Nadya Wang is an educator at Lasalle College of the Arts’ School of Fashion by day; editor of online platforms Art & Market and its new sister site Fashion & Market by night.
The latter presents content on South-east Asia’s fashion practitioners and their work, and aims to carve out a more accessible middle space between academic and journalistic writing on fashion. With Wang occupying a unique position in the industry, we talk to her more on why identity is something that’s constantly being negotiated, re-defining traditional fashion tropes and how fashion education in Singapore can be better supported.
Educator and editor Nadya Wang
What’s your take on Singapore’s fashion identity today?
“Identity is subjective and constantly negotiated. The #SGFASHIONNOW exhibition that recently opened at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is a collaborative endeavour with the School of Fashion at Lasalle College of the Arts and the Textile and Fashion Federation of Singapore.
With this exhibition, five student curators worked with teams at ACM to present eight dresses by eight designers in Singapore. Given the small pool of works, the show is by no means exhaustive, but as I wrote in an essay in the accompanying e-publication, it does demonstrate what the Singapore fashion identity could be – that it is not static but dynamic, and designers actively create pieces that represent the cultural hybridity of Singapore fashion.”
Detail of a (Singapore label) Pauline Ning dress from 2010. Archive of stylist Josiah Chua. Photo by Russell Morton for Fashion & Market
Would you consider Singapore to be a “fashion” city?
“I understand that this probably asks whether Singapore is a fashion city (along the lines of) the traditional big four fashion cities of New York, London, Paris and Milan, but to me this makes us think about how to approximate a fashion city by traditional Western standards, and not on our own terms with our own histories.
I do consider Singapore a fashion city in the sense that there are fashion producers and consumers who engage with the global fashion system. For example, in my research where I strive for a decolonised understanding of fashion, I place the Singapore woman at the centre of the city, and see her as an active member of the global cosmopolitan society who makes choices about fashion to express her identity.”
How does Fashion & Market cover Southeast Asian fashion?
“It aims to occupy the space between academic and journalistic writing on fashion, just as Art & Market (A&M) has done with art in the region. Academic writing can sometimes be forbidding, and journalistic writing can be rather touch-and-go for specialised topics, and I hope to hit the sweet spot in-between with FAM, where we present well-researched content written in accessible language. Essentially, I would like to highlight good work in the Southeast Asian fashion industry, while demystifying the processes for young, aspiring practitioners.”
In (Indonesian designer) TOTON’s studio for the Spring/Summer 2021 collection
As both an academic and educator, how would you say fashion education here has evolved over the years?
“I have been teaching in the BA(Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles and BA(Hons) Fashion Media and Industries programmes at Lasalle College of the Arts since 2013, and we continually engage with the issues at hand for the fashion industry at large, such as sustainability, digital innovation, bringing the traditional into the contemporary and others.
There is also a general move in academia to decolonise education, which is an important step forward to move away from the Western canon and push for a more expansive understanding of fashion. In my own teaching, I consciously examine more case studies from the region, which has been enriching for my own research and for the students’ learning.”
A feature on recent fashion media graduate Nicolette Ow and her soon-to-launch publication In Plain Sight, which aims to give more visibility to low-wage workers in Singapore
What would you change about Singapore’s fashion education at large?
“I believe in the education that we offer at the School of Fashion at Lasalle College of the Arts, which strikes a balance between giving them a safe learning environment to pick up and practise technical skills and experiment with ideas they have, while offering them opportunities to work in the industry, such as with an internship programme and through projects embedded within the curriculum.”
How can the industry, including the media, give greater support?
“Both A&M and FAM are multimedia platforms created with young practitioners in mind. It shows them how things work in the art and fashion industries respectively, and also function as spaces where they can be featured so others can find out about their work in turn.
On a wider industry level, more scholarships and grants awarded specific to fashion could be helpful, and more spaces with lower barriers to entry for the practice of fashion in its varied forms would be great.”
Fashion & Market helps to spotlight young fashion practitioners from Singapore and the region; here, an indigo-dyed silk felt coat from Vietnamese slow fashion brand Kilomet 109
What more (or less) do we need to make Singapore a “true” fashion city?
“The “or less” bit is a good afterthought to have! I think there could be less anxiety about what would make it a “true” fashion city. I do think there are stakeholders and other participants who make up a small but active fashion landscape. If there are more organic collaborations that take place without the urgency to achieve lofty ideals, it could give ideas and efforts time to grow and adapt, fail and improve, and eventually succeed in a more sustainable way.”
A version of this article first appeared in the August 2021 The Great SG Fashion Book edition of FEMALE
