#SGFASHIONNOW at Asian Civilisations Museum
Singapore fashion and craftsmanship
By FAM
#SGFASHIONNOW, ACM x LASALLE. Image courtesy of Asian Civilisations Museum.
For the first time at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), a showcase dedicated to contemporary Singapore fashion opened to the public on 25 June, and will run till 19 December. It features eight fashion labels from Singapore: Andrew Gn, Baëlf Design, Carol Chen, winner of the first Singapore Stories competition organised by the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF), LAICHAN, Ong Shunmugam, Studio HHFZ, Stylemart and Time Taken to Make a Dress. This is presented in collaboration with LASALLE College of the Arts and Textile and TaFF.
This is not the first fashion-focused project at the ACM. A recent show ‘Guo Pei: Chinese Art & Couture’ was curated by Jackie Yoong, Curator, ACM, Fashion and Textiles, and Peranakan Museum, which ran from 15 June to 15 September 2019. The museum also unveiled its Fashion & Textiles gallery in April 2020 with ‘Fashion Revolution: Chinese Dress from Late Qing to 1976’. ‘Fashionable in Asia’ is currently on display with more than 20 new acquisitions including batiks from Java, printed cottons from India and painted silks from China.
Four of the five student curators. From left to right: Celestine Wong, Felicia Toh, Gabrielle Yeo and Jessica Suwito.
For #SGFASHIONNOW, five student curators from the School of Fashion at LASALLE College of the Arts — Celestine Wong, Felicia Toh, Gabrielle Yeo, Guo Lile and Jessica Suwito — worked together under the guidance of lecturers and the ACM curatorial team to weave a story about their view of contemporary Singapore fashion.
Details of Cheongsam with cape, Ong Shunmugam by Priscilla Shunmugam, collection of ACM, gift of Paige Parker. Image courtesy of Asian Civilisations Museum.
Front of Cheongsam, collection of Studio HHFZ by Hu Ruixian. Image courtesy of Asian Civilisations Museum.
The student curators were selected in a competition run within their curriculum by judges Circe Henestrosa, Head of School of Fashion, LASALLE College of the Arts and the co-curator of ‘Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up’ at the V&A Museum which ran from 16 June to 18 November 2018; Kennie Ting, Director, ACM; Ho Semun, Director, TaFF and Tjin Lee, Founder of Mercury Marketing and Communications. Their winning proposal was selected for its clear focus on craftsmanship as the central theme for the showcase, with clear ideas for exhibition display and complementary educational programmes. The prize was the chance to work on the exhibition with Yoong and the curatorial team, as well as Barbara Fras, Deputy Director, Audience, ACM, and her team.
The intimate showcase presents work by both emerging and established fashion designers, so that a cheongsam made by Ong Shunmugam for Paige Parker, a major supporter of the exhibition, is placed with another cheongsam made by Studio HHFZ with the fabric featuring a print by local illustrator Ly Leow, for example. What stands out with both these pieces is the liberty that they both confidently take to adapt them for contemporary wearers. Priscilla Shunmugam, Founder and Designer at Ong Shunmugam added a dramatic cape to the traditional silhouette, while Hu Ruixian of Studio HHFZ added deep pockets to a garment that usually has none.
Gara and kebaya. Collection of Stylemart by Kavita Thulasidas. Image courtesy of Asian Civilisations Museum.
Craftsmanship in its traditional and experimental forms are represented in the display. An elaborate gara sari and kebaya combination presented by Kavita Thulasidas at Stylemart features intricate silk thread embroidery on the former and bright beading work on the latter, inviting the visitor to take a closer look at the care and precision that defines traditional craftsmanship. Next to it, we see the Jing dress, which forms part of the Anthropology of Cultural Dementia collection from Baëlf Design duo fashion artist Jamela Law and industrial designer Lionel Wong, originally commissioned by the National Museum of Singapore, and on loan for this endeavour at the ACM. While taking inspiration from Chinese opera, the futuristic dress is a three-dimensional plastic print made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyactic acid (PLA), and a nylon corset boning with polyester chiffon inner layer.
Front of Jing dress, Baëlf Design by Jamela Law and Lionel Wong, National Museum of Singapore. Image courtesy of Asian Civilisations Museum.
Details of Jing dress, Baëlf Design by Jamela Law and Lionel Wong, National Museum of Singapore. Image courtesy of Asian Civilisations Museum.
As a complement to the physical exhibition at the ACM, an epublication sgfashionnow.com, documents the process that went into the making of the showcase, including the students’ interviews with all the designers to understand the role of craft in their work. Other content include essays and a glossary of terms that will be of interest to enthusiasts of fashion in Singapore. There is a rich conversation between Yoong and Henestrosa, where they exchange ideas about their individual approaches to fashion curation, and an anchoring essay about craft and creativity that shape the cultural hybridity of Singapore fashion written by Nadya Wang.
While the showcase is by no means exhaustive, it does offer a window into the work that Singapore fashion designers do, their sources of inspiration from Singapore and elsewhere, and their plans moving forward, which reveal key ideas about the Singapore fashion industry today that could spur conversations and efforts for how it could develop.
#SGFASHIONNOW is on view at the Asian Civilisations Museum from 25 June to 19 December. More information here. Admission is free. Do also visit sgfashionnow.com for a complementary digital experience of the showcase.
