Fashion and music collide at the Karaoke Party

SINGAPORE — At first glance, the very idea of a karaoke party seems to go against all understanding of a creative endeavour — especially from a musician’s perspective. However, photographer Lenne Chai decided to embrace the karaoke-party concept as a means of expressing artistic intention in music and fashion, reimagining this form of entertainment to her creative ends.

The result? Karaoke Party, a series of short films featuring fashion by homegrown designers such as MASH-UP, Yesah, By Invite Only and YOUYOU; and original music by Singapore musicians Vanessa Fernandez, Gentle Bones, Masia One, Stopgap and more. This will be exhibited from today as an interactive video installation at KEEPERS: Singapore Designer Collective showcase at Orchard Green until Jan 25.

Truth be told, for Chai, this project was more than just a way to get Singapore’s creative minds together. “I love, love, love karaoke! I had the idea of doing a series of fashion films disguised as a generic karaoke video about a year ago,” she elaborated. “When Carrie (designer Carolyn Kan, who founded popular artisanal jewellery outfit, Carrie K) approached me to exhibit at her pop-up space KEEPERS some months back, I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to revisit this idea.”

Chai’s aim was to provide a healthy mix of young, up-and-coming homegrown talents alongside a line-up of more established musicians and brands. For instance, she discovered Styl. Myl in the process (“I was really impressed by the quality of his garments,” she said) and had the opportunity to provide ENEC.E (pronounced Enecdote) with the opportunity to record and produce an original. “I’d seen the girls play at Baybeats and was blown away by how talented they were,” said Chai. “When I checked out their site, I realised they didn’t have any recordings that did their music justice and was very eager to provide them a platform to showcase their compositions.”

Although the majority of the videos were produced in Singapore, Chai said they also travelled to Japan (“karaoke’s country of origin”) for one of the films, with former MTVAsia VJ Holly Grabarek flying from Los Angeles to be in the shoot.

The collaboration has also opened up new avenues of exposure to a different audience. For Daniela Monasterios Tan and Nathanael Ng, two members of the MASH-UP trio (mashupcollective.com), what appealed to them was the chance to change public mindsets towards Singaporean creative industries.

“The idea of Karaoke Party was funny and we loved that it was different, yet so Singaporean,” said Tan. “We hope Singaporeans outside the art, design and fashion scene will realise fresh creative talent is alive in Singapore ... as well as to get a taste of what local designers and artists are capable of.

“We’ll also be having a pop-up during the exhibition and with this collaboration, people will be able to interact with not only the clothes but the whole experience of a ‘karaoke session’”.

For rapper Masia One (nee Maysian Lim), fashion has been integral part of her life since childhood. “My mum used to draw dress designs when I was a kid and sell them for S$5 in front of local tailors,” she said. “I always found it amazing that she could come up with so many ways to embellish a dress and I could watch the process go from paper to final product.”

She added: “Fashion can shape someone’s confidence, character, professionalism and persona. I have a great fascination for fashion from the runway to my tumblr page.”

Karaoke Party also provided the former Canadian resident with inspiration for a new original song, Local Girl. “It is really my first release since moving to Singapore. It’s been a great cultural experience for me to return to where I was born.”

With the possibilities afforded by this project, can Karaoke Party be more than a “one-night stand”? “If we get a good response to the exhibition in Singapore, I have dreams of showing it in Tokyo and Melbourne as well,” Chai mused. “To be honest, we’re way too busy preparing for this instalment to think about the next one. Ask us again at our party!”