Depression’s inspiration this season is attributed to ‘plastic surgery’ because of the deconstructing of forms and re-arrangement to form a better, more cohesive whole. The predominant colours are cobalt blue, grey and black and white that convey a sense of somberness.

WHAT WE LIKED: Like the rest of the collection, each of Depression’s pieces each have a complex personality. A whimsical facial profile embedded in the white ellipse of the dress’ frontal view takes a cerebral and satirical stab at the notion of the clothes wearing the wearer. This is done by mirroring the model’s dramatic headdress with the model herself – the head as the body and the headdress as a dress.

The beautiful mask warrants its own section: childlike, porcelain, futuristic and hypnotic proportions turn the veneer into a dramatic undulating landscape of light and shadow. The stunning, translucent  polyuerathane outer piece is a potent investigation of Hellenistic sculptural drapery and natural rhythms of landscapes in modern materiality. The dynamic interplay of rigidity and fluidity, of transparency and opacity seen in the internal conversations between the mask and robe is a sight to behold.

WHAT WE DISLIKED: The studded accessory is rather inelegant and resembles a very uniform-like structure reminiscent of a dog collar or bondage attire.

As the name suggests, Alfie Leong’s A.W.O.L (all walks of life), is meant to be affordable so that people from all walks of life can purchase it. Each statement piece will help the consumer voice her inner style and personality.

WHAT WE LIKED: The lacy headgear that resemble protective leather caps pilots wear, conveys an Amelia Earhart-esque quality. This piece comprises of an overt white feathery coif that works well with with the overall masculine, structural interpretation of the femme hourglass silhouette. The print on the outerwear is a spontaneous explosion of energy that draws the eye across the core and emphasizes the effort made in constructing a shape that is feminine yet dynamic.

The quaint shirt-dress is precisely balanced with the peripheral cap, fur vest and gloves. The collar and buttons are remarkably beautiful and bring some aesthetic perspectives of men’s fashion successfully into the female fashion arena. The idiosyncratic gloves epitomizes the functionality and aesthetics of shape and structure – they wrap around the palm and fingers but crawl dangerously up the back of the hand, as if asserting that they are ready to be removed at any moment for some dirty hands-on work.

WHAT WE DISLIKED: The riot of textures in this instance is a bit too much to keep track of – from the ruffled, feathery cap, to the silky, slippery coat, and the leathery function of the gloves. The intricacy of the black leggings is a tad too overwhelming and the overall heavy-feel of this outfit is further weighed down by the frumpy overcoat. The gold belt causes an abrupt transition at the waistline especially in terms of color and texture.

Saturday’s Fall/Winter collection emphasizes asymmetrical aesthetics of imperfection, that conveys a sense of minimalism.

WHAT WE LIKED:  The use of layering to highlight the differences in materiality of fabric is smart. Further, the way the fabric is draped promulgates a sense of poise and refinement.

WHAT WE DISLIKED: This ensemble does not do justice to the model. In terms of its structural movement, they look like two isolated pieces and appear to just be a knit scarf, a cardigan and a wool skirt being thrown together without much thought.

The loose-fitting blazer is not form-fitting and does not flatter the the wearer’s  body proportions.

The Singapore’s Designers Showcase was certainly a breathtaking experience, and one could feel the level of creativity pulsating through the roof. Kudos to local talent!

WHAT WE LIKED: The houndstooth pattern embellishing the tweed top is both eye-catching and fresh. This versatile piece ought to be a staple in the wardrobe for it can be mixed and matched easily. Also, the zip down the front of the skirt is an interesting re-interpretation of the typical a-line skirt.

The use of  faux-black leather to line the top brings out the sleekness and would make it an easy piece to dress-up or dress-down.

The shimmery gold patchwork was successfully juxtaposed against the green, cream and black. Together, the aesthetic created by the dress invokes an an air of sophistication, and would certainly be one of the must-haves in a working woman’s wardrobe.

WHAT WE DISLIKED: Albeit the streamlined and elegant cut, this ensemble seems to be lacking intricacy. Furthermore, the same design was used for 3 different colours on the runway – not very original.

(Pictures courtesy of Asian Festival 2012)

It has been 10 years since the brand’s inception, and it has grown by leaps and bounds. It is now featured at numerous international stores. Their collection for the year is laidback with a touch of understated elegance and would definitely engage the fashion-conscious consumer.

Blueprint has gained strong buzz since its inception in 2010, when Asia Fashion Exchange was once mooted. The trade show was meant to live up to the objective of a fashion show: to get managers from stores worldwide to buy the collection and stock it in their shopfronts. Since then, it has been one of Asia’s most representative trade shows in profiling rising designers side-by-side, indeed living up to its umbrella brand’s namesake. There is a sense of newness in Blueprint that cannot be ignored once you traverse each label booth by booth; at times, it is wondrous as to the sheer number of fashion labels coming into the market (more than 120 brands will show this year).

Tracy Phillips (left) with Mark Lee

This year, fashion maven Tracy Phillips has been chosen to be the project director for Blueprint. She is most famously known for mooting A Curious Teepee at *SCAPE, before it closed its physical store and moved online. Those within the creative community will also know her for heading creative consultancy Present Purpose. It is a good move to select someone who is familiar with rising designer labels in the region and the world, having stocked some for her multi-label boutique. Already, the move to expand the brand repertoire at the trade shows is paying off well, but so is the focus to have a concurrent fashion show for buyers and media as well as boosting the public Emporium sale event.

On the buyers’ list for Blueprint 2012 is international online retailer ASOS as well as Hong Kong’s On Pedder and Lane Crawford teams looking to snap up some labels to add to their roster. Country collectives are also grouping brands to show, such as South Korea which will bring in Men’s Fashion Week 2012 label D.GNAK that impressed with their whimsical Charlie Chaplin-like attitude. Besides all Future Fashion Now brands showing, a strong Singapore showing is set to wow, with stalwarts like sifr, SUNDAYS, Depression, MAE PANG and Sabrina Goh’s Elohim and Light fashion houses. Amongst new showings, buzzed-about labels MILS, Ong Shunmugam, By Invite Only and L’ile Aux Ashby will grace Blueprint’s trade show.

It must be said though that the market for urbanwear in Singapore has been far more successful in the mainstream than in other fashion types, judging by the mix of high-street and urban fashion generally seen in Singaporeans. Thus, it seems apt that urbanwear Barcelona trade show The Brandery will be setting up an Asian trade show at Blueprint. The co-location will see some 20 established and up-and-coming brands, including BAGGU, Feiyue, FEMMEX, Flesh Imp and N.Tyler.

Blueprint will also showcase selected brands in Cruise 2013 shows, which differ from Audi Fashion Festival’s Fall/Winter 2012 shows. By keeping the focus on the closed-door fashion shows for media and buyers to follow the current fashion cycle, the divide makes sense and is probably one of the best ways forward of how fashion should move into rather than just descending into a heap of chaos trying to design six months early for the wrong audience. Expect the editors to turn out in droves when labels such as UK’s Oswald Helgason and Singapore’s Possi-tilly-ty walk the runways. A show where editors do not have to contend with the public? We are sure magazine scribes are gloating in their seats as we speak.

That is no means for the public to be up in arms over, as the Blueprint Emporium opens from 19-20 May with a selection of most brands at the tradeshow plus new ones to buy from. Multi-label boutiques are all the rage now retail-wise with their added layer of brand curation and are set to make their presence heard at Suntec, including Singapore shopfronts threadbare & squirrel and Curated Editions. Expect labels such as bespoke jeansmith Ober.Blünck.Denim and womenswear label ZAAK to sell and, yes, those urbanwear brands at The Brandery Asia are up for sale as well. A slew of promos and giveaways (first 50 in line each day will win Gruuve Wood headphones) will make this shopping event one to head to.

Touting itself as Asia’s only tradeshow showcasing Cruise lines and one with emerging designers will bode well for Blueprint as it begins to place its foothold on the regional fashion scene. All it needs is more media to recognise its trump cards and buyers to flock to where the buzz is beginning to build. We shall have to wait and see how this year’s showing turns out but Blueprint may very well be the dark horse of the AFX lineup: one that still needs some time to get warmed up to due to its largely insider pandering but a well-crafted, curated and focused trade show that may yield some handsome results down the road.

Visit Blueprint on Facebook here. Admission to Blueprint Emporium on 19-20 May is free, at Suntec Singapore, Level 2, Ballrooms 1-3.

Festival director Tjin Lee launches AFF at the AFX press conference (Picture: AFX)

The tents are coming up once again at Orchard Road, a familiar sight come May. Uptown Singapore relishes once again at the herald of Audi Fashion Festival, a 5-day fashion week featuring a curated selection of Singapore, regional and international talent. The show has been in competition with Fide Productions’ lineup of menswear and womenswear fashion weeks and is set to face stiffer competition when STORM Creative Events Agency launches Digital Fashion Week, the world’s first live-streaming only fashion week and one to champion mostly Singapore designers. With many players fighting for a slice in the fashion market, Audi Fashion Festival has had to undergo various changes to its modus operandi; it was only in 2010 that Singapore Fashion Festival made way for its Audi reincarnation as well as its three sister events. The holistic think-tank approach to fashion is one that is beginning to ping on the radar of the Asian fashion scene as more talent comes to show in Singapore.

Nicola Formichetti of Mugler, Roland Mouret, Zac Posen (Pictures: WENN.com, AFF Facebook)

This year, the lineup of opening/closing shows remain; labels Mugler and Roland Mouret will walk the shows respectively. Mugler’s creative director Nicola Formichetti and Roland Mouret himself will be coming to Singapore to stage their shows. Interestingly, Nicola has been in the news recently for announcing the start of his own online-only fashion label geared towards meshing technology into fabric and fashion. He will definitely be mulling over a couple of ideas for his line when he comes to Singapore, which could provide an excellent scoop for the media here. Also in the lineup is Zac Posen, who has had a rocky period getting back into the fashion radar after garnering a negative reputation within the industry a few years back. Things are now looking up for Zac: his dresses are popping up in red carpets, he can count on besties like Coco Rocha to vouch for him and he released a capsule collection under diffusion line Z Spoke for retailer Lord & Taylor. Venturing into Asia is just another bold step for a label looking for a fresh start and a new lease of life.

Timo Weiland, Yeojin Bae, Esther Perbandt (Picture: AFF Facebook)

A big ethos this year for the fashion community is the support for emerging designers, most vividly seen by Blueprint’s “Wear Emerging Designers” campaign and Men’s Fashion Week’s lineup of rising Asian menswear names. A calculated push by Singapore fashion media is seeing some household names pop up in recent times, and labels such as Mae Pang and Max Tan are receiving their time in the spotlight in new retail-to-runway concept Future Fashion Now (FFN). According to Couture Troopers, a look that walks down a FFN runway (livestreamed on AFF’s website) will be uploaded on the FFN website simultaneously, allowing the online user the chance to zoom and pan the image before adding it into their cart and paying straightaway. That is right: the possibility of you buying the label even before the final group walk is here. The first night will see Yeojin Bae debuting sister label YB J’aime together with Esther Perbandt and Timo Weiland. Jonathan Simkai, Saena and Juma will walk on Night 2, before Mae Pang, Max Tan and Dzojchen light Singapore night on fire on Night 3. alldressedup‘s runway show on Saturday will also be under the FFN label.

A show that goes heavily noticed by the media but swept under the rug by general public perception is the Parco Next Next show, held at an early time which discredits its power. It is full house at each show every year, which is something you will never see on the opening and closing shows. Fashionistas decked out in Singapore’s best mill the tents as the incubator’s selected labels walk down the runway, most of them showcasing their maiden collections. However, Parco Next Next seems like the token “Singapore fashion” runway show to the average layman. Not anymore, if AFF is to decide: on May 8, the festival announced the introduction of the Singapore Designers Showcase to fill a gap between upstarts and Singapore labels who have the resources to stage a solo show. Cult labels a.w.o.l. (all walks of life), S A T U R D A Y and Depression will walk the show. These labels come wielding their own set of chops; the latter two brands count collaborations with Vice and Vanity, and Actually… respectively. a.w.o.l. remains a celebrity favourite, with Vivian Lai wearing the house’s polka-dot maxi dress to this year’s Star Awards.

a.w.o.l., S A T U R D A Y, Depression (Pictures: Designers’ Facebook pages)

They will show 15 looks each from their upcoming Fall/Winter 12 collections, which also highlights a seismic shift of sorts: the show kills the 6-month advance of runway shows and brings back normalcy to the fashion cycle. Magazine editors everywhere are choking on their cuppa latte, but there comes a point when it is just sheer ridiculousness to seek refuge from the sweltering heat and sit through a collection of overcoats, scarves and knits. Parco Next Next‘s lineup is also the strongest in years: buzzed-about labels such as Mils (back from a rad showing at Aussie Fashion Week), Mash-Up (its DIY-kitsch ethos scored a feature on Catalog Magazine’s denim issue – the first under new editor Jazmin Kelly Six) and Lion Earl (which has picked up a second stockist at Threadbare & Squirrel and counts rising blogger Rana Wehbe-Flinter as a fan) are walking the runway together with Quainthood, 20:Two:Three, Episene and second-term labels Pauline.Ning, Veira and Evenodd. Does it sound like a huge leap forward for Singapore fashion? A resounding yes, it is.

Labels like Raoul, alldressedup and Swarovski as well as the Cleo Runway Search will be coming back to AFF to showcase their latest collections as well. Look out for AFF face Fiona Fussi to make a splash on the catwalk too. It is baby steps for a fashion festival that is now beginning to realise its global ambitions but this year could be a turning point in a festival that has relied on heavyweight designers to life its brand: will Future Fashion Now and Singapore Designers Showcase be stalwarts in AFF’s calendar and given the chance to grow and be differentiating points in the region, or will the novelty of instant buying and Singapore presence fade away, just as the other headline designers have in past years? It seems industry and public reception will tell, but for a fashion festival that is placing Singapore on the world map, populist indicators may not be the way to go insofar as an awakening that the AFF brand now has a responsibility to spot and lift not only the future of fashion but those associated with it. Big shoes to fill, but for a namesake like Audi Fashion Festival backed by the government, the job is already half-done. See you at the shows.

Tickets for selected shows are available on AFF’s website. See the calendar of shows here. AFF runs from 16 to 20 May at Tent@Orchard.

However, at the essence of every artiste, no matter what the glamour may bring, is a person hoping to make it big which is exactly the premise behind A Chorus Line, a musical about young and veteran Broadway dancers auditioning for places in a chorus line. It is the sort of premise that may blow over your head if you are a high-flying executive with a six-figure salary and may have forgotten those times when you used to struggle behind a puny desk to get noticed by your boss. (I overheard a discussion where two dapper executives were baffled at the show’s seeming non-plot). Who would want to see a musical about dancers auditioning for a musical anyway? Yes, the rest of us who toil and cut our teeth in so many ways to get to (or aspire to get to) where we are and want to be in life.

The 1975 musical directed by Michael Bennett, plays up the stories of those behind the footsteps as each dancer reveals their backstory; among the 17 dancers that made the cut, Connie Wong laments about her short stature, Mark Anthony recalls when he had mistaken a wet dream for contracting gonorrhoea, Greg Gardner reveals how he would always get unsuspecting erections but never with a woman, Kristine Ulrich sings about how she cannot sing, Diana Morales regrets planning a future in acting only to find she is mocked in class for her lack of talent, and Val Clark admits the truth that every artiste considers: without perky tits and ass, you are nothing. (And she delivers in a hilarious foul-mouthed song that had the audience chuckling along.)

A major story arc is played by Anita Louise Combe, who plays Cassie Ferguson, a former love of choreographer Zach who had a successful career but is now down in the dumps and wants to start anew. We start to see an atypical tension between Zach and Cassie that is played with frustratingly superficial (read: acting vs. feeling it) effect. Once Zach broaches the topic of their past relationship, we begin to see shades of grey as Cassie wises up to Zach’s mistreatment of her during the audition. Anita plays Cassie with much dexterity, as she is devoid of the diva and attitude that time and experience usually grants a female starlet. Instead, Cassie’s bravado and humility shocks not only Zach but myself as not many people who have achieved success will want to start anew. However, her willingness makes it refreshing to watch especially in somewhat confrontational scenes.

As most of the characters are auditioning to be in an ensemble, there is not much attempt to ascertain who are the leading characters – after all, there is no lead in a choral setting. However, Debora Krizak almost steals the thunder from the show with her immaculate portrayal of Sheila Bryant, an aging dancer with a vampy, primadonna personality that is not even once detestable as it is laughable and endearing. From her come-hither gaze to her beauty pageant gait, Sheila is every bit the vixen she appears to be but her childhood past will make you realise why she acts the way she does. Even at the most crucial parts of her character’s life, she acts with so much regality and elegance that it is almost impossible to despise her arrogance, because you will fall for her charm and laugh at her expense.

Another standout lead is Euan Doidge who plays Paul San Marco, a gay Puerto Rican who drops out of high school and seeks solace in being a drag queen until his parents find out his night job. Paul’s masculinity and muscularity certainly does not fool us (and all you macho men out there definitely don’t fool us either, sisters) as he speaks with much fragility about his past in a monologue that does seem a tad too long but carries you on his journey to understand his reticence. At times, it does seem frustrating that such a gay stereotype is being played on stage but at least MDA did not cut this part out (but is focused on other trivial things like Vivian Lai and Kate Pang’s kiss). What leaves us hanging is after he has vividly recounted his drag queen days, Paul breaks down but alas, Euan acts out a half-hearted stage cry rather than actually slump into a pool of uncontrollable tears. It may be exhausting to break down every night during show, but for Paul San Marco, his sensitivity to his past makes it a no-brainer that tears must and will flow often.

What the musical achieves to great effect besides the impeccable, on-point dancing, is fleshing a Broadway show that is not about lavish sets or fancy numbers, but about exploring shades of grey and insecurities; What I Did For Love is an ending reply is unison by all the dancers once they are posed with the question “What will you do when you can no longer dance?”. However, one cannot deny that the character stereotyping and dated ways of thought hark back to the ’70s when homogenised culture was not the norm and people still behaved and articulated in ways native to their own towns. A Chorus Line still manages to keep itself timeless because questioning oneself, shedding the past and making dreams happen is as timeless as hard work and effort ever will be. For that, this is a musical indeed for anyone who has ever struggled and is willing to put everything on the line for one last stab at making it big. A must-see but be prepared that this is not your typical flashy musical. If you have a penchant for stories, struggle and song, A Chorus Line is for you.

P.S. Be warned: no intermission. Do your business before you enter, lest fidgeting in your seat for 2 hours and 5 minutes is your kind of thing.

A Chorus Line runs until May 27 at the Sands Theatre in Marina Bay Sands. 7.30pm from Tuesday to Sunday with an additional 1.30pm show on weekends. Tickets are from $55 – $165. Buy your tickets at Sistic by visiting this link.

If Jessica Irawan sounds like a familiar name to you, it probably is due to her previous stint under the band Changing Hues where she has been gig-hopping for quite some time. The Indonesian singer-songwriter is now taking a stab at flying solo with a record aptly titled “Stepping Out”, which sounds like something a sassy, fiery woman may do. However, Jessica’s debut EP is not so much a diva moment as it is an earnest, intimate record penned down to the last word (Jessica wrote every song on this album).

Stepping Out is an album that strikes you with its heartfelt lyrics that speak of love, losing love and everything else in between. A cancer survivor, Jessica pens her experiences and emotions into every track, making you believe that indeed all is possible. “Running Free” is one of the best tracks on the album for its rousing message (I believe in the reality / that I can have what I’m seeing) and clean harmonies, which Jessica effortlessly glides over. She hits her falsetto with much ease but yet, a gumption belies her tone, a certain bite to her lower register as she straddles between speak-sing.

That bite and speak-sing works on certain tracks and fails on others. Single “Don’t You Love Me” tries too hard to channel a folksy Alanis Morissette as Jessica twangs her end notes far too much, in a bid to push the track’s come-and-get-it persona but sounding more like a forceful stretch in the end. However, jazz-soul track “Impossible” provides the perfect backdrop for some sentimental snap-snap, with lyrics that serve a good dish of sass served cold (I’ve had enough of your pathetic nonsense). Plus points for a voicemail intro that brought back memories of Jennifer Hudson & Fantasia’s “I’m His Only Woman”.

In fact, it is the lyricist in Jessica that seals this album. While it is not your so-poetic-that-it-hurts album (yes, all you hipsters, go some obscure Nancy Sinatra reference on your idol’s album instead; Lana Del Rey would be so proud of you), witty lovelorn liners such as the one in “Love That I Owed” (You don’t look like Taylor Lautner / but you’re kinda cool in a way) and other diary-like moments that are slightly cringeworthy but totally country-ish as in “Satellite” (You are like the moon / you’ll always be my satellite) make this album like prying in the secret annals of a girl’s fluffed-up wishes of love and heartbreak.

Tim De Cotta from Sixx absolutely nails his verses in “I’m Still Feeling You” like the crooner he is, with a voice so silky smooth that you can imagine his eyebrows scrunching as he reaches the high notes. Sometimes, it does get frustrating how certain tracks overlap in meaning and Jessica stays clear of making any sort of quasi-Shakespearean reference to cultural phenomena but Jessica is candidly apologetic about it on her Facebook page, even going so far as to say “I don’t know how to implement them in songwriting”. Gutsy move, but at least she’s focused on what she knows how to deliver – we like that.

Stepping Out is a good start for Jessica and a calculated move to stay radio-friendly. Her gospel background also is well-documented in the tracks that have elements of rousing divination but still stay clean-cut to a fault. However, one cannot help but get the feeling that Jessica’s testing the waters with this record: that it is a direction-maker but not a record that contains hallmark, anthemic songs that will truly flesh out more from her writer side. I have a sneaky suspicion the best is yet to be heard because Jessica seems to be holding back the power she could possess in her vocal chords. We shall see, but for now, it is a record that will sit well for some easy listening.

We are giving away 2 copies to Jessica Irawan’s debut album Stepping Out. Simply look out for our Facebook post on Friday, May 4, 12pm on our Facebook page.

Jessica Irawan’s album is out at Esplanade’s music store. Download “Don’t You Love Me”, “Impossible” and “I’m Still Feeling You” free on her Bandcamp page.

Tay Kewei performed a stripped-down version of her second single, Lay Down, from her latest album Fallin on clicknetwork. The song as it is, already sounds pretty poignant and soulful but this arrangement just gives us the chills. Oh yes, if you do want to buy her album, it’s available here.

Nothing is as raw in music production as seeing an artiste putting a track together. ShiGGa Shay‘s debut EP “They Call Me ShiGGa” drops this May, but he lets us into the recording studio to see his second single Break Me being pieced together with Muzique and one heck of an insane beat. Break Me drops 3rd May.

Since Spring Awakening ended its run on February, we’ve not heard much from crooner Nathan Hartono. Well, he’s now the ambassador for this year’s Eco Music Challenge and he decided to pen an original with that fancy multi-pane view showing the instruments being played. Even more reasons to reduce your carbon footprint? We’d like to think so.

We’ve come to know Kelly Latimer pretty well a couple of times, which makes us even more excited to know that she and Adam Osman were selected as the winners of AsiaRoom.com’s Search For Singapore’s Next Social Travel Star! (Brownie points for chemistry and having that golden hosting voice we all love.) This video is their hilarious audition piece. Their web series, The Right Room, premieres 16 May 2012 on AsiaRoom.com’s YouTube channel and will feature the duo on their travel pursuits and sharing hotel tips. All we need is for the duo to do the classic eating-your-food-slowly shot and we’re sold.

Subscene.TV‘s a new web programme focusing on Singapore musicians and artistes. This installment follows artiste Sleep Easy singing Stale Words in a playground with a xylophone. It cannot get anymore kitschy-lepak than this. Head over to their YouTube channel for more of Sleep Days and other acts.

We published this on The Dash but we couldn’t resist doing a plug here, especially when Shahridzuan‘s teaser to upcoming music video Be My Girl Tonight featuring Mark Bonafide is this good. Frankly, this single could make mainstream bank. Replay 2 more times for maximum effect.

You know the age-old mantra that Singaporeans aren’t fashionable? Bullshit, if Poshism were to say. They just launched an inter-polytechnic fashion contest and this promo video os just so cool that all polytechnic students would instantly want to wear their evening best to campus. For the rest of us, we shall just sit and reminisce the good ol’ tims when we were young, wild and free.

Jessica Irawan‘s latest music video for Don’t You Love Me off her eponymous album has the songstress doing what I really want to do: film myself singing on the Helix Bridge. We’ve got a review of her album plus how to win a copy, coming up this week – stay tuned for that.

Lastly, our favourite parkour YouTuber jumped and filmed some epic shots in London. Some things are better left without explanation.

Happy day after Labour Day! (Or at least try to be.)

I admire Singapore. I really do.

It takes a lot of guts to live where we are. This city is relentlessly paced. Just look around you: businessmen traversing pavements with purposeful strides, students rushing to school with heavy books and heavier hearts, even the humble Bangladeshi worker is ready for yet another day at the daily grind. (Pun slightly intended.)

For such a city hell-bent on nothing but continuous toiling and growth, it seems like almost a lost cause for the creative industries trying to make everyone just sit and think for a while. For years, I have seen many attempts to build this cornucopia of cultures into something greater than the sum of all of us. Let’s face it: being genuinely proud of a country like ours is difficult when borrowing cultures left, right and center is our modus operandi. (And we are somewhat sheepishly proud of it.)

That’s why instead of building something from the ground up, many attempts to create a cultural renaissance have taken the less-extenuating route: adaptability. We seem to be bred with an insane capability to shed the past and yet reminisce about it when the right time comes, which puzzles me because institutions like Bukit Brown and the Tanjong Pagar Railway were never really treasured until they are gone and all is too late.

But it seems as if adapting is a necessary evil in a mercenary culture of ours. We just have too many things on our plate, too many projects, too many meetings, too many places to be, people to meet, parents to feed. Which is why those who brave the masses to go against the grain and take a step forward are the gutsiest of our kind.

I look at this month’s Asia Fashion Exchange and Singapore Arts Festival with much admiration, yet with much doubt. For AFX, its previous reincarnation as the Singapore Fashion Festival never really penetrated to the masses until Audi threw its weight behind the project and it subsequently became more than just another Asian runway show. The festival adapted to its sponsor’s ways and soon became known for its opening and closing acts, but it is now taking bold steps to feature Singapore designers in its lineup. For Mae Pang and Max Tan, they may be upstarts but their malleability makes them brands to covet. Especially in Blueprint, new-to-market labels are finally getting an Asian collective voice.

The Singapore Arts Festival would not have received as much buzz had it not been for big-name acts and government support, but yet it has stood its own. More importantly, this year’s festival sees the full support of rising Singapore artists that have flourished in the age of social media. We see new acts Songbird and Sunny Side Up interspersed with stalwarts Vanessa Fernandez and Claressa Monteiro.

However, we must accept the reality that although cultural activities are becoming the norm especially in the young, it will not reach the masses for we are just a busy lot afraid to dip our toes in too many ponds. At most, we snigger and laugh at the mention of ‘arts’ and ‘fashion’ and dismiss it for being frivolous. I look to a discussion Monocle had on a country’s soft power as an increasing indicator of power and influence. If it is true, then surely someone must have already recognised Singapore wielding its shield in that arena.

Already, the young and liberal are benefiting from the perks of a borrowed culture. We may grow up a slightly disenfranchised lot, not wanting to associate too closely to binding cultures except anything remotely hipster, but from the looks of it, awareness has definitely opened what I’d like to call the modern bourgeoisie. Neither wealthy nor famous, the modern bourgeoisie still has developed a conventional taste for experimental works (Tumblr), a yearning for a muted sense of capitalistic life (Instagram) and a good dose of trolling (9gag).

What makes the modern bourgeoisie different from the ones of Marxist yore is our age of global choice. They are unapologetic about assuming a Singaporean presence in a worldly identity. By picking and choosing what to associate oneself with, the young and liberal have successfully developed a brand for themselves: one of connected adaptability, where it is not innate but expressly gestured through an understanding of what was, a tepid resistance of what is and an open book to what will be.

Already, this is fast developing. Online fashion community site Poshism is hosting its first Fashion Feud and its promotional video clearly shows just how brazen the young, wild and free are.

Here is a toast to those who are aware, to those who choose to traverse broken roads and to those who own their identities and prefer not to walk at the same speed of the rush hour crowd. Raise your glasses to the bourgeoisie of today, for conservatism will peter out with the times of the past unless it fails to adapt to the lasting now.

To all of those who toil for a Singapore they want to be proud off, Happy Labour Day.

(Picture credit: Asia Fashion Exchange and Singapore Arts Festival)

Written with lime plum juice on the side at a kopi joint in Citylink Mall. I literally stopped in my tracks and felt the urge to pen this. I shall never forget that fire for writing.