Our MD Corinne Ng gets a whiff of nostalgia on the set of Singapore Fashion Week’s 51 Fashion Industry Trailblazers shoot.
“It was really a reunion of industry folks! I used to work with Cat Ong and John de Souza at Mediacorp and haven’t seen them for a while. Russell Wong and I worked on a Zhang Ziyi cover way back when I was the editor of Cleo magazine, and then we lost touch. And Tom Rao… as the editor of Marie Claire Singapore in the 1990s, Tom gave me my first writing assignment as a freelance writer. I was in university then and trying to build my portfolio. I remembered being so elated when he gave me my very first pay cheque of $450. Of course I went straight to Glamourette (the coolest multi-label boutique at the time) and spent it ALL on Sonia Rykiel.
Some people say Singapore’s fashion scene is not as developed as the scene in Europe or the US. In some ways, that is true. The majority of Singaporeans could learn to appreciate more the artistry of creating fashion, and to understand that the value of a piece of garment sometimes lies in its flawless stitch, not in its cheap price tag.
But as a teenager who lived here in the 1980s and 1990s, I cannot downplay the fact that even as a relatively unsophisticated nation, Singapore brought in labels that excited me (Marithe et Francois Girbaud! Gianfranco Ferre! Lolita Lempicka!) and made me aspire to contribute to an industry I loved. Maybe we were ahead of our time. Then again, Singapore always is.”
Corinne was one of the 51 women featured in the Singapore Fashion Week’s Fashion Industry Trailblazers photo shoot.