Singapore Fashion Week 2017: Asia Fashion Designer Showcase

The annual Singapore Fashion Week was held from 26th-28th October 2017 this year at the National Gallery Singapore. I was blessed with the opportunity to attend this year's Singapore Fashion Week for their Asia Fashion Designer Showcase which featured designers from the Philippines, South Korea and Japan! One of the designers featured was Dav's previous professor so I was excited for her to witness his designs since she told me beforehand that he's really good and designs for royalty back in the Philippines.

I previously attended Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week a few years back so I knew I had to dress up for the show. To be honest, I was quite shocked that people were way less dressed up in Singapore Fashion Week compared to Kuala Lumpur's. Maybe it was just the guests for this showcase. As usual, fashion shows were delayed and I thought we would be allowed to enter after registration. According to the the invite, registration starts at 6:45pm and I only left house at that time. In my defense, I only reached home at like 4:50pm due to class before that. Even though I knew I could be there before 7:30pm (showtime), I was frantic when Dav called me and said she was there and queuing already. I was just worried that they were strict with seats and I would be sitting alone. I rushed like mad and arrived at around 7:15pm and bumped into my lecturer, Joyce at the lobby. Felt relieved to see her despite being all sweaty and disgusting by the time I arrived because at least I wasn't considered late then!

I always thought that Singapore manages everything well and systematically but I was so, so wrong! We were not only confused as to where exactly the show was at, the guests were all cramped up in a narrow corridor while waiting to enter the venue. And the worst part was there was no air-conditioning while we were waiting! Just imagine that horrific sight.. I seriously question the ability of the organizers because it was so badly managed. Finally when we got to sort of enter the venue, we were all in line to get inside the actual room. there were steps and no proper queue dividers so us being the batch that is quite close to the front were just clueless as to where to stand.

After about for another 10-15 minutes or so, we finally got to enter the venue. It was crazy entering though. They placed the photo wall really close to the stairs at the entrance making it impossible to get a shot without being photobombed by someone's arm or something. I have a photo but I don't want to make you cringe. The main photo wall with a professional photographer was way too bright which made my face look like a shiny pearl that just ran a marathon. I'm not even joking. Please don't laugh at me.

Anyway, since they closed off the seating area, the main area was getting really crowded so Dav, Mica, Shraddhaa and I headed over to the photo booth which was one side of the room. I felt like the hologram photo idea was pretty cool as it wasn't the typical printed photo kind. However the backdrop made it look like we were in F1 instead of Singapore Fashion Week. Okay, I get that BMW is the sponsor but still?? It should at least look like we were in Singapore Fashion Week as the props weren't enough to justify it. The other sponsors such as LG and NARS had booths tucked at one end of the room which was depressing to watch and a huge no no for future event notes. Also, did I mention the horrible club like lighting at the waiting area? It was totally not instagrammable at all and there were just pink, blue and purple lights flashing everywhere like a nightclub. If you tried to selfie, you'd look like Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. Oh, there was no music to hype up the atmosphere at all! There was just really faint music from the backstage area and that was it. It was just awkward, as though the show ended already or something. Anisa told us to attend SFW17 and learn a thing or two to do for our event. Well, we definitely learnt all the things NOT TO DO at a fashion show.

We finally got to enter the seating area but some of us didn't get the seating card and ended up just randomly sitting because no one really followed the rules since the management was so messed up. We sat on wood benches that had gaps so my butt was hurting after sitting for awhile. And I'm someone that has some flesh on my butt.

Luckily we didn't have to wait long before the show started. We actually didn't even know the show started as there wasn't any announcement or anything at all. The model just suddenly came out and the runway started lighting up.

So first up was Vienique from South Korea. Her collection looked very classy combined with resort vibe with the relaxed pieces and touches of velvet and metallic.

Followed by Mimi Pimentel from the Philippines. This collection gave me the "glam office wear" feels.

Next was Steffy de Mylo by Stephanie Dacalus from the Philippines. Her designs remind me of modern women's wear crossover with neo-ethnic vibes. I really liked the pink dress with the empire waistline. It just looks so youthful and somehow like a modern day hanbok.

The 4th show was my absolute favourite! It was by Albert Andrada from the Philippines, also Dav and Mica's ex professor! My gosh, I snapped photos of every dress at least twice because it was all just too gorgeous. It was literally every princess' dream to wear one of those. I can't help but admit that I was imagining myself in those dresses for when I get married. They were all just so meticulously crafted, it gave me chills. I'm still in awe right now while I'm typing this.

I couldn't narrow down the top 3 pieces so I just had to show almost every dress.

Look at this masterpiece.

All I can say is that I'm truly amazed with every single look. It literally took my breath away and I felt like the show was too short for me to even truly enjoy the pieces.

Lastly, it was Zin Kato from Japan. His designs felt like it was inspired by Halloween or the creatures in the woods. There were a lot of fairy-tale villain elements in the designs and somehow the designer really looked like the style of his designs!

The show ended earlier than anticipated and everyone just couldn't wait to leave. Overall, I was utterly disappointed by my first Singapore Fashion Week experience. Did I learn something from the show? Yeap, but in all the worst possible ways. Do I want to attend again? Probably not. One thing though, I was surprised that Malaysia did something better! Seriously, KLFW was a lot better! We even had goodies bag and the whole atmosphere felt like a fashion week like it should be, rather than a nightclub. I'm just hoping the next SFW would be improved and they should really change next year's venue.