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Exotic Appeal, Edgy Design

Published: Volume 13, Issue 3, May-June, 2005

Singapore’s fashion stores on Orchard Road, now promote an exotic appeal for things Indian; an exoticism that relies less on the semi-trashy Bollywood exports and more on a modern avatar of Indian style.

Admist all the sterling labels showcased at the ten-day, glitzy Singapore Fashion Festival, Bandana Tewari comes away impressed by the Asian designers who generated fervour at the event, as India, too reaped the benefits of the global interest in all things Asian.

It’s easy to walk around cross-eyed in Orchard Road. This slick shopping strip really is the Time Square of Asia, with every conceivable brand, in multifarious hues vying for your attention. While to some it’s a shopping Mecca, to others it’s a glitzy stretch that causes acute sensory overdose. It has the power to convert a hitherto snail-slow shopper, like me, to a fast-trotting compulsive consumer. And now, we hear, to this gargantuan shopping haven, the government is pumping in $40 million to encourage a regular spell of ‘giant events’ by revamping lighting and signage, introducing iconic sculptures and water features and cutting red tape for staging events. All this in order to double the visitors’ numbers to 17 million and triple the tourism budget to $30 billion by 2015; And there you were thinking Singapore was all about hiding your Wrigley’s!

Smack bang in the middle of this buzzing street inundated with luxury goods, Filipino maids and European tourists readying for a peccadillo, one of the pet projects of the Singapore Tourism Board takes place – the Singapore Fashion Festival. While this ten-day extravaganza flaunts all the big names in fashion from Roberto Cavalli, Chloé, Guy Laroche, Versace, Alberta Ferretti, amongst others, it is the Asian designers confident with a new Chinese sensibility (rub-off of the mega-rise of China), who generate a renewed fervour in events like this.

So much so, even India is benefitting from this current penchant world over for anything Asian. Hitherto resigned to the kitschy boundaries of Little India, Singapore’s Chokri and Mumbai Se fashion stores on Orchard Road, now promote an exotic appeal for things Indian; an exoticism that relies less on the semi-trashy Bollywood exports and more on a modern avatar of Indian style and panache that comes from the confidence of being another superpower in the making.


Sonam Dubal	Sven Tan	Manish Malhotra for Chokri	Hybrid-O

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