Fashion Forward Dubai: 5 Middle East designers to look out for

I’ll admit. It’s probably the only time I miss being in Dubai, even though I lived there for many years before moving to Singapore, I've never really had any feel for the place.

That was before the Fashion Forward event, which took place recently and could be the first step towards nurturing a real fashion scene in the desert

When people complain to me about the ‘lack’ of a proper fashion scene in Singapore, I always tell them to compare it to Dubai, where there is hardly anything interesting fashion-wise. The first vintage shop in the country opened only a couple of  years back while the concept of ‘local’ and ‘independent’ designers was non-existent bar for a handful of individuals who introduced this idea not too long ago.

But when I learned about Fashion Forward happening in Dubai, I breathed a sigh of relief that perhaps the city has finally started celebrating the young talent and giving them a proper platform and the exposure they deserve.

A beautiful dress from Lebanese designer Dina JSR at Dubai FF

And as usual, Michael Cinco brings the drama to the catwalk...

And oh how I wanted to be there for the Starch Foundation show! I'm
especially in love with the work of Celine Der Torrosian of AZADE like
this cool outfit which I want to get my hands on!!!

Audi Star Creation 2012 Winners: Q&A with South Korea's Ko Young Ji, one year on!

Just a week before their show at Audi Fashion Festival this year, I'm running short interviews with last year's 3 winners of the Audi Star Creation (ASC)  fashion design competition, to find out where they are one year on after winning.

Today's Q&A is with S. Korean designer Ko Young Ji whose feminine collection last year stood out especially in contrast with some of the more directional collections of the other participants.

Find out more about the designer, who is launching her own label very soon and reflecting back on the past eventful year of her journey.

You can also read the other winners' interviews here and here.

(P.S. I'm also giving away tickets for the ASC winners show at AFF, find out more about it on facebook.)

Audi Star Creation 2012 Winners: Q&A with Roderic Wong from China, one year on...

As someone who's very interested in the emerging designers scene, I often wonder about these young talents I encounter and what it is like to have been on their journey so far - regardless how short it may seem to be.

Last year, one of the most enjoyable things I followed on this blog was the Audi Star Creation competition where I interviewed all 12 finalists and got to see their final showdown on the runway at Audi Fashion Festival (AFF).

The three designers who eventually won were Roderic Wong from China, Ko Youngji from South Korea and Soravit Kaewkamon from Thailand whom each got a one-year internship at F J Benjamin in Singapore to get a valuable experience in the industry and a cash prize to kick-start their careers.

Fast forward one year, and here are the three designers preparing for their second show at the upcoming AFF this month and I have to say, I can't wait for time round too!

But before I get to see their new collection, I had some questions for each of the winners and was intrigued to know how was the past year like for them.

I will post these short interviews over 3 days starting today, and will also be giving away 5 pairs of tickets to watch their show at AFF (check the facebook page for details).

Today, I'll start with the designer whose work truely wowed me for he uses unconventional techniques and has a keen eye on details. This is Roderic Wong who no doubt has a great future ahead of him in fashion. Check out what he has to say regarding his internship, evolution as a designer and future plans!

A look from Roderic Wong's winning collection of 2012, 'tissue of being'!
Looking forward to see his new collection at AFF this year too.

London Fashion Week: War and fashion collide with Taiwan’s Ming Pin Tien

If there is one designer who truly wowed me during London Fashion Week, it has to be Ming Pin Tien.

Another Asian designer whose talent has already been attracting some interest from significant industry players, this was a show that a lot of mainstream writers had their eyes on.

The London-based young Taiwanese designer was named as ‘one to watch’ by the prestigious Vauxhall Fashion Scout last September and took the challenge head on. Stepping up his game with some innovation and originality – traits not always common in the industry these days.

Fashion mainly entertains. It inspires sometimes but it rarely moves you. However Ming’s show gave me goose bumps as it wasn’t just about clothes, there was something much deeper to his work that allowed you to admire him as an artist.

London Fashion Week: Huishan Zhang does East meets West at its best

It might be surprising to some that the majority of the London-based Asian designers who showed at LFW did not force their cultural or ethnic backgrounds into their designs.

And while it was a refreshing change to see designers from the East feeling confident enough to simply design beautiful and wearable clothes sans any ethnic twist or gimmick, there is something to be said for keeping your influences subtly on display.

Step forward Huishan Zhang, the Chinese-born designer held a mainstream LFW show and demonstrated that it is possible to nod to tradition without being a total cliché.

I mean, a man who considers the picture of Chinese elegance that is Maggie Cheung his ultimate style icon isn’t going to veer off into making asymmetrical monochrome prints with conical bras and Grecian draping is he?

London Fashion Week: Haizhen Wang rounds up Asia's triumph

Closing London Fashion Week has got to be a big honour. And that honour went this year to a rising Asian designer who has emerged on the fashion scene lately by winning the prestigious Fashion Fringe award last year.

This is Haizhen Wang, the Chinese-born designer who is fast making a name for himself in the industry.

Haizhen’s show was a treat and his stunning creations came as an appropriate end to this fashion week which saw a huge rise in emerging talent – one of the things that London has carved a reputation for.

London Fashion Week: Eugene Lin's evolutionary AW13 collection (photos+video)

When I was first introduced to Eugene Lin’s work – just before he took part in the first Singapore Digital Fashion Week (DFW) – I was truly impressed.

And even though he felt the need to head to London to pursue his dream, his talent gave me even more  conviction that there are many more world class creative gems in the little red dot.

I was initially attracted by the obvious. The breathtaking digital prints which featured in Eugene’s past two seasons collections have been extraordinary. But when interviewing the designer as part of DFW he mentioned to me that it is not something he will keep doing for long so I half expected his latest collection at London Fashion Week might come as a surprise for those used to seeing his stunning prints.

What he actually did was evolution and not revolution. He hasn’t ditched his staples, instead improving on his existing strengths and adding smaller experimental twists which hint at a new direction.

London Fashion Week: South Korean designer J. JS Lee's show

Transitioning from warm and sunny Singapore to freezing London in winter is no joke. Especially when my entire wardrobe consists of summer-friendly frocks with hardly any jackets or knitwear in sight.

As a warm weather lover, I’m no big fan of chunky winter wear but seeing the second South Korean-born designer Jackie Lee’s collection (under her label J. JS Lee) at London Fashion Week had me wishing I lived in cold weather all year long. Well not quite but at least a few month per year so I get to wear some of it ;-)

The beautiful and effortlessly chic pieces - from outerwear to elegant dresses - won me over. The main reason I never liked winter clothes is that heavy, gloomy feel and chunky silhouette which never looked flattering on me. The London-based designer’s mostly A-line coats on the other hand had a certain weightlessness about them. They looked comfy yet sharp and chic at the same time.

London Fashion Week: Korea’s Eudon Choi opens Day1 with a bang

If there are still any skeptics out there about the power of Asian designers, this London Fashion Week (LFW) has come to prove them wrong.

Just looking at the schedules – both the main and the fashion scout one which is designated for emerging talent – shows you the sheer amount of Asian-born designers who are making it big and are on the rise to dominate the fashion soon really soon.

From names who have earned their spot in the main lineup like Jackie Lee and Eudon Choi – the winner of last year’s Emerging Talent Award at the Global Fashion Awards in New York – to more recently spotted designers like Nova Chiu.

On top of that are those who have a bit more excitement around them. The lucky few who have been billed by those in the know as the ones to watch: Patrick Li and Yeashin. And these are just the ones showing in the first two days!

Bonjour Singapore at London Fashion Week

When asked about my favourite fashion capital, my answer has always been London.

The city’s quirky and care-free style is much more fun and closer to mine than any of the other cities.

While New York’s is mostly chic, minimal and established, London’s runway is always bursting with cutting egde, prints, textures, colours and extravagance which reflect this city’s multi-cultural identity.

Attending London Fashion Week (LFW) has always featured heavily on my fashion bucket list. And luckily I can tick this one off long before the end approaches. The official crossing off takes place on Friday (February 15) to be precise.

I feel so incredibly lucky and excited to be able to report back from such a huge event! Trust me, I’ve been mixing and matching my wardrobe for five days straight now.

Honestly I’m not really bothered about the big shows. I mean who am I kidding? I’m not competing with Vogue or Elle who would have their expert reviews and flawless photos uploaded instantly after the show. And with today’s LIVE-streaming for shows like Burberry’s, I don’t see the point in fist-fighting to get a ticket (somewhere in the back if I was lucky!) when I can watch the show from the comfort of my own home.

TOTON's new looks at Jakarta Fashion Week2012

Jakarta Fashion Week, one of the biggest fashion weeks in Asia took place last week. As much as I wanted to attend, my passport was not ready in time...

One of the main reasons I was so eager to go to Jakarta was to watch the first ever show of the designer I’m so very fond of, Toton Januar (whom I interviewed here before) of TOTON. Upon knowing he was invited to take part in Jakarta Fashion Week’s  Mazda ‘Young and Vibrant Designers’ show, I knew I wanted to be there – as one of his first clients and biggest supporter of course ;-)

Sadly this didn’t happen but nonetheless I wanted to write this small post to show you his latest looks – as part of extension from his first SS13 collection ‘Violent Beauty’ which blew me away earlier this year.

Designer Toton Januar at his Jakarta Fashion Week show last
week! (photos from TOTON's fb page and website)

Loving the new looks Toton has presented in the show! The
fuchsia collar is to die for...

What I wore: My 10 Digital Fashion Week outfits

I had so many reasons to be super excited to take part of Digital Fashion Week (DFW). As you know I was hosting the interviews with some great established and emerging Singaporean designers and hanging around backstage among some beautiful clothes and models.

But I won’t lie. Getting dolled up every morning with a team of experts and having 10 outfits to change in three days was probably one of the highlights as well. My co-host (Beam Artiste and tanjongbazaar.com blogger Yvette King) and I took our jobs as promoting Singaporean and Asian designers very seriously and spent many days before the event running around planning our outfits mainly from places like Parco next NEXT and the participating designers.

It was tiring but great fun especially that our choices seemed to grab people’s attention - including super model Andrej Pejic who fell in love with a LION EARL digital print dress that Yvette was wearing which prompted the designer Lionel to give him one! Another item which Andrej managed to keep was my TOTON collar which I wore the last day to interview him. Sophie Sumner also made no secret of her love for local label OwnMuse and wore their clothes more than a couple of times during the week.

So if you’ve missed out (or lost count) of my DFW outfits, here’s the list of what I wore on all 3 days and the press conference! Which LOOK did you like most ;-)?

Big thanks goes to my dear friend Aaron Han who was on hand everyday
to snap most of these photos :-)

My 5 Highlights from the 1st Digital Fashion Week, Singapore

It’s been a week since Digital Fashion Week has ended in Singapore but at least for me, it’ll be a while before I totally digest it and the fact that I was in the middle of it all, talking to awesome designers and models.

All in all, it’s been a great experience; you have to start somewhere right? So even for someone who never hosted anything let alone LIVE for the world to see - yes I do look at those videos and critique myself – I was kinda proud that I managed to do it and most of all, have fun while at it. Yup now I’m convinced more than ever not to take myself too seriously when it comes to fashion ;-)

There have been some amazing moments, too many to count and some of which I’ve documented in the previous posts here, here and here, but I have picked those 5 highlights which I will forever remember and look back at as an unforgettable experience which I was so lucky to have had.

But the biggest question is, would I do it again?

Between the nervous moments, I've had a blast especially with my co-host Yvette King,
seen here with Andrej Pejic backstage as he teaches us how to pose 'couture-style'!
Needless to say I have a lot more to learn... smiling and pouting at the same time is not a
good look ;-) (Photo by Zhi Wei)

Digital Fashion Week: Day three, Guo Pei and the pictures!!!

It's been exhausting but we made it. My first ever live presenting gig is finished and my feet haven't touched the ground yet.

I mean that in a literal as well as a metaphorical sense too - the reason I'm only posting the day three round-up now is because I've been sleeping non-stop since Digital Fashion Week finished. Those 14 hours on your feet all day (in heels!) really took a toll!

But I wouldn't have swapped it for the world. Being backstage felt like being in a new era, this was the most relaxed, friendly and comfortable fashion event I have ever attended.

The stars were amazing and happy to give total and constant access not only to myself and my co-host but also to the fans who seemed surprised that the likes of Sophie Sumner, Patricia Field and Andrej Pejic were just casually strolling amongst them.

The Chanel of China, Guo Pei and supermodel Andrej Pejic totally blew everyone away with the final show of Digital Fashion Week (picture courtesy of www.digitalfashionweek.com)

Digital Fashion Week: Day two line-up and day one highlights

What a whirlwind. Day one of Digital Fashion Week is over, my live presenting debut is ancient history and we're into day two.

Arriving at the venue early just made me more and more nervous. Watching as the red carpet got laid out (soon to be soaked by a tropical thunderstorm from hell) made me double nervous and then watching the TV cameras roaming around sent me into near panic mode.

But the awesome Yvette King (who is presenting live backstage coverage) helped calm my nerves, as did the whole crew producing the Google+ hangouts and to be honest, once it got under way and I could get down to talking to the guests, the nerves just melted away.

And what a day. It was an honour to talk to the likes of Thomas Wee (who revealed he is taking in Digital Fashion Week but doesn't have a website), JR Chan from -J-A-S-O-N- (who revealed an interesting story behind the name of the label in our chat) and the lovely Pauline Lim from Pauline.Ning (who also revealed why her label has a different name to hers)

So the scorecard from the first day of an amazing event goes a little something like this...

The beautiful Andrej Pejic takes the 'Blue Steel' challenge backstage at DFW. Photo borrowed from the super talented Lenne Chai of Aetienne http://aetienne.net/

Digital Fashion Week: Line-up and lowdown for day one

It's here. It's finally here.

The designers are here, the clothes are here and the models are here (causing quite a publicity stir it seems) and everything is ready. Digital Fashion Week gets under way today.

Yes, that's right the world's first online only fashion week is about to kick off and you can watch it all LIVE.

Much more than an ordinary fashion show, you will have a front row seat to ALL of the action. Front stage, backstage and probably side stage too. What's more is that you will also be given the opportunity to buy the clothes you see on the catwalk thanks to DFW's e-commerce partners Zalora.

All of the shows will be broadcast live on YouTube and on the official Digital Fashion Week website. The backstage action is also being broadcast there too and will be hosted by the beautiful Yvette King.

Post show interviews will be broadcast live on Google+ hangout and will be hosted by yours truly (in a variety of different dresses ha ha) along with a selection of bloggers from Singapore. And we will be interviewing everyone, so stay tuned for that!

Andrej Pejic and Sophie Sumner enjoying dim sum in Singapore. But now it's down to business.
Digital Fashion Week is under way 

Digital Fashion Week: Interview with JR Chan of Singapore menswear -J-A-S-O-N-

Singaporean men really are a spoiled bunch...when it comes to fashion.

Considering this is still very much an emerging fashion market, there are a surprisingly large number of more avant garde labels peddling an increasingly diverse series of looks aimed at the modern male.

From the established labels and six year veterans like Depression to the new kids on the block like MASH-UP, MILS, EvenOdd and now even local icon Thomas Wee is about to launch a menswear collection. The truth is guys, you've never had it so good.

At the forefront of the Singapore man renaissance is -J-A-S-O-N-, a brand that has been around for a year and a half and already has a reputation for it's androgynous shapes and quirky twists on conventional tailoring.

Designer JR Chan took the Bonjour Singapore Q&A ahead of her appearance at Digital Fashion Week. Here's what she had to say.

Digital Fashion Week: Pictures from the press conference

Digital Fashion Week kicked off in earnest yesterday, with the arrival of the celebrity guests and the press conference officially announcing the event.

Yes – I was gathered in the same room as SATC stylist Patricia Field, ANTM winner Sophie Sumner and Andrej Pejic and watched in awe as my beautiful co-host Yvette King introduced DFW to the media and other Singapore bloggers.

I stood toe to toe with the husband of the genius that is Guo Pei(she'll be arriving at a later date) and I was able to give Eugene Lin my gratitude for his heartfelt and passionate views on the Singapore fashion scene.

An incredible talent line-up for Digital Fashion Week - and me in the corner :-)
On the sofa: Yvette King, Andrej Pejic, Patricia Field, Sophie Sumner, Guo Pei's husband
Jack representing her.
Back row: JR Chan (J-A-S-O-N), Johanna and Juang (Ownmuse), Tze Goh, Eugene Lin,
Pauline Lim (Paulne.Ning) and me :-)

And most importantly, I was able to get some photos. Having already read my Q&As, I know that’s what you want to see - pictures of beautiful people and me being a star-struck teenager.

Digital Fashion Week: EXCLUSIVE Eugene Lin interview

When you take interesting and original prints and mix them with well thought of details and top it off with immaculate tailoring, you get a recipe for some serious fashion to look out for!

Eugene Lin does just that. Impeccably-cut clothes which look modern, chic with an edgy twist and would fit into any style-conscious woman’s wardrobe.

The Singaporean-born, London-based Central Saint Martins graduate has already started making waves in the fashion world and it’s no surprise when his work set very high standards for emerging designers. And perhaps what’s even more interesting is his honesty and outspoken attitude in a world where diplomatic and politically-correct statements are the general rule.

I am very excited to be meeting and interviewing Eugene after his first ever show in Singapore during Digital Fashion Week (DFW), especially after this explosive and honest Q&A with a man not afraid to speak his mind. 

In by far and away the most controversial interview of the DFW series, the London based Lin lets rip on exactly what is wrong with the Singapore fashion scene, celebrity designers and the problems with Singapore's attempts to support local labels.

Eugene Lin will show his latest SS12 collection 'The Judgement of Paris' at DFW!
Certainly not to miss!!!

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 ;-)