Parco next Next

It had been nearly a week since the Parco designers showed at Milennia Walk. There were 25 designers that showcased their works, and each with their view of how fashion in Singapore should look like today. Although some had a forward vision of how it should look, many seemed to be stuck in their own dimension of time.

Last week, I bumped into Emma Dick, the fashion head of department of Lasalle, College of arts. We were both equally excited that fashion in Singapore is finally opening up for exciting visions.

One argument to that aroused a discussion though, that the quality of production did not go on par with the quality standards of international fashion from London, Paris, New York and Milan. If local designers really want a breakthrough in terms of standard of quality, should we be looking into production overseas?

Another would be the perception of fashion in the consumer masses here. The general consensus of fashion here would be the value of a garment, instead of conceptual thought. Local publication seemed to draw a pretty clear division of high & low, indie and what’s hot and not. Therefore, you cannot blame it that some designers are stuck in time, because the publication industry here seemed to be stuck in the same situation. If there are no forward discussions on fashion connecting with art, society, culture and philosophy, the perception of fashion would remain superficial.

Whatever may be, it is indeed exciting that Parco made this move, to try escalate and promote different points of view in fashion and presenting it in one show. It will be better if Parco decides to bring in international designers and place them on parallels of local designers, and putting them on the same platform. Although, for sure, the effect of Parco might not be as powerful than huge fashion names like Club 21, the beginning of change promises for greater growth in the fashion industry here.

Aimei with Mae Pang

Pauline with pauline.ning

Veliani with Vaniel

Photography by Brendan Zhang - Milk Photographie

Text - Sunny Lim

Pen it Down.

Writers are a honest bunch. To be a good writer, you will need to be transparent and express with courage. You will tend to magnify seemingly insignificant negative emotions, and analyse them a great deal, in order to capture the attention of readers who shouldn’t have bothered to bring negative attention upon themselves.

It is easy to draw inferences, albeit from a single statement, about a writer. This is because, any word spoken or written, must have originated from a single emotion or motive. It must be significant enough for the writer to have the motivation to pen it down. One statement leads to the next. In no time, the writer would’ve written one whole chunk about him/herself, and you wouldn’t have noticed it unless you read between the lines.

If a writer has too much reservations about negative responses from his/her readers, he/she would’ve created a constraint for his/her writing. Treading in fear, this writer wouldn’t go far. For every statement this writer makes, he/she would’ve tried to cover his/her tracks by writing something in contradiction. Hence, a lack in transparency makes a piece of writing valueless.

Writing is experimenting, is expressing biased opinions, is styling an emotion, is painting any visualisations with words, is communication, etc. Writing can arise from various motives: persuasion (such as for political interest), self-benefit (e.g venting or voicing an emotion or view), congregation for specific groups, education, etc.

A good piece of writing should be value-adding to the reader; either in the form of offering new ideas/views, or positive influence on reader’s psychology, either way means increasing the reader’s utility. It should also be a sincere proof of the writer’s true thoughts or feelings. For if the origin of a piece of writing is ingenuine, there isn’t any real goal to be achieved, and thus what is brought across will be sloppy and weak, compared to a piece of writing written with clear, defined and purposeful goal. It will also be less credible. In all, it will simply be meaningless.

Anyone literate can be a writer, for every individual at some point in his/her life, will come across at least one of the above mentioned motives, and every individual has their own unique opinions which will be valuable to the big pool of readers, consisting of every other possible writer out there. We should start penning down our ideas as it not only aids us in interacting our minds with our emotions (and hence achieving a delicate balance with the mind and soul), it also aids us in achieving great ideas from the pool of writing, that will help bring the society forward in development; not forgetting transcending our level of civilisation.

Jade Lee

Kreme de la Kreme

It is very common these days for artists collaborating with fashion labels (Stephen Sprouse + Louis Vuitton), and magazines (Damien Hirst + POP), but it is definitely a fresh concept when you see an artist collaborating with a beauty brand.

Brian Donnelly better known as his artist alias KAWS who has his own limited edition line of toys and clothing, has collaborated on numerous projects with Marc Jacobs, Kanye West, Comme Des Garcons and New York Magazine. And now, his latest project is with Kiehl’s. The artistic labels of these moisturizers are designed by KAWS and all proceeds are going to various children charities.

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Creme de la Creme with a graphic twist

So if you’re over at NYC, be sure to get down to third ave to get your hands on this limited edition moisturizer! I wonder if these bottles will find its way here in Singapore, and I sure hope they do!

With so many artist’s collaboration now, I wonder what can be the next artist collaboration that might surprise us. Some artist designing for designer frozen pizza’s perhaps?

$26.50 to $70 at Kiehl’s, 109 Third Ave., nr. 13th St.; 212-677-3171

Source: The Cut

next Next with Aimei(Mae Pang)

Photo Testshootgallery

Mae Pang would be on the pages on our editorial that is shot in Osage Gallery, get to know more about her collection for Parco’s show today in our little chat here.