Singapore Fashion Festival styles the region

Singapore Fashion Festival styles the region

Ve Handojo, Contributor

The fifth Singapore Fashion Festival, being held from March 24
to April 3, again highlighted Singapore's ambition to become a
regional fashion hub.

The annual event took place in the heart of Singapore, on
Orchard Road. In the center of Ngee Ann City, a huge tent was set
up. The runway inside became a stage where multinational brands
such as Versace, Kenzo and JPG displayed their Summer/Spring
collections.

The festival did everything possible to involve the public,
with entrance passes to most of the fashion shows freely
downloadable from the Internet. No wonder that all of the shows
were packed.

During the event, Singapore celebrated the style, beauty and
glamor of fashion culture. Local designer stores and brands such
as Pois, The Link and the new kid on the block, Hybrid-O!, showed
off their collections. Supporting events like a fashion
photography exhibition and beauty workshops were held to make the
festival a one-stop fashion shopping experience.

Singapore designer Ashley Isham returned home to applause from
an appreciative audience. His clever and neat British-influenced
designs proved a bit hit on the stage and on the streets.

With an established store in London, Isham has designed
clothes for Jordan's royal family, Princess Zara Phillips, as
well as pop star Dido.

Other local designers found it hard to share the limelight
with Isham. Their names blended together under brands such as
Hybrid-O!, which was established by four young Singaporean
designers. Their designs meet the needs of the public, much more
according to international trends, rather than serving as a
distinctive line.

Well managed by fashion business professionals, it is clear
that Singapore's designers have a chance to grab a big chunk of
the regional market. Over the past few years, labels like
ProjectShopBloodBrothers, M)phosis and bods have grabbed the
attention of fashion shoppers in neighboring countries.

In Jakarta, shoppers are more into bags by
ProjectShopBloodBrothers than local designers, because of the
quality and designs, and relatively affordable prices.

Brimming with confidence, Singapore continues to move to
establish itself as a regional fashion leader; quite an ambition
considering the relatively small number of fresh fashion
designers there when compared to other countries, like, say,
Indonesia.

The Singapore Fashion Festival was aimed at confirming the
island-state's position as Asia's capital of fashion shopping,
rather than being about fashion itself. The festival did not
focus on artsy haute couture, instead encouraging fashion
shopping by displaying ready-to-wear clothes.

International labels participated by exhibiting their drained
collections. The highly anticipated Versace show was not a
satisfying style gig because of clothes that looked tiringly
conservative. The evening gowns were repetitions of cuts from the
last two or three years, while other items looked as if they were
just discovered in a time capsule. The show confirmed Versace as
the "has-been" of the fashion world.

Meanwhile, the range of male suits by Givenchy failed to
impress most of the audience due to the absence of the more
daring colors and patterns presented by house designer Oswald
Boateng. Kenzo hit the right note, bringing cheers of approval
from the audience, yet this was simply because the clothes were
intended to meet local demand rather than to blow away people's
mind.

Surely this brought local designers much more to the front
line. The audience cheered the bods collection, and there was
notable applause for Individual Expression, which was a breath of
fresh air for Singaporeans.

It was definitely not an intended strategy to feature the best
collections of Singapore's local designers, along with
predictable items from multinational designers. Yet, through the
(intended) choice of models for the catwalk, the Singapore
Fashion Festival indirectly proclaimed to the public that wearing
local brands can help them look as international as their models
-- a bunch of slightly dressed guys and girls with Eurasian
faces.

The mission of the event was to provide a regional style
makeover. While regional designers are taking more and more
influence from Singaporean designers, the Singaporeans are
focusing on "what's happening" in London, Paris, Italy and other
fashion capitals in the world. In this way, Singapore is halfway
to confirming its status as a fashion hub to connect the markets
in neighboring countries with the biggest fashion capitals in the
world: Paris, Milan, Tokyo and more.

Though undaring in terms of designs, the Singapore Fashion
Festival still provided a valuable case study on the fashion
business and management. The government seems to understand the
long-term benefits of this big-budget event. Through the
Singapore Tourism Board, the government supplied the majority of
the funding for the festival. Moreover, Mercedes Benz was the
presenting sponsor.

Clearly, they all played their parts in endorsing Singapore's
fashion business, and positioning the country to take a leading
role in the regional fashion industry.