Features

Avant-garde fashion show dazzles at The LASALLE Show

Men's and children’s fashion wear from Ng Jia Min’s collection titled BEATIFIC

24 May 2019

From a kaleidoscope of colours to geometric patterns, graduands from LASALLE’s BA(Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles programme dazzled the crowd during the graduate fashion show with their creative and innovative use of materials in their fashion collections.

Titled Simulation, the annual fashion show featured 14 selected graduands’ collections. The graduands spent two full semesters preparing for the show. Dinu Bodiciu, Lecturer, Fashion, tells us about the process.

He said, “The Graduation Project consists of two phases. The first phase is the conceptualisation and design of the final collection, which involves research experimentation in support of the design process, and the second phase is the realisation of the collection, from the actual making of the garments to styling, portfolio development, design and preparation, a self-directed photoshoot and industry sponsorships and collaborations.

“This year’s fashion show also saw more industry sponsorships such as the likes of Swarovski, Takasago, Converse, YKK, KMS and Yimage who collaborated closely and supported the realisation of the graduates’ inspirations to reality,” added Dinu.

Ladies’ fashion wear from Zhang Yuehan Doris’ collection titled MAMEKOMALadies’ fashion wear from Zhang Yuehan Doris’ collection titled MAMEKOMA

This year, students were inspired by a range of themes including cultural heritage, materials, vanishing crafts and sustainability. We sat down for a chat with graduands Ruby Chairani and Sandy Ong to find out more about their environmentally conscious collections.

Sandy Ong’s (left) zero-waste inspired collection and Ruby Chairani’s (right) nature-inspired collectionSandy Ong’s (left) zero-waste inspired collection and Ruby Chairani’s (right) nature-inspired collection

Hi Sandy, we understand that your collection is inspired by zero-waste!

I was inspired to do a zero-waste collection because of the amount of wasted fabric during the production process. As a creative pattern cutting student, I feel that conventional drafting methods produce quite a large amount of waste. The wasted fabric being cut away during the production process usually accounts for about 15% fabric usage.

Tell us more about the techniques you used?

Sandy Ong

Sandy: There are several methods of doing zero-waste garments, but I have chosen to work with creating and designing my garments using three basic shapes: square, rectangle and triangle. The advantages of using this method are that the leftover pieces can be easily utilised and manipulated. My garments are created from squares, rectangles and triangles of different dimensions put together in a grid arrangement across the width of the fabric to minimise or eliminate waste.

I also looked into unconventional drafting methods, and one of the methods I used in my collection is Free Cutting. It is an experimental method of cutting and drafting that explores hollow construction and the idea that every garment is a cylinder.

Finally, I used fastenings that are easy to upcycle such as buttons and ties. I do not have zips in my collection, because during my research I realised that why brands and companies are not doing upcycling or recycling of garments is because it is expensive and time-consuming, and zips worsen the situation as more time and man-power is need to unpick the zips. Therefore, to encourage easy upcycling/recycling, I decided to not have zips in my designs.

Hi Ruby, are those real orchids in your collection? How did you manage to include them in your fashion wear?

Yes, they are real! For some of my garments, I experimented with dried orchids pressed between books and bonded them between two layers of organza in order to capture their natural state. By doing this, I wanted to illustrate that beauty can still be found in what is fading — in the case of flowers; something that is starting to wilt. Through a sponsorship from Swarovski, I added tiny pieces of crystals on top of the orchids in order to bring life back to what would have been disregarded.

What inspired you to incorporate orchids into your garments?

Ruby Chirani

Ruby: My collection focused on orchids because of their significance in both Indonesian and Singaporean cultures; two countries that have helped shape me to the person I am today. This collection emphasises the need to reconnect with nature, reminiscing on slowness through floral interpretations.

If you missed out on Simulation or The LASALLE Show Exhibition Opening, you may still view our BA(Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles programme graduating cohort’s collections now on display at #B1-09 till 29 May 2019 or check out the fashion show highlights on YouTube.

Cover image: Men's and children’s fashion wear from Ng Jia Min’s collection titled BEATIFIC