Major Project!!!

As I've told u guys before, I'm a third year fashion promotion student. Right now, we're busy doing our final major fashion promotion project. The interesting thing about this project is that we got to choose our own topic. The topic that I have chosen for my project is basically about South East Asian fashion. For your info, I'm a South East Asian myself....and I feel that it is a part of my responsibility as a promotion student- to tell the whole world (that might be a little bit dramatic!) what my nation (ASEAN-Association of South East Asian Nation) can offers to the global fashion industry. Hence, I'm writing  a book about South East Asian fashion right now!!!

HOW IT STARTED

‘Where do you come from?’. Well, this is the kind of question that I always get, since I’ve been studying in UK for the past three years. ‘Brunei’, I answered them confidently. Then, there are always awkward and silent moments after those answer. ‘Erm….where?’, they said while starring at me blankly. ‘Brunei is somewhere in Asia’, I answered them back. ‘So, what do you study here in the UK?,’ standard question again. ‘Fashion,’ I answered them again and hopefully they do know that fashion courses do exist. (Hehehehe!!!) Then, they always question me with this, ‘Talking about fashion….so, the fashion in your country, is it the same with Japan? Eccentric and striking?’.

I’ve got to say; this is the typical conversation that I always have, when I meet people for the first time. I’m not really blaming them for not knowing where my country is or the fashion sense of the people in my country, because all this while, there is no appropriate channel or medium for them to know more about Asian fashion (let alone South East Asia’s fashion). When we were given the brief for our final major project, we were required to choose our own topic. Then, I suddenly got the idea of doing a book that explores about South East Asia’s fashion.

WHAT MY PROJECT IS ALL ABOUT

Asia has been moving in a very fast pace; it is probably because of the competitive nature of the Asian people. It is undeniable that Asia has an incredible drive towards excellence in all fields, including fashion. During the 1980’s, Japan were suddenly known worldwide for their fashion extraordinaire, such as Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake. Since the 1990’s until now, China has been regarded as the world’s best, when it comes to producing manufactured garments and textiles. Starting from the mid 2000’s, South Korea has also become one of Asia’s important and major fashion hubs. This is when; those countries are becoming to be known as the ‘Big Three’, when it comes to their fashion industries’ achievements. And the global fashion press and media began to highlight their talents and creations to the fashion consumers of the world. Other countries in Asia, especially South East Asia, have to work hard and struggle to be in that top position. People’s cliche judgement of South East Asia’s fashion products is ‘the epitome of multi-faceted over abundance of cheap, knock off designer labels’. People don’t really know that South East Asia’s fashion and its industry changed a lot now; and the structure itself is getting more developed in a very progressive manner.  Creative expressions through designs are now sweeping over clothing factories and textile mills as the main mechanism of each country’s growth and pride. Every South East Asia’s cities are now competing to become the leading fashion capitals for the region. Governments and private institutions in every country started to produce bigger fashion shows, in order to heighten the exposure to international fashion press and media. Together with the thriving growth of the media and a rise of international fashion magazines ‘arriving’ in the region, young designers have no lack of ‘outlets’ to express their creative manifestation. Other than having their own high-end fashion designers, with the development of textile technology, South East Asia has also increasingly known for their eco-friendly apparel and textile. For example, their production of sustainable bamboo clothing, which is predicted to be part of world domination within the next decade or so. Together with all these developments, South East Asia’s fashion industry is now worth more than US$110 billion (which is equivalent to £70 billion). Despite with all these rapid progressions, some individuals are still having lack of knowledge about South East Asia’a fashion industry, and some are still being quite sceptical about it. It is probably because at the moment, there is no particular medium for them to know or to be familiar about all those developments and progressions. And, that is one of the reasons of why I really wanted to write the book; to promote and acknowledge people (whether the public or the people in the fashion industry) that South East Asia’s fashion products are reliable and are overflowing with quality and innovation.

Hopefully, with the production of this book (for this uni project), I (as the author) can change people’s pessimistic view about the quality of South East Asia’s fashion products. And even though, South East Asia’s fashion may still be the under-appreciated fashion corner of the world, but (with any luck) by reading this project (book), people would see how much the South East Asia’s fashion industry has changed since it was known to be the ‘paradise of counterfeit fashion products’ until it is regarded as the ‘paradise of talented and gifted fashion designers’ and as one of the fastest growing fashion markets in the world.   

SNEAK PEAK......