He shall not be perceived, she shall not pick sides
She is not pigeon-holed, he might not be with your likes
They prefer to be unjustified but remained unrecognized
They lived in a different perceptions, in a world viewed in two dimensions
With no gender constrains, works from a lineup of Singaporean designers were put together to illustraten androgeny. It’s a celebration, not a demonstrational statement.
The Team
Photography / Micky Wong
Fashion Direction / Ashburn Eng
Model & Text / Luth Seah Zhiqiang
Hair & Make-up / Larry Yeo
Fashion Co-ordinator / Shanna Matthew
Special Thanks to
Lionnel Lim from E-3 communiations & design
Aaron Kok and Jasmine Tuan from Black Market
Anthony from Converse
Jeffrey and Desmond Yang from abyzz
Jr Chan and Keith Png from Hide & Seek
Stockists
1. Cotton shirt; drappery cardigan, Max Tan.
2. Backless top, Stolen at Blackmarket.
3 & 4. Quilted dress, abyzz. critter hat, Sundays.
5. Cotton shirt; jacket; woven bag (worn as skirt), ForInSaneHuman. Pleated necklace, Kwodrent at Blackmarket.
6. Cardigan; leggings, La Belle. fringe cardigan, Elohim at Hide and Seek. Multi-chain necklace, Unfinished at BlackMarket.
7. Shawl jacket; drop-crotch pants, La Belle. Sneaker, Converse.
8. Double-breasted Jacket, Coupe-Cousu. 6-sleeves top, Nikicio at Blackmarket. Vest with woven applique (worn reversed), ForInSaneHuman.
9. Pleated top, from Phylia Poh. Ruched leggings, from Mae Pang.
10. Critter hat, Sundays.
Coupe-Cousu, ForInsaneHuman, Le Belle, Mae Pang, Max Tan, Phylia Poh and SUNDAYS designs will be available from Parco at Millenia Walk from April 2010.
Quotes from fashion individuals about their thoughts on the androgynous aesthetics:
Ultimately, in essence, there is no difference between men and women. Accepting the other sex part uniqueness within ourselves could be the end of the quest for equality between men and women…
- Lionel Roudaut, LASALLE Fashion Design Programme Leader
Clothes serve its basic purpose of covering one’s body, to identify and to beautify. Why should clothes then be ‘en-slaved’ to becoming a uniform for a gender?
- Max Tan, fashion designer of max.tan
Androgynous fashion is not about donning apparel to resemble the other sex. It’s about adoring your own sex, it’s about being comfortable in your own skin, gender or sexuality, so much so that you do not care what contemporary apparel does to separate males from females
- Larry Lam, fashion designer of SUNDAYS
I think life will be pretty boring without people willing to push the boundaries and dress for themselves rather than being bothered with what the world says is acceptable.”
- Priscilla Tan, fashion designer of CHALK
Limitations are set by the general society on what can or cannot a man/woman should wear. However, watch out for the overlapping details from menswear to womenswear and vice versa.
- Terry Yeo, fashion designer of ForInSaneHuman
Androgynous fashion has existed before our time. It is not just in recent years that androgynous fashion was birthed. In 1920s, the flappers, they defied social norms and adopted silhouettes similar to boys
- Carlos Keng, fashion blogger of VOGUEITE
I think the general public in Singapore are able to accept certain androgynous style that is unisex and if they consist of silhouettes that is still deemed as acceptable dressing, it will still be difficult for them to accept a man wearing a skirt even if the skirt has an androgynous connotation attached to it.
- Tilly Soelistyo, fashion designer of TILLY
We’ve been ingrained from young to think that each gender must assume certain roles, to dress in a certain manner, and what is needed is to break free of those restrictions in your own head. Go spend some time in the opposite gender’s department, pick something up and head to the changing room and if it looks good on you, people aren’t going to question whether you found it in the menswear or womenswear department.
- Darren Ho, executive editor for August Magazine
I don’t think much can be done to force the public to accept what is viewed as fringe fashion except to give them time to be exposed to the unorthodox, and hope that they become more open-minded through education.
- How Kay Lii, fashion writer of Female Magazine
Why confine yourself to a constrained mind of the general, when there is plenty clothes out there to wear? Do you not find such restrainment limits your own growth and the progress choices in humanity?
- Larry Yeo, beauty editor of Test Shoot Gallery
I am a model who seems to pull off more feminine clothing more than anything. I feel that it all depends on the person. Most people would like to see me masculine but in all reality I am really not that masculine but not a girl either, I just feel comfortable in my own way
- Shaun Ross, Model
It doesn’t matter if you are boy or girl! Just enjoy the unbounded love of fashion!
- Ashburn Eng, founder and creative director of Test Shoot Gallery
