Raffles' Dark Turn at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia

Raffles College of Design and Commerce has continually impressed the fashion forward crowd since their inception into the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week line-up and has once again done so. This year, Gabriel Lee, Nara, Aurelia Santoso, XU's, Diyana Kosso and Aquintic showed off their Spring/Summer 2013/14 collections, featuring Australian supermodel Samantha Harris. Of the designers, Gabriel Lee, Aurelia Santoso and Diyana Kosso stole the show. Gabriel Lee's monochromatic geometric patterns and crisp white sheer proved us wrong that this trend is dying, Gabriel successfully retaining its wearability. Aurelia Santoso's collection darkened the mood with architectural, hard-edged minimalist silk ensembles taking over the runway, which were surprisingly feminine. Finally, Diyana Kosso's chiffon and lace abundant collection revealed a sultry yet demure female character, enhanced by the interesting cuts that flourished throughout the collection. Raffles has no doubt set the standard high for other fashion design colleges, it will be interesting to see what these young designers will produce in the future. A nod to the wonderful Creative Direction of Christopher McLaren from A Series of Fortunate Events and Crystal Tsoi!

Photography by me
To visit the Raffles College website, CLICK HERE
To check out more from A Series of Fortunate Events, CLICK HERE
To view Crystal Tsoi's collections, CLICK HERE
   To view the fashion show, CLICK HERE

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week - Day 5

Gabe Perez from Ikon Management and I at the Raffles International Showcase

Sarah Faye Duong from Belanci, me and fellow blogger Alicia Kara before the Akira presentation at The Box

Today was the final day of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, and it was time for my college to show off its international students' talents at the International Showcase. I joined my fellow Raffles students Gabe Perez - Sales and Marketing Manager for Ikon Management and Blogger at Freedom Gabriel, Sarah Faye Duong from Belanci shoes, blogger Alicia Kara, Romika, Sasha, Rachel and Kylie for the showcase and I emerged from the show proud of the students that showcased their collections!

Raffles International Showcase

Winston Tan

Winston Tan

Winston Tan 

Crystal Tsoi

Crystal Tsoi

Crystal Tsoi

Ayaka Ichikawa

Ayaka Ichikawa

Gabriel Lee

Gabriel Lee

Gabriel Lee

Gabriel Lee

Gabriel Lee

Gabriel Lee

Gabriel Lee

The showcase was absolutely wonderful, and the distinguishable approaches to fashion design which these designers take were presented beautifully. Winston Tan from Malaysia showed Alexander McQueen style headdresses with digitized floral prints, Crystal Tsoi from Hong Kong presented minimalist pieces which almost clinged to the body with an emphasis on light straps to hold them together - creating a relationship of dependency on the body to the pieces, Ayaka Ichikawa from Japan brought architectural cuts and stiff silhouettes to the audience - something which Japanese fashion designers have always been known for, and finally, Gabriel Lee from Korea ended the showcase with Balenciaga FW12 inspired visors and innocent flowy garments, and who can forget the dress at the end?

Other shows during the day included Suboo, Akira Isogawa, Bless'ed Are The Meek, New Generation 2, Style Hong Kong, Nana Judy and Fernando Frisoni.

Goodbye Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2012! I enjoyed all the shows, the parties, the people and especially the fashion! 

Raffles Graduate Fashion Show 2011

The mysterious blue door aka entrance to the show

My college, as all design colleges should, invite friends, family and VIPs to witness the outstanding creations which their graduates have worked so hard to create and bring to life. The theme for my college's Graduate Fashion Show this year is "Couture on Ice", which is such a fitting theme for the times that we live in. It gave graduates an opportunity to express their stance on the global climate and the economic downturn.

The chaos brewing backstage before the show

The show was wonderful, the chili atmosphere enhanced by the snow storm effects and haunting music presented to the audience a dark perspective on what couture will turn into in the coming years. The collections were certainly inspired by some of the fashion industry's brooding characters, such as Alexander Wang, Gareth Pugh, Helmut Lang and Zara Gorman. But, there was one standout collection which definitely drew inspirations from the late and great Alexander McQueen's menswear collections, which I have a video of which you can view (below).

Myself, Kathleen and one of the models, Nina

I am very proud of my college's fashion design graduates, and with their creations I predict they will do very well in the fashion industry. Their couture collections screamed out "London Avant-Garde" to me, which I loved most about the collections in the show as a whole. I also forgot to mention, I cannot believe I was in the presence of both Akira Isogawa, and Ben Pollitt, the designer for Friedrich Gray and Chronicles of Never, who were at the show!

All images taken by me and K. Nguyen