Digital Fashion Week: Q&A with DFW project director Charina

We all now know that top models, fashion royalty and top designers are coming to Singapore later this month for the first ever Digital Fashion Week, but what was the inspiration behind the event.

An event with the likes of Andrej Pejic, Sophie Sumner, SATC stylist Pat Field, top Chinese designer Guo Pei as well as great Singaporean designers can't have been easy to put together.

To find out I sat down for a Q&A with an exhausted but happy project director Charina Widjaja who helped explain DFW in more detail and even had time to announce another exciting partnership and promise more surprises on the runway!

The masterminds behind DFW: Project Director Charina Widjaja, and
Creative Director Keyis Ng. 

Patricia Field, Andrej Pejic and Guo Pei headline Digital Fashion Week in Singapore

Those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter will already know this (if you don’t follow me then why not!!), but I am extremely excited to have been asked to be a co-host on the world’s first Digital Fashion Week (DFW).

DFW is an amazing new Singapore-based project that is a “shoppable live streaming fashion week”.

It’s basically an entire fashion week streamed online in partnership with YouTube, with no front row, none of the nonsense and posturing that comes with fashion shows AND the ability to be able to buy the clothes as you watch.

I will be doing live one-on-one interviews on Google+ after every show, so you will probably get sick of the sight of me soon :-). But WAY more exciting than that is the superstar line-up that will be in town later in three weeks time.

It’s been a big secret and it’s been so so tough keeping it under wraps but I can finally tell you that the stars of DFW will be none other than supermodel Andrej Pejic , Legendary Fashion Icon Patricia Field and China’s top designer Guo Pei in addition to America’s Next Top Model latest winner Sophie Sumner.

Andrej Pejic will be walking for DFW designers in Singapore! So exciting!!!

The queen of styling herself Patricia Field will be in town as well! Let the
SATC fever begin ;-)

MAX.TAN Exclusive: SS13 max.tan collection and behind the scenes at fashion shows

Happy National Day!

While a lot of us (including non-Singaporean residents) are celebrating this day on the little red dot itself and enjoying a day off work, one Singaporean is being a busy bee – and all for a good reason.

One of the most known local designers outside Asia is Max Tan. Ever since he emerged on the fashion scene a few years ago, Max has been going from strength to strength and with 2 labels under his belt (max.tan and Liquid), it is safe to say that he’s established a name for himself outside of this island and his designs been shown on international runways (guess what, he’ll even be showing in New York next month!)

So what is Max doing today? Well he’s currently in Copenhagen, taking part in the VISION tradeshow for few days and the debuting his max.tan SS13 collection at his first Solo fashion show on the 12^th as part of the Copenhagen Fashion Week. That’s not all, straight after, Max is flying to Koh Samui  (Thailand) for the prestigious and highly exclusive Nikki Beach Fashion and Lifestyle Weekend where he’s doing another show – this time he’s showing Liquid and will be the opening show (on the 18^th).

With a lot of parties and preparations in between, Max must be a very busy and stressed man – but nonetheless he decided to share his experience with all his fans back home – exclusively through Bonjour Singapore (yay!).

max.tan SS13 collection images, released for the first time here :-)
Keep reading to see them all...

Quirky and edgy Singapore label? AMEN to that!

It takes a lot of courage for new labels in Singapore to throw out the populist rulebook and decide to go their own way from the off.

Well, one such label is AMEN, traditionally accessories label that has branched out and released their  first clothing line, Femme with the debut  collection called Transmission.

Clinton Leicester and Nicole Wong, the couple behind AMEN, are not your average Singaporean label, and only one of them comes from fashion design background.

One look at their bold personal look followed by a glance at their quirky designs is enough to tell you that they basically design stuff they would actually wear.

Suited for Success: unusual and quirky, I'm loving this look which sadly
I could never pull off!

Audi Fashion Festival: Singapore designers dress and impress

 Apart from the Parco next NEXT designers’ show, (yup the one I was in!), Singaporean designers had a fair share of spotlight this year at Audi Fashion Festival.

Of course I would have loved to see more of the local labels represented but the turnout and the vibe was good start – and hopefully a platform for what is an incredibly strong bunch of labels this year.

The main show I went to was Singapore designers showcase which featured 3 labels: Saturday, Depression and a.w.o.l. – I also made it to see alldressedup’s show after label owners Lionel Leo and Tina Tan-Leo kindly invited me.

alldressedup provided one of the highlights of the show with their elegant,
wearable but slightly edgy collection

More Singa-phwoar from the Parco next NEXT preview

Here I am again, as promised, introducing you to more hot local designers from Parco next NEXT’s latest incubation programme.

In my previous post I picked the 3 labels which blew me away mainly because they were totally unique and had a very strong presence about them, but also they were something I would personally wear as they’re exactly the sort of style I’d go for and they reflect my fashion sense.

In today’s post, I’d like to highlight 5 more labels – which while not necessarily something I would pick up (unless I start wearing menswear label or embrace androgeny) -  are some of the labels with the greatest chance of making the next step.

I've included menswear a label in this post so read on guys!

Jason’s Born: Another deconstructed Singapore menswear label

Seriously, I’ve started to get fed up with people from outside of Singapore telling me the place has no creativity.

When you spend any time in the city and have your eyes open it becomes patently obvious there is no shortage of talented labels willing to push the boundaries and experiment with cuts.

Are they getting the support they deserve from local people? Definitely not, but that’s another post for another day.

Well today’s post is yet another attempt to rectify that. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Jason; A menswear label doing things that that no parade of shirtless men could ever manage – creating edge and style.

And it’s not only with cuts that Jason’s getting creative, it’s in the concept too.

Jason... the label I would be wearing if I were a boy ;-)

Celebrating 5 years of DEPRESSION… the label

It was obvious on Saturday evening that those people who turned out en masse for DEPRESSION party weren’t there for the free drinks, food, goodie bags or to show off. People seemed to genuinely love the label itself and who can blame them for that!

The event was one of the very few I’ve been to where people seemed to be enjoying themselves. Almost everybody was in black-and-white, the trademark colours of the label (read more about it here). Of course I had some colour on me (duh!) but still, even my glittery floral jacket failed to alienate me from the rest of the crowd who were super friendly.

Depression: A Singapore label that doesn’t live up to its name

Singapore label Depression is holding a party for its new store in Cathay Cineleisure over the weekend.

But because I’ll mostly be blogging about the event next week, I figured it a must to introduce people to the clothes this week.

Luckily for us, this is one label that doesn’t live up to its name…thank goodness! Depression is anything but. Instead, this Singaporean brand pushes out eye-catching and sometimes visually challenging clothes with ease.