High style and glam in Singapore (Part 1)

Its fantastic year-long festivals on art, fashion, food, jazz (and what have you!); the amazing discipline of its people; the city’s cleanliness; the avenues lined by trees and flowers; and so many other admirable features truly make Singapore unique in all its aspects.

With this in mind and an invitation in hand (extended to us by Singapore’s hard-to-beat Singapore Tourism Board represented in the Philippines by that workasonic lady of Nancy Harel & Associates PR firm, Nancy Harel, herself) moi dearest palangga, Ethel Soliven-Timbol of Manila Bulletin Lifestyle editor were off in one of our very own "big bird," Philippine Airlines, to witness the fabi eight-day Singapore Fashion Festival’s grand finale.

Upon arrival at Singapore’s Changi Airport, one could immediately feel Singapore’s ongoing success story. We were told that visitors of this city has hit a record-breaking 7.69 million as of the start of 2001. Singaporeans also become one of the world’s top five convention cities and has kept its top spot in Asia for the 17th year in a row. This really makes you want to cry with envy–really!

We were met by our guide for the week, who always wore a smile. Instead of heading to our hotel, we first rushed off to the Grand Chapiteau to watch the fabi Cirque de Soleil’s Alegria.

This two-and-a-half hour spectacle is an eye-popping artistic and athletic showcase of human feats, palanggas. Alegria kept us hypnotized with its 56 multitalented performers who wore modern costumes and performed excellently choreographed acrobats and hair-raising stunts accompanied by incredible musical scores. Apres the magnificent show that dazzled us, we were taken to what would be our hotel for the duration of our stay in the city, the eye-catching, so accessible Intercontinental Hotel.

Early next morning we hopped onto a bumboat hour ride tour from the Clarke Quay Point along the Singapore River, passing the gorgeously awesome and Durian-like Esplanade Building which is all set for its grand opening. If Australia has its Sydney Opera House, and the Philippines our CCP, Singapore now has the Esplanade as its cultural center. The main artery of this vibrant city is the Singapore River which oozes with life compared to the old days. Today, endless sights and sounds can be found along this river, from Marina Bay all through Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay, passing along eye-catching hotels and a ride under the renowned Cavenaugh Bridge.

With the incredible success of their inaugural fashion festival last year, this year’s Fashion Festival 2002 returned with a vengeance on the runway. We found the designers more trendier, sassier, more stylishly hippie and sexier, dahlings. Fashionistas from all over Asia, the US, Australia, London, France, Italy and India had a special treat seeing the latest trends from style hotshot spots such as Paris, Milan and London. Singapore was virtually transformed into a breathtaking fashion gallery.

The dazzling happening was fabulously supported by the fantastic Singapore Tourism Board (as they do all the super events throughout the year.) The event had us agog over the urbane, glamorous spring/summer collection of Kenzo; Salvatore Ferragamo; Paul Smith; DKNY; A/X; and Calvin Klein, with an unbelievable close-up and personal view of Jean Paul Gaultier, the brilliant enfant terrible of the fashion world. There were also other exhibits, a jewelry show, and clothes from other fashion houses which attracted two million-something visitors from all over the world, especially Asians. Singapore is indeed establishing itself as the region’s fashion retail capital.

One of the biggest thrill of this fashion festival was the fabi, flamboyant, Fantastic World of Jean Paul Gaultier superbly organized by MS Twilight Pte. Ltd; L’ Ambassade de France; l’Alliance Francaise de Singapore; et l Association Francaise dé Action Artistique; and, naturellement, tres chic Air France, the official airline of this year’s grand fashion festival that flew designers and their collections to Singapore in the stylish-luxury of Air France’s Boeing 777.

Our adrenaline level rose higher as we entered the Asian Civilizations Museum located at Empress Place.

In keeping with this brilliant French designer’s unorthodox reputation, visitors are made to feel like Gaultier models by going through stages of a fashion show. We were asked to put on white smocks, after which we went up a flight of stairs, passing through gorgeous psychedelic colors into Jean Paul Gaultier’s World of Fashion.

Long lines of tables featured wild colored glass frames; over-sized earrings; Mexican and Inca Indian head gears; face stick ons in hearts; half moon; and star shapes and lip stickers, all in luminous neon colors. Next room had tables full of huge handbags; hip belts; finger rings; bracelets; plus so many other put ons that would made you a first prize winner in any Masquerade Ball; or a transformed model of Gaultier, dahlings.

In the next dark room we entered, huge books lay on a long table with videos on the ceiling aimed at each book which showed Gaultier’s fantastic women and men’s wear fashion show in Paris last March. These made us the viewers feel we were present during that show. Incredible!

Then we walked into the tour’s grand finale. We entered a function room featuring life-size mannequins with the actual gowns we saw earlier on the video-fashion pages. Wow! This way-out designer brilliantly used plumes; sequins; alligator skin; floral designs; and leopard-skin which featured intricate beads. Absolutely breathtaking!

As always, Gaultier showed us what he does best –break rules with style. F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!

Being a Gaultier model and a part of his world even for a couple of hours was an experience not easily forgotten. For a lunch break, we headed to the popular Blue Lobster restaurant, where the man himself of the resto, David Lee, took excellent care of us, as we dove into huge platters of lobsters, salmon, oysters, mussels, you name it, we had it.

With enough seafood in us to last a week, off we went to witness the Glamorous World of Blumarine, an eye-catching exhibition of fashion photography celebrating over 17 years, dahlings. This was held at the third floor above the popular Indochine resto at Club Street.

The fabi collection featured the works of famous photographers like Albert Watson; Helmut Newton; and Tom Walker, who collaborated with models such as Mila Jovovich; Naomi Campbell; Giselle Bundchen; Cindy Crawford; Nadia Averman; Carrie Otis; and Eva Herzizova for Blumarine ad Campaigns over the years. Each of the 39 photos on this exhibit captured the romance, femininity and sensuality that epitomize the Blumarine woman that fashion designer Anna Molinari is famous for. As early as 1985, Anna M. gave maximum importance to the image of Blumarine, working with a succession of photographers of fashion models of world-renowned. Looking at some of those photos on this page, will tell you exactly what Blumarine is all about.

By 6 p.m., we were all toured backstage at the French Flair show that was to start at 9 p.m. The tour had all of us writers from all over Asia watching the male and female models being made up, their hair set and told when and how to appear on the ramp. We also inspected the clothes of that brilliant Japanese designer Kenzo, whose Spring/Summer Collection was the grand event of that day. We then had a snack at the nearby colossal Fullerton Hotel before proceeding to the 8 o’clock cocktail reception at the Asia Civilization Museum, Empress Place.

We met many interesting celebrities and fashion designers including the hotshots of the night like the magnum chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, Yeo Khee Leng, and tall, dashing, French gent Herve Martin, Kenzo’s president directeur général.

Fifteen minutes before the exciting Kenzo fashion show, we walked to the historical Cavenagh Bridge which was transformed into a 30 meter-long catwalk (it was the first time that the landmark bridge was used for this purpose). By 9 p.m. sharp, we were seated elbow to elbow as Singapore’s hottest names in the social, business, media and fashion worlds, watched the entrance of the models wearing Kenzo’s prét-a-portér collection for men and women. This was the grand highlight of the French Flair, which featured French music as the models sashayed down the long ramp.

Kenzo’s top designer Gilles Rosier came up with a tres modern collection full of stylish, cool and fresh pieces using on sunkissed shades of green-tinted white, rose, sandy beige, hot concrete, safron, even lacquered red, jade and coral. His gorgeous play of fabric resulted in the tropical paradise effect of palm trees; birds in flight over silky jackets and embroidered small flowers scattered over shoulders of jackets. Kenzo’s fabrics were incredibly au naturel–crepe; mesh and metting; linen and crepe, perfect for sunny days. His men’s wear were cool and had loads of pale colors; some prints; slim pleatless pants; bomber jackets; body hugger shirts; slightly fitted formal suits; and a couple of striped pants.

Apres the fabi show, we had a one-on-one interview with Monsieur Hervi Martin at the Fullerton Hotel’s Coffee Shop. He was Kenzo ’s spokesman for the night.

Hervi M. told us that Kenzo launched Blue Label, his men’s collection. When we asked if Kenzo will go into haute couture, he answered, no, because he believes that his best sellers have always been his prét-a-portér collections since it reaches out to a broader market. Monsieur Martin also told us, "Kenzo’s interest in the Asian market goes back to the ’90s when he opened his first boutique in Shanghai." In China alone, Kenzo has 13 stores, with boutiques in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

Hervi M. also disclosed that Kenzo is going big with the launch of his footwear, mostly flat sandals with low and high straps for women, and men alike; together with hand and shoulder bags for women.

That hip partying, breezy night ended with a wild, super upbeat post event bash, held at the Centro, where the chi-chi set boogied till way past 3 a.m. and that’s real late for Singapore standards.- (To be continued)