Singapore designer takes on Cannes

SINGAPORE — Homegrown designer Priscilla Shunmugam of local label Ong Shunmugam will do Singapore’s fashion industry proud at Cannes next week. She will be part of the Product Design jury at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and is the first fashion figure from Singapore to be selected to judge at the illustrious awards.Naturally, the 33-year-old said she was “really looking forward to ... every single day of jury duty”.

“This is a first on so many levels. As I understand, the festival is keen on broadening the diversity of its juries to include representation from women, minorities and fashion. So I’m just really happy to be able to fly all these flags and hopefully set a precedent,” said Shunmugam in an e-mail interview with TODAY.

This appointment will see Shunmugam rubbing shoulders with other luminaries and noted personalities including former Vice-President of the United States of America, Al Gore; music artiste Pharrell Williams; renowned British chef Jamie Oliver and popular CNN news anchor Christiane Amanpour.

Some of Singapore’s creative heads from the advertising field — Lee Hanyi, chief creative officer of The Secret Little Agency; Joji Jacob, group executive creative director of DDB Group and Tay Guan Hin, regional executive creative director, South-east Asia and global ECD of J. Walter Thompson — will also represent the country across eight other jury categories including Creative Effectiveness, Design, Direct, Promo and Radio.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will take place at the Palais des Festivals from June 21 to 27.