Hermès Men's SS2015 Défilé Livestream

For the best seat in the house, log on to www.hermes.com/defile on Sunday, 29th June at 2am Singapore time. Alternatively, log on now to sign up for a notification 30 minutes before the show!

Till then, I leave you with this livestream of Louis Vuitton FW14.

AFF 2014 - Interviews with Singapore Designers Aijek and Triologie

One of the highlights for me at this year's AFF was that there was a stronger focus on Singapore designers. Hansel, Saturdays and Ong Shanmugam all had their solo show debut at AFF, together with Aijek, Triologie and AWOL, whom showed together during the Singapore Designers Showcase. I thought that since AFF is still indisputably the big fashion event in Singapore, and one which has built up an international reputation, it should showcase homegrown talents, and not just international ones.

How's a "Singapore Fashion Week" as termed by foreigners who visit a Singapore fashion week without some Singapore designers?

I caught up with the Danelle Woo of Aijek and Sylvia Lim of Triologie for an interview on their thoughts of showing during AFF for the first time -

Naked Glory: You've been designing for quite a while now. How do you feel about being invited to show at this year's AFF? 
Sylvia Lim: This is Triologie’s first at Audi Fashion Fest. It feels like Alice in Wonderland as we anticipate seeing the surprises behind each door. All good and very exciting times for Triologie!

NG: Who is the woman that dresses in Triologie?
SL: Triologie is conceived for the modern female who loves to discover and enrich her life with fresh experiences. Dreamer, traveller and trendsetter all at once, the Triologie woman possesses a timeless fervour for life, transcending boundaries with delightful ease. Embracing spontaneity, wearability and versatility.

NG: I noticed that you draw your design inspirations from several different sources. How does the design process work between the two of you and how does it translate into the actual product? 
SL:  It’s about story-telling. Each season, we create our own stories for the Triologie woman who embraces spontaneity, wearability and versatility through its silhouettes and detailing with a consistent handwriting. Designing is about story-telling and fashion is a lifestyle. Whether Tales of the Jazz age based on 1920s silhouettes, to Wizard of Oz in the 1930s, Quintessentially French to Audrey Hepburn at Breakfast at Tiffany’s in the 50s. Each season we tell a story based on a certain time period, fabric story colour palette and silhouette. Jenn takes care of the design process primarily while I fine‐tune and edit. I am the one who says all the “Nos” to all the “Yes”. I am the more evil of the two.

NG: How do you hope for the brand to progress forward in the next 3 years? 
SL: My greatest hope is for someone/people who believe in Triologie to take it to their own countries! I need to clone myself!

Naked Glory: Hi Danelle! Welcome back to Singapore! How do you feel about being back? Has anything changed for you? 
DW: It's awesome to be home!! The best experience for me since being back has to be meeting my customers. I returned to Singapore for good early this year, and met my customers for the first time at the stores when we dropped our new arrivals for spring summer. Through the 4 years since Aijek's birth, i have been working with my head buried in my designs and fabrics. The clothes were selling well and we have had great responses from stores in US, Hong Kong and Singapore but I have never really met customers face to face before. We may not know each other's names but we connected instantly. They spoke to me about their lives, their family, their friends who also are Aijek fans. It was like revisiting a old photo album for them, vividly remembering the night out with their girlfriends while wearing Aijek. But it was everything to me - I finally understood that Aijek is not just about clothing, it is about people.

NG: You actually have a stronger presence in US and China, where you used to live, as opposed to Singapore. How do you feel about showing here for the first time?
DW: Surprisingly, we have a large customer following in Singapore. The stores that stocks Aijek has been garnering a following since the last 3 years when the brand launched. I am proud beyond words to be opening the show for the Singapore Designers Showcase. We have come to long way to be here from starting up in a home studio in Shanghai to being stocked in various parts of the world, to now doing our very first runway in Singapore. On a personal note, it holds great meaning to be showing in Singapore after 15 years on the road and coming home full circle - it's an unexpected welcome gift for Aijek and myself!

NG: Tell me more about your recent SS14 collection. I see lots of lace, embroidery and jacquard - is there a deliberate move towards using such textured fabrics?
DW: We wanted to inject textures and variety to our silk and lace pieces Aijek is known for. This season we ventured into contrasting floral embroidery, and tone on tone embroidery to romanticize the collection. The collection called Fly Home is about discovering a woman's journey into the world and coming back home to finally understand the ironies and contradictions life has on her. It is about the opposites of the reality of life and the fantasy of dreams. We used leather on soft silks and laces, as well as feminine and masculine opposing silhouettes to create an interplay of opposites.

NG: What can we expect from you for upcoming collections? 
DW: Aijek is known to our customer for its easy to wear, timeless pieces. We continue to appeal to the modern women on the run, flying between cities for work, making time for the family. The real women i see today. We speak to them to create pieces that fits into their lifestyles, their personalities. Aijek's silk and lace feminine pieces continue to be our signature, as we inject new elements season after season.

With elegant dresses and easy casual wear separates with a strong attention to detail, cut and quality, it's no wonder that Aijek has captured the hearts of many women in Singapore and internationally. I'm definitely hoping to see more from this amazing lady in the future.

AFF 2014 - Roberta Pieri x Jonathan Liang SS14 and DressCamp FW14

I was really excited to learn that Jonathan Liang would be showing his SS14 collection alongside Italian leather bag brand Roberta Pieri. I have been following his works since two years ago when I first saw it on a small runway during the opening of Workshop Element over at Wisma Atria (now closed and moved to Westgate). Liang has always been very good combining modern, edgy elements with femininity, which is almost akin to my own personal style. The garments carry an European sensibility with easy separates which translate easily from the runway to street.

For his SS14 collection, Liang took the inspiration of Bertil Nilsson's work on human anatomy, and vast seabeds and coral reefs and translated them into the textures in his clothes. Silk organza was overlaid simple separates of a crop top and pencil skirt, incorporated into paneled shirts and blouses - which gave the garment a beautiful movement while revealing and covering bits of the female body.

There was also tweed, pleather, and ring-spun jerseys, and I especially love how he mixed up the fabrics to give a peplum silhouette, but yet adding chiffon at the bottom of an ordinary peplum pencil skirt. Once again, a laudable collection with versatile separates that can easily fit into the modern girl's wardrobe.



Dresscamp, by Japanese designer Iwaya, was brought in by Parco Japan this season, a stark contrast to Jun Okamoto's poetic collection last year. Inspired by the Japanese version of the musical "The Threepenny Opera", Dresscamp's FW14 collection followed the dramatic elements of the 1920s musical comedy era of The Threepenny Opera with white tights, headpieces, ribbon neckties and ruffles seen on both male and female models alike.

The dramatic prints and styling, however, did not detract me from noticing the mastery in cut in the blazers and puffer jackets for menswear, which stood out for their precision, ending just right to control the silhouette projected. Quite a few of the prints for menswear was reworked into womenswear as well, as can be seen above, with added elements of lace, ruffles and tulle fabricated into dramatic silhouettes of a nipped in waist and voluminous skirt. I particularly liked a dress that featured tulle stuffed with roses, which I unfortunately couldn't get a photo of. The coveted accessory of the show was actually a gold-framed handphone case crafted to look what the modern day's Wicked Witch of the East might carry.

Even though I overhead some saying after the shows that the pieces were only showroom worthy, I thought the styling (especially hair and makeup) on the models reminded me of an earlier era of John Galliano's works, which I terribly miss. Kudos for Iwaya for bringing it back on the runway.

AFF 2014 - Ong Shunmugam FW14 and Farah Khan FW14

I first encountered Ong Shunmugam's work 2 years ago at the Blueprint Tradeshow 2012, when Priscilla Shunmugam was still a young designer. I was rather struck by her strong aesthetic of mixing various Peranankan prints and fabrics, and crafting it into modern dresses while still retaining traditional cheongsam elements such as mandarin collars, a nipped waist cut and side slits. Fast forward two years and she has her own solo show at AFF and I am sure that this can be attributed to her steadfast commitment to her aesthetic and also her listening to the women whom wears her designs.

For this season, Shunmugam drew inspiration from the book Madness and Civilisation by Michel Foucault and applied concepts of control, conformity and confinement to her collection. The color palette was kept to only blue and yellow, with a self-imposed rule that there must be mandarin collars on every look. This translated well intoblue grey and muted yellow dresses with butterfly sleeves, which then progressed into A-line pleat dresses, mini playsuits and separates with crop blouses and culottes for the modern woman. I also particularly liked the slight emphasis on the shoulders, brought out through tailoring and color contrasts, which brought out a woman's natural curves and hourglass figure.

For the second half of the show, Shunmugam went back to what she was familiar with - mixing prints on her classic cheongsam silhouette, which she has been doing so well for the past few seasons. I do have friends telling me that while they love her designs, the pieces are too memorable to be worn repeatedly and I do wish for her to display greater versatility as a designer for future seasons. 



I will be frank - I wasn't familiar with Farah Khan and her label before her show at AFF. The designer surprised me with her mastery of sequins and beading - the entire collection featured looks crafted out from that. The sequined houndstooth and geometric print tunics really stood out to me for its originality, and it's hard not to marvel at the precision of the positioning of each sequin embroidered onto the tunics.The houndstooth prints were translated into mini shift dresses styled with leggings as well - very 60s, reminiscent of the Twiggy and Mary Quant Mod era.

Mink collars and sleeves with fur accents were added to give a touch of luxe, with the latter half of the show progressing to longer hemlines. There was a hint of 1920s Great Gatsby reference with looks featuring sequined cardigans paired with pussybow blouses and a maxi chiffon skirts, as well as fringe micro flapper dresses. For the evening, the monochrome color palette was made high impact with geometric patterns printed on full sleeved maxi gowns. Altogether, a very tight collection that had a strong vision. Kudos to Farah Khan for pulling it off!

AFF 2014 - Prabal Gurung FW14 Singapore Debut

Fashion week here in Singapore was just over and out from all the shows which I've seen during the week, my favourite was still Prabal Gurung. Prabal was supposed to come to AFF last season, but due to some changes in schedule, he couldn't make it in the end, so his appearance this time was highly anticipated and lauded by the Singapore media as he was born in Singapore.

You know how people always want to claim the stars only after they shoot up in the sky, but I have been following his work rather closely since 2 years ago. That aside, his Fall Winter 14 collection was pure poetry and really resonated with me. The show opened with chunky cable knit sweater paired with a wispy chiffon skirt and mohair vest draped casually over the look - setting the tone for the subsequent looks to come. Heavy pashmina scarves and more knit sweaters were balanced off with light chiffon and satin skirts with sandals embellished with anklets with tiny bells handmade from Nepalese artisans.

The color palette progressed from grey to Mustang red, and from knits to draped blouses and deconstructed pantsuits, which drew inspiration from the villagers clad in soot red long robes in Nepal. I especially love the mix of fabrics and deconstruction for the last few looks, which featured cotton, satin blend and tweed, draped across the body effortlessly and with asymmetric high cuts that showed bits of skin as the models strutted down the runway. The show closed with two (out of the four) evening gowns from his FW14 - chiffon turtlenecks embroidered with Swarovski crystals and flowing chiffon with thigh high cuts. Set to the slow piano soundtrack, they ended off the last words of his poetic expression beautifully.

Really so beautiful I can cry.

London Fashion Week - Fashion East New Gen

Since its inception in 2000, Fashion East has been championing and nurturing emerging British designers. Each season, a seasoned panel selects three womenswear and three menswear designers to present their collection to international press and buyers during London Fashion Week. Lulu Kennedy, as the driving force and pioneer behind Fashion East, also offers these young designers mentoring and in-house PR throughout the season. It is no surprise to find that Jonathan Saunders, House of Holland, Marios Schwab and Meadham Kirchhoff are among some of the notable alumni under the Fashion East programme.

The show kicked off with Ryan Lo's girly, kitschy aesthetic. Models came out in frothy pink tulle and organza skirts, strawberry print shirts and lace dresses in shades of pastel, complete with super cute animal ears. I liked that the skirts were paired with Converse sneakers, which offset the extreme girliness of each outfit. My favourite is a daisy knit cape, which immediately brings me to the warm sun of summer and joyful abandonment. Another favourite is a pink candycane striped coat, with exaggerated volume.

Ryan's maximalist sensibility is a significant departure from the usual runway creations, but at the same time really relevant for today's pop culture. I can totally visualize some of his knitwear pieces on Japanese and US pop stars.




Second to show was Claire Barrow, whose collection in greys, blacks and white cotton drill was a stark contrast to Ryan Lo's. The models paraded down the runway barefoot and many of them were not professional models, but instead casted from the streets. I appreciated the raw, punk feel of Claire Barrow's show, with its unfinished hems, handpainted leather jackets and graffiti-like handpainted motifs.


And finally, my favourite came from Ashley William, showing contemporary womenswear inspired by Miami Vice. The models looked like they have just came back from frolicking at the beach party the night before and were still soaking in the sun rays till the late afternoon. I especially liked how the show opened with a few denim dresses with pleated raw edge front panels, and then progressed to more tongue in chic references to the Miami beach - speedboat motifs, Dream Boat and SOS slogans printed on glossy silk jumpsuits and netted dresses.

The models clutched bags in the shape of the Great White Shark and Hammersmiths - which I expect would be quite a hit when they drop next Spring. I like how even editors and stylists have taken a liking to "sillybags", and are pairing them with a minimal outfit, thanks for Charlotte Olympia and Kate Spade's recent collections. Popcorn bag, anyone? And finally, the appearance of Gary the Snail printed on bikinis and a halter neck mini dress injected much humour into the collection. Ah, finally a designer who doesn't take her work too seriously.

Watch the full show here.