The show: Two collections each from Dzojchen and Elohim by Sabrina Goh. The outcome: A bit goth, a bit school girl, a bit masculine, and lots of cool. Here’s what got our thumbs up.
1. Elohim’s gothic/The Craft take on school girl dressing: The 1996 flick starring Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell was awesome, but dressing like its lead female characters when it’s not Halloween… not as much. But Sabrina Goh reinterpreted the look – black cropped tops and mini skirts – with tailoring and a play on asymmetrical cuts. The result is still edgy and coquettish, but feels modern in an Alexander Wang kind of way. Break each look apart and you’ve some killer cool separates that could even work for work.
2. This slip dress from Elohim: Slip dresses are like LBDs – they work for all occasions; are easy to dress up; and every woman should own at least one. This grey streamlined version is made for the arty, minimalist crowd: We heart how the dual-faced flounce running down the centre creates the illusion of a sculptural silhouette as one walks.
3. Dzojchen’s masculine-feminine mash-up: This six-year-old label has its roots in denim, so seeing founder Chelsea Scott-Blackhall experiment with flowy blouses and dresses is a refreshing change. Sure, the pieces aren’t directional the way her jeans are (think hybrid cuts and diagonal zippers), but they’re great for day-to-day living (the deep V-necks on the runway were the result of unbuttoning all the way). And throwing on one of Scott-Blackhall’s boyfriend jackets makes a great menswear-tinged cocktail look.
4. Elohim worn off the runway: Creative guru Tracy Phillips (two pics up) wore Elohim. Ditto fashion plate/former Female 50 Gorgeous People winner Annabel Tan (right above). Both made the clothes look as desirable as the models did. Fun fact: The necklace Tan wore was in fact a wired hairband made especially for her by the brand’s founder Sabrina Goh (we vote they be made for sale).
5. The Fashion Futures Initiative: The joint show was held as part of the inaugural Fashion Futures initiative that’s earned Goh, Scott-Blackhall as well as Ong Shunmugam more than just showtime during Singapore Fashion Week (Ong’s show is on May 15, 6:30pm). Top visiting buyers have been seeded with a total of $150,000 to buy their collections for their stores (it means you could very well see Goh or Scott-Blackhall sold on Asos.com or Fred Segal in LA).
The trio will also fly to New York later this year to take part in the Council of Fashion Designers America (CFDA) Induction programme that’ll include showroom representation in the Big Apple, meetings with bigwigs like Vogue and visits to the studios of CFDA designers (no names yet but the list includes the likes of Alexander Wang and Altuzarra). What this all could possibly mean: These designers will get bigger.
Find out what we loved about the Diane von Furstenberg show at Singapore Fashion Week here.
