HUMANS OF SG FASHION
Over 10 local industry insiders from across disciplines share their observations of and aspirations for style on this little red dot.
BEYOND THE HIGH-PROFILE DESIGNERS, MODELS, INFLUENCERS AND BEHIND-THE-LENS CREATIVES, WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO FUEL THE TRADE? WHAT DO THEY BRING TO THE SCENE AND WHAT DO THEY SAY OF AND ABOUT IT? FROM A ’90S SUPER-MODEL-TURNED-MAKEUP-ARTIST TO A BUDDING LONDON-BASED FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER/FILM-MAKER WHO’S STILL IN SCHOOL, OVER 10 LOCAL INDUSTRY INSIDERS FROM ACROSS DISCIPLINES SHARE THEIR OBSERVATIONS OF AND ASPIRATIONS FOR STYLE ON THIS LITTLE RED DOT.
“I’ve shaved my head four times in my life now and every time I’ve done so, a modelling job pops up. (At the point of writing) I sport a buzz cut dyed yellow from a previous job and shaved brows. It was easier to land jobs when I had long hair, but these days, I get them because of my bald head and the scope of work is different... Weirdly enough, the jobs I’ve been getting are commercial in nature. I guess having a bald girl in the cast is unique and clients want that now. The look almost expands past racial ambiguity (often favoured by the industry) and instead is about having a distinctively different feature regardless of race, in turn broadening the perception of what a model can look like. I prefer these jobs because I’m hired for being me.”
ANNA DUTOIT, a half-Dutch and half-Chinese 20-year-old who’s been signed to the local modelling agency Misc Management – known for its alternative faces – since 2020 and, when not in her native Singapore, is in the UK studying fine art at the University of Oxford
“When I was a student in the late 2000s, I couldn’t afford a lot of local designers whom I admired – and there were many. I would go to (the now-defunct multi-label boutique) Front Row, which stocked Jonathan Seow’s Woods & Woods as well as the emerging designers being nurtured under his +9 collective, just to see their clothes and admire their construction and get an understanding of their philosophy and ideas. I’m obsessed with and want to study this particular period – 2008 to 2011 – in Singapore fashion. It was an exciting time for me as my peers were making amazing things and I would say that the local fashion design scene was at its peak. Everyone was trying to do something interesting.
I thus had the idea of seeking out and photographing pieces by the local designers from this period and that evolved into owning the pieces and building my own archive six years ago. It’s a very personal collection and a friend and I are trying to see if we can exhibit it. I think people would be surprised to see the level of sophistication, innovation and details, and learn that we have had designers of such calibre and vision whom we don’t see now.”
JOSIAH CHUA, fashion design-trained independent stylist (he studied at Lasalle College of the Arts and then Bunka in Tokyo) who’s earned quite the reputation for his playfully outre visuals and creations. Among his latest and most headline-grabbing works: sneakers made out of the packaging used for McDonald’s BTS meal that promptly went viral.
“FEW WOULD AGREE THAT SINGAPORE IS A FASHION CITY. HAVING ONLY TROPICAL WEATHER MEANS THAT LOCAL DESIGNERS ARE NOT EXPOSED TO HAVING COLLECTIONS FOR DIFFERENT SEASONS AND THERE IS NO BENCH OF WELL-KNOWN INTERNATIONAL DESIGNERS WHO ARE BASED OR BRED IN SINGAPORE TO BOAST OF. A SMALL DOMESTIC MARKET AND A LESS-THANVIBRANT ECOSYSTEM – MUCH OF MANUFACTURING IS OFFSHORE, RESULTING IN THE LOSS OF MANY ARTISANAL SKILLS – FURTHER SETS SINGAPORE BACK AS A FASHION CITY.
HOWEVER, THE COUNTRY IS ENDOWED WITH MANY OTHER STRATEGIC ASSETS – FOR EXAMPLE, BEING A MULTICULTURAL PORT CITY STRATEGICALLY LOCATED ALONG THE WORLD’S MAJOR TRADE ROUTES – THAT CAN HELP POSITION IT AS A DIFFERENT SORT OF INNOVATIVE FASHION CITY… KNOWN FOR BEING PRAGMATIC, SINGAPORE DESIGNERS CAN DIVE INTO DESIGNS THAT EMBODY THE FINESSE OF ASIAN CRAFT AS WELL AS THE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATIONS ENABLED BY TECHNOLOGIES.
TAFF’S OBJECTIVE OF PROMOTING ASIAN CULTURE AND CRAFT IS TO PROVIDE DESIGNERS HERE WITH MORE IDEAS AND INGREDIENTS FOR THEM TO DRAW ON TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN NARRATIVE AND POINT OF VIEW .... THE BRANDS WE SUPPORT AND CARRY ON THE RETAIL FLOOR OF DESIGN ORCHARD COMBINE THE TRADITIONAL WITH THE CONTEMPORARY TO APPEAL TO A NEW AND YOUNGER GENERATION ALL WHILE KEEPING CRAFTSMANSHIP AT THE CORE OF WHAT THEY DO. ONE OF THEM, KANZI COLLECTION THAT’S BASED IN BOTH SINGAPORE AND JAKARTA, FOR EXAMPLE USES RESISTANCE DYEING TO CREATE ONE-OF-A-KIND, HANDMADE TEXTILES THAT ARE THEN USED TO CREATE STYLES SUCH AS BOMBER JACKETS AND CROPPED VESTS.
MY HOPE FOR SINGAPORE FASHION IS THAT IT WILL FIND ITS OWN VOICE AND PERSONALITY, AND THAT WE WILL BE RECOGNISED AS A PLACE WHERE FASHION TALENTS AND ENTREPRENEURS CONGREGATE.”
SEMUN HO, CEO of the Textile and Fashion Federation of Singapore (TAFF) – the official association for the textile and fashion industry here that’s meant to help expand its business as well as promote local brands
“Singapore is a pretty young country so it is natural for its fashion industry to still be in the midst of development. At present, the predominant style and what sells is pretty commercial, but I hope that the scene will grow to be more directional. Already, things look promising. Four years ago, Dover Street Market opened a branch in the city, for example. Street culture is also getting livelier and receiving more support, which is helpful because I’ve always believed that authentic fashion starts from the streets.”
GRACE LING, fashion designer-on-the-rise with her year-old eponymous label that taps on technology (think 3D printing and CGI) to create conceptual tailored garments and the wittiest bags and jewellery that come across as at once sensual, gothic and hyper luxurious. Having trained at Central Saint Martins in London, Parsons School of Design in New York as well as Thom Browne and The Row as an intern, the 24-year-old has made the Big Apple her base since 2016 when she had completed her studies.
“No one likes to see a product being sold – that’s why content has become such a big deal when a fashion brand wants to reach out to consumers. My company, which was formally started last year, focuses on creating content that’s more editorial or lifestyle in nature… We work more like a magazine than an ad agency where 50 people need to weigh in on a decision: As long as my small team and I think that something looks good, we put it on the model. The approach is something I honed when I was working for fashion magazines here. That experience taught me to daydream – you put yourself in the shoes of others and create stories. These days, social media has so much power on how people dress and live because the data and ‘likes’ tracked indicate validation – notice how influencers all look the same and use the same furniture and backdrops in their photos. It becomes harder to create content that is different, but it’s still important to balance commercial viability with creativity.”
EVON CHNG (pictured above), fashion director and founder of digital creative agency Beastcorp who cut her teeth assisting various local stylists before becoming one herself first independently then at various magazines before going back out on her own again. In all, she’s clocked over 14 years of experience working on both the commercial and creative ends of the industry.
“I hope that we in the fashion industry here will be more celebrated by our own community. In all my decades in beauty, for example, a guest makeup artist from overseas has always been presented as the star while the local makeup artists involved in the same job and who have as much experience get no acknowledgement. During the ’90s when I was a model, things were different. Local names in the business were appreciated and treated very well, but the shift came around the 2000s when flights became more affordable and more foreigners started coming in or being flown in for jobs.
Of course, the quality of fashion talent here prior to the 2000s was different. There was no digital help then. Everything was shot on film so the photographer must know lighting and the model cannot come in with a belly or bad skin. There is less stereotyping and greater acceptance and diversity in the industry today, which is positive, but I think it’s still crucial to have quality control. The main criteria to being successful is having good discipline.
Many people who aren’t in the industry tend to not be aware of the hard work and high stress that we – be it the crew, models, editorial staff et cetera – go through just to, for example, create an image. And we are always pushed to our limits. I remember going to Paris Fashion Week in 2015 to work on the makeup for a few shows and there was almost one makeup artist and one hairstylist for every model. The production budget there is of course higher and the preparation time for shows is very tight, but in Singapore, having that sort of resources is a real luxury.
Here we have to work triply harder than our peers overseas and still might not get the same recognition. That however does also mean that we’re very resilient and, I would say, as skilful. Give us the same resources and we could possibly achieve the same results or better.”
SHA SHAMSI, one of Singapore’s biggest models in the early ’90s who – in the eight months that she was active on the scene – made it to the cover of multiple major magazines here including Female. In 1999, she returned to the fashion industry as a makeup artist and is today considered a luminary and a go-to choice among luxury labels and local celebrities for her light hand and versatility.
“THERE’S A LOT MORE TO MARKETING STREETWEAR THAN JUST PUTTING A T-SHIRT IN THE STORE. CONSUMERS LIKE TO BE SEEN AND COMMUNICATED TO, AND THEY’RE CONSCIOUS ABOUT IT. I’VE OBSERVED THAT A LOT OF BRANDS DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW TO TRANSLATE THEIR CULTURE AND WHAT THEY STAND FOR IN COUNTRIES THAT THEY’RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH. MY COMPANY SELFHOOD HELPS BRANDS FIGURE OUT HOW THEY CAN EXIST IN A LOCAL LANDSCAPE AND HOW TO COMMUNICATE THEIR STORIES…
THERE ARE SINGAPOREAN STREETWEAR BRANDS, BUT WE DON’T HAVE STREET CULTURE THE SAME WAY THE US DOES. A LOT OF OUR BRANDS ARE BASED ON TRENDS, AND THERE’S A GAP IN WHAT THEY REPRESENT; WHAT THEIR POINT OF VIEW OR STORY IS. I’VE TALKED TO RETAILERS ABOUT SINGAPORE LABELS THAT ARE CARRIED IN THEIR STORES OVERSEAS. A LOT OF THEM DON’T EVEN KNOW THAT THE BRANDS ARE SINGAPOREAN AND I DON’T KNOW IF THAT’S A GOOD OR BAD THING.
THE FACT IS THAT PEOPLE DON’T ALWAYS KNOW WHAT SINGAPORE REPRESENTS, ADDING ANOTHER LAYER THAT’S NEEDED IN THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS. SO THERE IS STILL A GLASS CEILING FOR MANY SINGAPORE LABELS (FINDING INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS AND RECOGNITION), BUT IT’S IMPORTANT TO BE PART OF THE GLOBAL FASHION SCENE AND TO HAVE GLOBAL STANDARDS OF QUALITY. IT’S NOT EVEN ABOUT BEING BOUGIE, BUT QUALITY MATTERS IN FASHION. IT INSPIRES CREATIVES, JOBS AND THE SECTOR AS A WHOLE – IT CAN’T EVOLVE WITHOUT IT.”
SABRINA LI, founder of the three-year-old streetwear-focused fashion distribution company/creative studio Selfhood. With offices in Singapore, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, the outfit not only conceptualises hyper-cool collaborations to help promote brands (think a hotel-themed pop-up in partnership with Seoul’s cult multi-label boutique Boon The Shop to raise the profile of the New York-based T-shirt brand Chinatown Market), but also has its own digital magazine and radio programme.
A scene from Last Ride: Lost Shadows of Spring, a 3D film that Chua counts as one of her most personal works as it’s an ode to her childhood dreams.
“I’m not sure if we do have a fashion identity yet – or at least a clear one. I think it’s hard to navigate as we are a very young country and don’t have a long history in fashion in particular. We’re a jumble of many things due to our heritage. Our fashion isn’t limited to the batik-printed uniform of the Singapore Girl or what’s at Design Orchard. We’re more than that and that makes it hard to define… I think for now, we’re more of a shopping city than a fashion one. Different fashion cities possess different qualities and we must find what’s unique to us… The industry in London is more open to showcasing and working with young talent, but from what my peers back home say, being in Singapore also offers good opportunities, especialing now. The pandemic has made a lot of us reflect within and reconsider what’s around us: local models, photographers, musicians, artists, designers. We’ve witnessed a wider platform for our creatives and I just hope that it keeps on expanding in many directions.” JERMINE CHUA, second-year Fashion Communication and Promotion student at London’s Central Saint Martins who’s already making a name for herself with her dark and dreamy visuals. Already in her portfolio: a film for the Katie Grand-helmed The Perfect Magazine.
“There wasn’t a definitive style in Singapore in the late ’00s when we first started business. At that time, most of the youths here wore what fast-fashion companies were churning out, save for the few who could afford Japanese or European designer labels. With the pervasiveness of normcore though, more and more of them are scouring thrift stores or finding pre-loved pieces that allow them to be more individualistic… Instead of heading into just any salon asking to recreate looks from catalogues, they are increasingly seeking out specific salons or hairstylists with similar philosophies as them. You can regularly see both our stylists and customers shopping in the same places or dining at the same eatery. I like to call this a good kind of cultural tribalism – one that signifies a more confident and self-expressive culture.”
TAN ENG CHONG, the formerly Osaka-based research engineer who returned home to Singapore in 2008 to start the local offshoot of the Japanese hair salon chain Less Is More, or LIM (it includes the outlets Kizuki+LIM on Seah Street, Toki+LIM at Raffles Hotel and 1tto+LIM on New Bridge Road). In recent years, its hip customer base has steadily grown to include more – and more experimental – young creatives (like the ones above) documented on the Instagram accounts of its equally cool staff.
“SINGAPORE IS A CITY OF COMMERCE – NOT A CITY OF CREATIVITY – BECAUSE EVERYTHING THAT’S CREATED NEEDS TO SUCCEED. TO SUCCEED MEANS TO MAKE MONEY AND TO MAKE MONEY OFTEN MEANS HAVING TO GET INTERNATIONAL VALIDATION. A LOT OF THOSE WHO ARE FUNDING THESE (INCUBATOR PROGRAMMES AND THE LIKE) SEEK SUCCESS AND THEREFORE WHAT THEY CHAMPION IS VERY SAFE. EVEN IN THE ART SCHOOLS, YOU’RE TAUGHT A RATHER REGIMENTED WAY OF DOING THINGS AND AS A RESULT, PEOPLE ARE DOING DESIGN INSTEAD OF ART. WHERE’S THE PERSON WHO’S TRYING TO CREATE PANTS THAT LOOK LIKE BALLOONS, FOR EXAMPLE? WHERE’S THE PERSON WHO’S MAKING A TOP THAT CAN BE TRANSFORMED INTO SIX DIFFERENT OTHER THINGS OUT OF AN UNEXPECTED AND AMAZING TYPE OF SUSTAINABLE MATERIAL? INNOVATION IS NOT VERY GREAT IN SINGAPORE.
WHAT SINGAPORE’S FASHION INDUSTRY NEEDS IS MORE COURAGE AND TO LET ITS PEOPLE TRY AND TO CELEBRATE THEIR MISTAKES. YOU NEED TO HAVE A BODY THAT BELIEVES IN AND FOCUSES ON CREATING FASHION INSTEAD OF MAKING FASHION GREAT. THIS CALLS FOR A PROCESS OF RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY, BUT DISCOVERY IS NOT A BIG THING IN SINGAPORE. PEOPLE JUST WANT A FAST TRACK TO SUCCESS AND HOW WE DEFINE SUCCESS IS PART OF THE PROBLEM.”
MOOKS HANIFIAH, brand consultant and creative director who’s called London home for over two decades and, in that time, worked on campaigns for the likes of Prada and Louis Vuitton. Recently he left the powerhouse luxury ad firm Wednesday Agency Group to start Studio Mooks, offering design, art direction, strategic positioning and mentoring for emerging names in fashion, lifestyle and hospitality.
“In the last decade, fashion photography was growing at this insane, exponential rate because of Instagram. It became the medium to do visual arts in. And then, you know, Covid happened and suddenly people aren’t as interested as before in buying clothes or in the fantasy that fashion photography offers. It’s got me wondering if fashion photography is becoming obsolete… There are a lot of young Singaporeans who are interested in fashion photography, but I wonder if there’s space for it and for them.
There are fewer opportunities for aspiring fashion photographers here to get editorial or non-commercial commissions that allow them to be experimental and paid at the same time. When I was starting out in 2011, there were all these local fashion designers who needed their campaigns and lookbooks to be shot as well as incubation programmes such as Parco Next Next (which saw the Japanese department store support emerging labels), for example. They were open to working with young creatives and their ideas while allowing us to earn a living, but these platforms don’t really exist any more.
Now the majority of paid work seems to be coming from foreign luxury labels. Some of these brands do fund experimental work – shout-out to Gucci – but how many people and how many of us here can shoot for Gucci? And if you have to work for 10 years to even get such an opportunity, what are you photographing in the meantime and are you making enough money in order to sustain yourself as well as your portfolio to get to the point when you can be considered for these jobs?”
LENNE CHAI, the buzzy, formerly New York-based fashion photographer whose portfolio spans editorials for both glossy and alternative international magazines to independent work all lensed through her signature nostalgia-steeped eyes
“TO ME, THE QUESTION OF WHETHER SINGAPORE STACKS UP TO OTHER ESTABLISHED FASHION CAPITALS MAKES US THINK ABOUT HOW TO APPROXIMATE A FASHION CITY BY TRADITIONAL WESTERN STANDARDS AND NOT ON OUR OWN TERMS WITH OUR OWN SPECIFIC HISTORIES. I DO CONSIDER SINGAPORE A FASHION CITY IN THE SENSE THAT THERE ARE FASHION PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS WHO ENGAGE WITH THE GLOBAL FASHION SYSTEM. FOR EXAMPLE, IN MY RESEARCH IN WHICH I STRIVE FOR A DECOLONISED UNDERSTANDING OF FASHION, I PLACE THE SINGAPORE WOMAN AT THE CENTRE OF THE CITY AND SEE HER AS AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL COSMOPOLITAN SOCIETY WHO MAKES CHOICES ABOUT FASHION TO EXPRESS HER IDENTITY.
THERE SHOULD BE LESS ANXIETY ABOUT WHAT WOULD MAKE US A ‘TRUE’ FASHION CITY. THERE ARE STAKEHOLDERS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS WHO MAKE UP A SMALL YET ACTIVE FASHION LANDSCAPE HERE. AND IF THERE ARE MORE ORGANIC COLLABORATIONS THAT TAKE PLACE WITHOUT THE URGENCY TO ACHIEVE LOFTY IDEALS, IT COULD GIVE IDEAS AND EFFORTS TIME TO GROW AND ADAPT; FAIL AND IMPROVE; AND EVENTUALLY SUCCEED IN A MORE SUSTAINABLE WAY.”
NADYA WANG, educator at Lasalle College of the Arts’ School of Fashion by day; editor of online platforms Art & Market and its new sister site Fashion & Market by night. The latter presents content on South-east Asia’s fashion practitioners and their work, and aims to carve out a more accessible middle space between academic and journalistic writing on fashion.
“I’m so happy that there’s a resurgence of young designers such as Putri Adif and Samuel Xun who are doing exciting work, and I wish that people would stop pretending that the energy isn’t there. It takes effort to look for and connect to it, but that motivation comes from wanting to help build the next generation... I see social media as a platform that allows such talents to see what I can bring to their creative process and I believe in the importance of reaching out to them; multiple times if need be. It’s always exciting when someone sees eye-to-eye with you creatively and test shoots are great for finding that synergy and signalling my perspective on beauty… There’s a Terry Barber quote about aspiring to have a trained eye with an untrained hand. That’s my approach. It’s important to learn the rules, but have a healthy love for breaking them. It’s not just about wanting a seat at the table, but knowing what to say when you’re at the table.”
KENNETH CHIA, 27-year-old who’s gone from “impromptu hotel party mascara fixer” to an emerging makeup artist who’s worked with the likes of Narelle Kheng and Iman Fandi in the short span of three years that he’s been a fixture on the local beauty scene
“The noted fashion historian Christopher Breward put forth several criteria with regards to what makes a global fashion city including having a manufacturing base; specialists with local production skills; a developed media sector; a history of substantial fashion consumption; cross-pollination with other cultural industries like film and music; and a well-established fashion education system that includes not only schools, but also institutions like museums. His theory was that all of these factors need to work in tandem to create a fashion capital like those popularly accepted today: Paris, London, New York, Milan and Tokyo.
His book Fashion’s World Cities has been very influential, but a more recent publication Styling Shanghai (released last year, it explores the Chinese city’s fashion landscape) aims to challenge Breward. And I found that inspiring because when you ask if Singapore can be considered a fashion city, it starts by asking what type of criteria are you using and secondly, are these criteria relevant today?
Instead of having a one-size-fits-all template, we need to look at each individual city and go ground-up from there. Speaking from the perspective of a museum curator, a big part of what Singapore style is rests a lot on goodquality, published research. We need more researchers to be interested in Singapore fashion and we need to publish more. The media also needs to be involved (to help get the word out) and create ongoing discourse about what is happening in society now.
This is what the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is trying to do with the #SGFASHIONNOW show. Even though it’s small (it highlights the designs of eight industry stalwarts including Lai Chan and Priscilla Shunmugam), it’s meant to be an experimental showcase. Hopefully, when there are more collaborations across the different parts of the industry and more segments of the public are engaged, we wouldn’t be faced with this eternal question of what is Singapore’s fashion style. The first question should be ‘What is it now?’”
JACKIE YOONG, ACM lead curator who heads the museum’s Fashion and Textiles gallery that opened last April. On till Dec 19 and co-curated by the Textile and Fashion Federation as well as students from Lasalle College of the Arts, #SGFASHIONNOW is the institution’s first show dedicated to contemporary Singapore designers.