THE DESIGN

Blooming Pod pendant and Bud Pod pendant by Serene Wong.

I love t43’s first concoction of hand-fabricated, limited edition jewelry designs. The Art-Tea-Scent collection reflects three designers’ passion for tea, by offering three interpretations of the theme. Art by Szufen Huang (Taiwan) is a collection of sculptural forms carefully hand pleated in silk organza, with intricately painted motifs. Tea by Nana Akashi (Japan) is inspired by a box set of flavored teas in its familiar packaging. Scent (above) by local designer Serene Wong, combines the evocative scent of tea leaves with the modernity of plastic.

Of her design, Serene says,”Inspired by the scent of tea leaves, this collection interprets the intangible into a series of dramatic acrylic jewelry. Where a Chinese tea ball and delicate rose buds subtly perfume the air from within the hollow of a pod pendant; other pieces intuitively translate scent into sensuous, organic forms reminiscent of flowers blooming and layers of moistened leaves. You may choose to personalize the jewelry by varying the contents of the pod pendants to suit your preference. All the pieces are hand-pierced and formed to flow with the curves of the body.”

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Only a couple of years old (2003), HEADLINE is somewhat of a sensation with the local underground community. Founded by Calvin Yang, Edric Wong and Urica Sin, HDLN carries a selection of limited edition tees, shirts, shorts, pants and a sweet line up of hoodies.

Says Calvin, “The concept for our street label was drawn from Japanese and American (specifically New York) influences. Especially the big leading street labels and cultural trivia ranging from pop culture references, movies, music, art to comic books, porn and many many more. In keeping with our image of being exclusive, we have created a multitude of limited print design tees.”

“The Headline Zip Up Hoodies carry our very own signature monogram logo of the words HDLN, aka HEADLINE, and the repeating pattern of sparkling stars thats reflects on the sparkling path that we are heading in.”

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

THE DESIGN

Vice and Vanity, is known for taking jewelry to new places, by creating idiosyncratic, industrial-chic pieces. Former Club21 employee, Vivi Masturah Lim and Fine Arts graduate, Aaron Kao are the designers behind the label.

Says Aaron, “We always try to originate new ideas, never restricting ourselves to a certain style or look. Our style is a work in progress and may or may not surface so quickly over a few collections. It takes time to develop a style. For every collection we always ensure that the quality is there and we want people to pay for something that has a lot of thought and effort put into the creation.”

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THE DESIGN

It’s been a little while since I came across a pair of kicks I really liked, but this rad pair above totally caught my eye. They are pretty much low key but the subtle accents like the vulcanized eyelets make them stick out. But even though the shoes caught my interest, it was Suhaimi’s bad ass tee collection that held it. Click here to look at some of the prints he’s come up with. Awesome stuff!

THE DESIGNER

26-year old freelance graphic designer, Suhaimi Saadan, is a student at LASALLE College of the Arts, majoring in Visual Communication and Advertising Design.

“I go by the moniker Plastikxp. That’s how I used to call myself during my street-art days. I love to DIY and I’m heavily influenced by street culture as you can see from the stuff that I do. Plastikxp Laboratories started when I decided to stop buying stuff, like shoes and tees, and decided to start making my own. Its a liberating feeling, knowing that you can actually make most of the things you used to buy. I’m currently working with a few of my classmates on a zine called WHY. WHY questions why we buy the stuff we buy. Basically it talks about the economics of consumerism and the sociological aspects as well as the background of 6 individuals whom were being experimented on.”

GIVEAWAY! Culturepush has two Whyzine tees to give away to two lucky readers. To enter, email Michele before 1 April. First two emailers get a tee … so email away!

Update: We have our winners! The contest is closed.

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

Pink Velvet designers Lin and Rachel have created a selection of purses with plenty of girly charm and a little extra pizazz, including the little number in the photograph, which I picked up over the week-end.

Their creations are full of vintage glamour mixed with a contemporary edge, featuring diamante details, lace, suede ribbons and flowing fabrics from silk, to wool, and even upholstery material. Each piece maintains its own amalgamation of colour and design and of course, has its own story. “The material is deconstructed and re-worked and combined to produce the unexpected.” Rachel explains. ”Our inspiration comes from all sources – interior design, high fashion, Japanese handicrafts, paper crafts … things we see everyday or chance upon.”

Each item is hand crafted from beginning to end. “We just like creating things. We’ve always been sewing and crafting things for ourselves because we enjoy the process of making things. And because it’s all handmade, no pieces are exactly alike.”

Drop by DIS to pick up one of Pink Velvet’s sweet handcrafted purses.

Spotted! is a digest of fly work by fresh off creatives.

THE DESIGN

Skulls, red hearts and crosses are just some of the flights of fancy that make up the quirky jewelry designs of Rayson Tan, founder of the L’ile aux Ashby label.

“My accessories portray my invention of recipes for the inner soul. I select the ingredients for their aesthetic flavor, playing with shapes and forms, mixing the hard with the soft, juxtaposing the quirky with the vintage, the old with the new and sometimes a little bit outlandish behavior to evoke the emotions of life. My accessories are designed as extensions of one’s self and not just as vacuous decorations to be worn mindlessly. They are hand-crafted to enhance your personality; staying distinctively edgy, yet stylishly wearable.” MORE »

THE DESIGN

“Being very fascinated and interested in Japanese culture, my dress was born out of an adoration of the Japanese yukata or summer kimono,” says Fashion Design student Janis Nah. “I have always wanted to own a yukata as I find them supremely unique. So I decided to sew one for myself. I read up on yukatas and kimonos and how to wear them and decided to reinterpret the design and make a more wearable piece.”

Janis kicked up a soft pastel drop-waist dress, reserving the most surprising accent for the back: a playful obi bow. “This is to bring the attention towards the back of the dress with a simple design to complement it,” she explains. “I designed the dress with plus-size women in mind. By placing a big bow behind, the attention will be brought towards the back of the dress, playing down areas you want to disguise.” MORE »

THE DESIGN

Model: Dinara

Pablo Picasso once said ‘Beauty? To me it is a word without sense because I do not know where its meaning comes from nor where it leads to.’

Young fashion designer Elvin Tan created a dress which he aptly named Extreme Beauty. ‘The design is inspired by people suffering in the name of beauty,’ he says. ‘In the pursuit of beauty there is pain. In the Victorian era it was the ultra-small waists, and corsets were used to painfully reshape a woman’s body. In Africa beauty required piercing and scarification. So, I believe beauty is an endless topic and the willingness of a person to suffer to achieve beauty will never change. People will always try to do something in order to achieve the standard of beauty, from eyebrow plucking to extreme plastic surgery. Anyway, nothing is beautiful or ugly in itself. Beauty lies in the beholder’s eye.’ MORE »

THE DESIGN

Photography: Marie Lee - Model: Jasmine - Make-up: Francine Zhang

‘Animasical is my very first complete collection,’ Kellie Koh explains, ‘I was inspired by The story of Noah’s Ark, and my little brother Aston’s drawings. Four animals are depicted: the Zebra, Giraffe, Tiger and Elephant. It all began when I discovered Aston’s love for drawing. One day, I happened to chance upon some drawings of animals seen through his scatterbrained imagination. I decided to use his fat butt zebra named Zeeton , his short necked Giraffe named Raffey, his cutesy pinkish tiger named Igton and his thinnish elephant named Eleton as the inspiration for my textiles, colour palate and the construction of my designs.’ MORE »

THE DESIGN

Josiah Chua Kian was one of the ten finalists of The Cuckoo Couture Design Awards organized by The Butter Factory. During the Awards show on Saturday he sent out an ornate Baroque dress that was as soft and angelic as it was meticulous and couture-like. Josiah explains, ‘I reverted to centuries-old fashion for inspiration and created a dress reminiscent of the Baroque era in order to convey a bold message. I extracted elements from culture and architecture, to give the dress an avant-garde look. Using the haute couture way of dress making, I produced a garment that oozes the expression of art in fashion.’ MORE »

What do Wet Dreams, Purity, Beautiful Distortion and Auschwitz Camp have in common? They’re among the Cuckoo Couture designs that will rule the runway at The Butter Factory this Saturday at 10.30pm. The Cuckoo Couture Design Awards is an annual infinitely quirky fashion event organized by The Butter Factory in conjunction with Singapore Fashion Week 2007.

Culturepush slips backstage for a peek at the eye-grabbing collection of kooky creations that were undeniably ‘fashion-as-art’. MORE »

Two Saturdays ago, I had a chance to pop around the Sole Obsession sneaker event at Know It Nothing. This was no ordinary exhibition, showcasing humble sneakers which you can pick up at a local retail space. I am talking one-of-a-kind, limited-edition kicks with attitude, for the die-hard sneakerphiliacs.

I found myself on pause and mouth agape at the utter brilliance of the fully customized cult kicks from master local pimps SBTG, Meth, Lazy, PhuEk!, Hypethetic, Ol’ Charlie’s, Republic Union, and Killer Gerbil, and guest pimps Darbotz (Indonesia), Spoonman (Malaysia) and Very Masa (Australia).

After the event, I sat down with Shaun of Hypethetic to get the full story on their custom puppies and the direction in which their brand is going. The name may be unfamiliar to most of you, but sneakerheads and people who are fashion forward in the street wear scene, most commonly recognize Hypethetic for their fabric outfitted sneaker creations. Read Up! MORE »

Not that I’m a T-shirt maven, but when I heard that BooksActually was hosting an exhibition of the Japanese T-shirt project Shikisai (co-presented by Crop Design), I decided to pop by to check it out for myself.

The exhibition promised “different possibilities of T-shirt design under the restrictions of ‘the black print on a white T-shirt’”. This translated into a display of 10-12 white T-shirts, each one adorned with a pencil-like black sketch with an additional element hand-sewn onto the garment. For instance, the very first design in the series was the “meta T-shirt”: a white-T-shirt, carrying a sketch of a T-shirt, with a tiny size tag sewn onto the drawn T-shirt. MORE »

It’s been about a month since the Graniph store opened at Bugis Junction and man, talk about being spoiled for choice.

T-shirts on hangers, T-shirts on shelves. Sure, there are duplicates because what you see on the hangers are also folded neatly and arranged by size on the wooden shelves. But the overall effect is still one of colour bursting out of every corner, not to mention the idiosyncratic art style Graniph has come to be known for, and smatterings of foreign languages (French and German predominate, though oddly enough the only Japanese to be seen is the text printed on the signs indicating the T-shirt prices). MORE »

A bit of mod, a dash of man-chic and a whole lot of indie! Singaporean label The STRAY creates the sort of menswear that naturally breathes the rebellious and bold spirit of indie rock ‘n’ roll through its sufficiently prominent colors and mischievous cuts.

Says founder, Arthur Chua, ‘The STRAY is not a fashion label, but a constant side project study of the various influences that shape my views in life.’ The influences that feed his collection range from his role as an Art and Film Director to his vision of infusing fashion, architecture, product design, philosophy, arts, music, poetry, film and even spirituality.

But Arthur also takes direct references from a certain personal fixation with characters from films; David Bowie in ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ or the scene where Nick Cave performs in a Berlin Club in Wim Wenders’ ‘Wings of Desire’, wearing an ultra skinny 3-piece suit. MORE »