Victoria Beckham, Cate Blanchett to attend Singapore Fashion Week

SINGAPORE — A power line-up featuring a string of highly-acclaimed designers and Singapore’s homegrown heroes will be the main highlight at the all-new Singapore Fashion Week (SFW).

These include renowned designer Diane von Furstenberg, who will kick off the fashion festival proper by showcasing her 37-strong Fall 2015 Ready-to-Wear collection, which mostly consists of knee-length feminine frocks and evening numbers; Thakoon Panichgul, the recipient of the 2006 Vogue/CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Fashion Fund Award, will showcase a collection of warm tones and prints found in his namesake label, Thakoon.

Celebrated designer Victoria Beckham, who recently unveiled her first flagship store in London last November, will close the five-day long event with her sleek cuts that have lured a bevy of leading ladies including Michelle Obama, Kate Middleton, Beyonce and Julia Roberts. This will be Beckham’s second visit to these sunny shores after presenting a selection of her collections here last year.

At the SFW press conference, held at the John Jacob Ballroom in St. Regis Singapore yesterday, organisers revealed that Oscar-winning actress and SK-II ambassador Cate Blanchett, as well as Korean star Yoon Eun Hye will also be grace the festival. Previously branded as the Audi Fashion Festival, the change in the festival name brings about a new direction to this year’s edition.

Tjin Lee, chairman of SFW, told TODAY: “Our partnership with Audi has ended amicably and we couldn’t be more thankful for their support all these years. The name Singapore Fashion Week in itself carries more weight and credibility and better reflects what the fashion week is all about - building on previous editions as a consumer-centric fashion festival and broadening our scope to include thought leadership initiatives and industry development.”

One of the new initiatives thought up for this year’s SFW is Fashion Futures, a business-focused internationalisation and talent development programme that will see three Singapore designers – Sabrina Goh of ELOHIM, Priscilla Shunmugam of Ong Shunmugam and Chelsea Scott-Blackhall of Dzojchen – presenting their collection at SFW with buyers in attendance. Three regional and/or international buyers will be seeded with S$50,000 each, allowing them to place orders from the designers and put them on their retail platforms.

These designers will also participate in the CFDA Induction Programme, which includes showroom representation of at least four months in New York and meetings with leading buyers in the industry. With support from TANGS, their collections will be retailing at the Official SFW 2015 pop-up stores housed at TANGS Orchard from April 30 to May 20.

Local labels exhibit and ALT by Curated Editions will also return to this year’s fashion edition after debuting last year, while Velda Tan, who used to run online boutique Love, Bonito, will unveil her new clothing label, COLLATE THE LABEL.

“The fashion week broadens its scope with the aim of pushing Singapore fashion even further,” Lee said. “We want to create an environment where Singapore designers can learn from the best in the fashion industry and build an eco-system of mentorship where established and emerging designers share their experience and nurture the next generation of designers.”

She added: “We’re excited to host some of fashion’s bigger names, international celebrities and influential fashion icons while SFW continues to be the only fashion week in the world that features established and emerging regional and home grown designers alongside the world-class international designers.”

Singapore Fashion Week 2015 will be held from May 13 to 17 at the Tent@Orchard, Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza. Tickets from SISTIC go on sale in April.