his equally experimental approach to setting up a brand, what with him eschewing not just traditional stockists, but also e-commerce. “In Singapore, it’s common and easy to take a safe and predictable route,” says Lee. “With my designs and future projects, I hope to create the new and unexpected.”
There’s streetwear – the kind that spawned hypebeastslash-bae culture and that Pricewaterhousecoopers valued as an over US$185 billion (or S$253 billion) industry in 2019. Then there’s streetwear – the kind that some might call of a more underground ilk with an even more cult and exclusive following than the most legendary of cult streetwear labels Supreme; call them anti-hype, if you will. Instead of trading on T-shirts and sneakers, this category’s players might incorporate sportswear elements into largely antiglamorous designs, but what ultimately gives these brands “street” cred is their ground-up DIY attitude and authenticity that often sees them playing by their own rules; big-time success be damned.
There’s little doubt of the foothold the former has in Singapore – a traipse down Orchard Road or scroll through the accounts of top local influencers (fashion or lifestyle) is telling enough. However in recent years, a small but seemingly growing coterie of fashion labels that find affinity with the latter category has been sprouting up here. “I’ve been covering all the usual streetwear brands for many years now and am starting to see more of these smaller brands that look different,’ says Chooee Hwang, founder of streetwear media platform Streething and an OG on the scene. “It’s very exciting compared to maybe four or five years ago when everybody just wanted to start a brand that only did T-shirts.”
Take the two-year-old Fassbender & Mellon Collie, which custom-dyes sourced or provided garments and is only available via DM. It might sound like an Instagram brand, but its consistency in design and quality as well as customer base that includes some of Singapore’s coolest fashion insiders (and not to mention a wait list) proves it’s anything but. Founder Ethan Lee simply refuses to stock his merchandise in boutiques (yes, he’s had enquiries from retailers). “Operating in such an unstable manner forces me to never take the safe option. And even if you don’t reach your desired outcome, the adversities that you go through help to mould and grow you into someone stronger and better,” he says.
That independent spirit also remains at the heart of the Youths In Balaclava. The most prominent of the lot that has found global fame after being picked up by Dover Street Market, this band of young creatives has progressed from its staple of witty T-shirts to offering a complete wardrobe. Regardless of theme, its collections never fail to pay homage to elements and icons of counterculture – cue this season’s chainembellished leather jackets and calvary breeches, for example.
Says the posse, which requests to be attributed to as a group: “People here are hungrier for something more unique and that aligns with their personal values… Streetwear is the best way for people to create their own identity.” Now who says that here in Singapore, punk is dead?
THER YANG
Started this year by Lasalle College of The Arts fresh graduate Fushi Yang, the label focuses on monochromatic gender-neutral separates with an industrial edge, all shoppable on its website (theryang.com). What makes it truly different: Every garment is fashioned out of Tyvek – a lightweight paper-like material known for its durability, recyclability and waterresistance. Put it on or simply press against it and the fabric changes to a temporary whitish tone – Tyvek, you see, is heat-sensitive. The designer was drawn to this ephemeral nature of the material, likening it to human relationships and how they can be fleeting. “This debut collection is meant to be a meditation on the importance of human connection and the collective missing of the physical proximity we used to enjoy,” she explains.
That’s not the only way that the 25-year-old tries to connect her work back to others. While Singapore is the brand’s base, the Chinese national wants to give back to her homeland and will thus donate 50 per cent of all proceeds from the tees in this collection to the Shenzhen University Volunteers Association – a student group that helps children with autism. This month, she’s also collaborating with the Singapore Management University’s Business Society, donating 200 phone cases to its annual charity fashion show with all proceeds from their sales going to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore. “The original intention of creating this brand is to show that clothing design is not only about fashion,” says Yang. “Fashion should also have a deeper meaning to it.”
YOUTHS IN BALACLAVA
This young 12-member collective has come a long way from its grassroots beginnings – from staging a DIY show at the rooftop of an industrial building in Geylang to presenting in Paris for five seasons and counting. Some of K-pop’s biggest stars have been spotted in its designs and besides Dover Street Market, which carries and helped launch the brand into the global limelight, it counts over 30 cult international boutiques as stockists. Media outlets have been quick to laud it as the classic underdogs-made-good story, but speaking to the posse, one senses that they’re taking their headway in stride. “Things were moving very fast for the past two years. We had no idea what we were doing. We had no experience working in the fashion industry and we had to learn quickly from mistakes,” they say (they request to answer as a group). “Now? We don’t feel like anything has really changed for us except that we’re more ambitious than ever.”
Part of that ambition is experimenting more with silhouettes, materials and categories (they launched footwear last year, for example). Their Fall/ Winter 2021 collection, Scarecrows, is built around the narrative of a lonesome cornfield guardian and sees the debut of what they call “womencentric” garments – think loose and frilly nightgown-like dresses and wrap skirts. Quiz them about these new undertakings and the response is that they’ve always wanted to try their hand at many things – only the lack of finances have held them back. As they come into their own, we predict that their customers can expect to see more elevated takes on their vernacular. Cue this season’s colourful leather biker jackets fit for a prince (or Prince).