A lot of art on the blog lately, right? I don’t mind, since I love art. Hopefully you can appreciate it too. But enough is enough. Time to shift the focus to another topic. Let’s talk fashion, shall we?

Thanks to my blogger friend Sylvia from the website 40+style, I have been to quite a few fashion shows and fashion events in Singapore. She often asks me to come along to take pictures and to keep her company.

You meet a lot of people that way and by now I get invites as well. Sometimes as a blogger, sometimes as a photographer.

Which are the best fashion events in Singapore

Yearly major fashion events

• Asia Fashion Exchange (AFX) : they organize the yearly trade show Blueprint, Audi Star Creation and the Audi Fashion Festival (AFF)
• Blueprint: international trade show. A combination of fashion shows, trade shows, and speeches.
• Audi Star Creation: focusses on young talent
• Audi Fashion Festival: promotes the best young fashion designers
• Digital Fashion Week (DFW): Asia’s self-declared highest profile designer showcaseFunny moment during a runway-rehearsel: Sheena Liam, Asia’s Next Top Model-winner, (on the right) and a fashion designer (?) practice their thank you bows and claps.
• FIDe Fashion Weeks: this is a huge event, but I heard that they will not return to Singapore in 2015
• Fashion steps out@Orchard: a yearly evening in which Singapore’s major road goes pedestrian and turns into a long catwalk. It’s free, it’s fun, it’s outdoor, even though last time only a few brands made an effort to turn it into a spectacle. I wrote about it here.

Incidental fashion events, shows and parties

My advice is to follow websites, brands and shops that you adore and to keep track of special events they may organize from time to time. This way you could catch a show like the ones I did, from e.g.:

• Gnossem: this website organizes parties and fashion events regularly
• Charles & Keith: this was a one-time event, to celebrate the opening of a new shop and to launch a new collection. It was the most impressive fashion event I attended! Ever. The number and calibre of celebrities was amazing, the party and the pampering were unbelievable and super cool! Read my review here and be wowed by the pictures. (I actually wrote multiple articles about that event.)

Kudos to the British Council

• A special mention for the British Council, who organizes a lot of fashion events and/or collaborates with other institutions.

What is it like to attend a fashion show - plus insider tips

I don’t know if you ever attended a fashion show, but if not, let me share some inside information with you:

• there’s almost always a lot of waiting involved. Shows tend to start later than scheduled. A few weeks ago, one of the shows was pushed back 3 hours! Yes, you read that right, three whole hours! And we, the people in the photographers pit, were not even notified. We just waited. And waited some more. And then some more…
• tips for handling the long waits:
  -bring a friend
  -bring your iphone or ipad
  -mingle
  -bring your camera; there’s a lot of extravaganza to see and shoot
  -bring a small bottle of water
  
• the level of comfort and pampering differs enormously. I have been at shows where we waited for an hour, standing on our pretty, but un-comfy heels. No seats, no drinks, no snacks, nothing. And then there were shows where there were drinks (champagne), canapés and places to sit while waiting for the show to start.
• the shows themselves tend to be short, sometimes very short. Around 20-30 minutes tops. This can be a bit anticlimactic after the long wait you just had.
• your experience will also depend on who/what your are:
  -celebrities and VIP’s get a special treatment. Their front row seats are reserved and they are accompanied inside, just minutes before the show starts. No long waits for them.
  -press photographers are directed to a designated area at the end of the runway, named the photographer’s pit
  -bloggers and other press people usually get front row seats, like the VIP’s, but they have to wait like everybody else
  -the rest of the guests will be seated behind the front rows, first come, first serve.
• on the seats, guests will often find gifts, ranging from a goodie bag to fashion magazines
• unless you are a VIP, a press person or invited, you have to purchase tickets for the shows. These can be pricey.
• it is often as much fun to observe the audience before and after the show, the fashionistas, as it is to watch the fashion and the models on the runway.
• don’t forget to bring your business cards, since these events are great for networking!
• dare to be different; one can not overdress for a fashion event. And if your outfit stands out, you will surely be approached by strangers. Again: great for expanding your network!

A clock-handbag, bleached hair and a Betty Boop onesie, or a boho-meets-rapper-meets-trailer-trash look will surely grab everyone’s attention. But you can also tone it down a bit and choose to go for a ‘just’ feminine and stylish outfit, like these ladies did.

Models

One of the things I like about fashion shows here in Singapore, is that they use both caucasian and asian models. I did not see many afro-american or latin models, but at least there is a mix.

Somehow there seem to be a lot of models from eastern Europe in Singapore; many girls (and boys) from Russia and the Ukraine. You can spot them easily on the streets: blond, tall, two-meter long thin legs (ok, exaggeration), pale, no make-up, no frills. Tiny shorts, a singlet and sneakers. Pretty and confident enough to be ‘effortless’.

The metamorphosis of a model on and off the catwalk can be extreme.
Recently, at a show, I saw a girl before the show. She was unable to walk in her heels and looked to the ground all the time. She looked like an introvert and a mouse. Later, on the catwalk, she was like a different person. Beautiful! See for yourself.

The norm that a model has to look as if she is severely depressed, sulky or scaring-ly moody puzzles me. One of the models at a recent show -yes, just one out of a dozen of models- had a modest, pleasant smile all the time. I loved it!
(Two sulky models top row, the smiling model bottom row)

At some shows it looks as if the models have been instructed to overdo that already weird model-runway-walk. At one show I thought they would tip over backwards, since they placed their hips forward and their shoulders and arms backward in the most abnormal, uncomfortable way possible. Weird!

Many male models have long hair, very long hair even. Don’t you just hate it when a man has longer hair then you?;-). Sometimes ‘hair and make-up’ does strange things with the hair of those long-haired male models. Like this strange side-bang.

Also not a big fan of men with handbags. You?

How about men with hairbands, like the three below? Not my cup of tea.
The dessins of Roggykei are supercool though!

Did you notice the footwear of the models in the picture above? Looks very uncomfortable and strange. I guess that’s ‘fashion’ with an edge;-).

I hope you enjoyed this insider report of the world of fashion in Singapore.

What about you?

• do you visit fashion shows?
• which one made the most impression on you and why?
• what fashion show (in which city, by which designer) would you love, love, love to attend one day?