SINGAPORE — If you had been at the ceremony held to mark the official start of filming for The Journey: Our Homeland, you would have thought you were at an ’80s themed costume party.

Our Homeland is the third and final instalment of the epic The Journey trilogy and chronicles Singapore’s post-independence nation-building years, from 1966 to the 1980’s. The action continues for the characters of Shaun Chen, Jeanette Aw, Felicia Chin, Romeo Tan and Andie Chen, while new characters from a younger generation are introduced, played by Rui En, Rebecca Lim, Ian Fang, Zhang Zhen Huan, Shane Pow, Julie Tan and Jeffrey Xu.

Rui En, for instance, plays a nurse who becomes romantically involved with Shaun Chen’s character. “She starts out straight-talking and unruly, but after things happen that are out of her control, she matures a lot and becomes a completely different person,” the actress said.

Other young actors joining the cast are enjoying their period-drama getups in varying degrees.

“I like the ’80s fashion — I think the clothes are very womanly,” said Julie Tan, whose character gets involved in a love triangle with two brothers played by Ian Fang and Shane Pow.

Cheryl Wee, who plays the boys’ sister, concurred, saying: “My wardrobe is huge even though I’m not in all 30 episodes. And all the clothes are really pretty. I love every single outfit. It’s vintage; you have rompers, jumpsuits, a lot of chunky accessories and earrings. The OOTDs are really very nice!”

The male actors aren’t quite so lucky, though. “We make fun of their hair — I call it their helmets,” Wee giggled.

“I think I have the prettiest wig of all,” Fang quipped, adding that the only downside was that “it’s very itchy and hot”. Jeffrey Xu, who plays his brother, revealed: “Ian told me, ‘My hair looks really good and it looks like Show Luo’s.’ I think mine makes me look like Vic Chou from F4.” In real life, though, Xu wouldn’t want to have hair that long because “it’s too hot in Singapore. If I had to choose between long hair and shaving my head, I’d shave my head.”

Who does he think is having the worst hair day, then? “I think Shane is really, really not suited to that hairstyle. He looks really uncle,” Xu mused.

Pow had to agree. “I think I have the worst hair,” he conceded, describing his look as “Kenny Rogers” or “John Lennon”. The wig, he added, “makes my head look bigger. It also depends on who does my hair. On one of the days, I had a super high forehead. It looked like I was balding.”

But you never know — collectively, the guys might start a new follicular trend, like Shaun Chen seems to have done after The Journey: Tumultuous Times aired. “There were people who said they thought it was cute and decided to get the same haircut,” Chen laughed.

Catch The Journey: Our Homeland starting July 9 at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.