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Humans Of SG Fashion: Lenne Chai On The Future Of Image-Making

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Fashion

Humans Of SG Fashion: Lenne Chai On The Future Of Image-Making

In this series of features from our August edition, 14 local industry insiders from across disciplines share their observations of and aspirations for style on this little red dot. Here, fashion photographer Lenne Chai talks the future of her craft and image-making.

by Gordon Ng  /   September 1, 2021
lenne chai

Fashion photographer Lenne Chai, who started her career in photography a little over a decade ago, has a portfolio that spans editorials for both glossy and alternative magazines, to independent work that’s lensed through her signature nostalgia-steeped eyes. She was based in New York City until last year, when she returned to Singapore because of the pandemic, but has plans to return soon.

These days, Chai is pondering her craft. It might be dangerous thinking for someone in her position to wonder aloud if fashion photography is becoming obsolete. But it’s perhaps a sign of the thought that she puts into her image-making, as well as wider photography’s changing role and importance these days. Here, she talks about making fashion images, and how things are shaping up for younger photographers today.

lenne chai
Credit:Lenne Chai

A fantasy editorial shot for Issue Magazine that imagines a same-sex wedding in Singapore.

What’s your take on Singapore’s fashion identity today?

“Is there one?”

What’s the first word that comes to mind when we mention Singapore fashion?

“Slippers. It’s tropical weather, so, no shade. I mean, people now are styling up their Crocs, so shout out to ugly fashion.”

What’s one defining memory of Singapore fashion for you?

“At the first Audi Fashion Festival show I ever attended, I ran into Gareth Pugh outside the toilets at Takashimaya. He said “I gotta go, I’m late for my show”. That was kind of mind-blowing. There was a real sense of glitz and glamour that the AFF lent to Singapore.”

Credit:Lenne Chai

Some of Chai’s most resonant work stems from topics and themes close to her heart, that passion a fuel for shoots and projects that she self-funds.

Favourite Singapore fashion label?

“Mash-Up.”

Is Singapore a fashion city?

“We’re maybe the second biggest city in the Asia Pacific region for luxury brands, so yes in that sense.”

What do we need to make it better?

“Better infrastructure for our fashion and creative industries so that young creators can pursue a career without the fear of not being able to eat.”

Complete this sentence: In future, I hope that in Singapore fashion…

“Will be more inclusive, in terms of homegrown designers and the people, sizes, races and genders they design their clothes for.”


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Humans Of SG Fashion: Tan Eng Chong On Developing An Idiosyncratic Fashion Identity

https://www.femalemag.com.sg/gallery/fashion/humans-of-sg-fashion-photographer-lenne-chai-on-the-future-of-image-making/
Humans Of SG Fashion: Lenne Chai On The Future Of Image-Making
ON THE POPULARITY OF FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
image

“In the last decade, fashion photography was growing at this insane, exponential rate because of Instagram. It became the medium to do visual arts in. And then, you know, Covid happened and suddenly people aren’t as interested as before in buying clothes or in the fantasy that fashion photography offers. It’s got me wondering if fashion photography is becoming obsolete…”

Lenne Chai
ON YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS
image

“There are a lot of young Singaporeans who are interested in fashion photography, but I wonder if there’s space for it and for them. There are fewer opportunities for aspiring fashion photographers here to get editorial or non-commercial commissions that allow them to be experimental and paid at the same time. When I was starting out in 2011, there were all these local fashion designers who needed their campaigns and lookbooks to be shot as well as incubation programmes such as Parco Next Next (which saw the Japanese department store support emerging labels), for example. They were open to working with young creatives and their ideas while allowing us to earn a living, but these platforms don’t really exist any more.”

Lenne Chai
ON CREATIVE, EXPERIMENTAL WORK
image

“Now the majority of paid work seems to be coming from foreign luxury labels. Some of these brands do fund experimental work – shout-out to Gucci – but how many people and how many of us here can shoot for Gucci? And if you have to work for 10 years to even get such an opportunity, what are you photographing in the meantime and are you making enough money in order to sustain yourself as well as your portfolio to get to the point when you can be considered for these jobs?”

A version of this article first appeared in the August 2021 The Great SG Fashion Book edition of FEMALE

Lenne Chai
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