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Singapore Fashion Festival 2006 / Mercedes-Benz Fashion Award 2006

Last week we were lucky to go and see the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show which was a part of the Singapore Fashion Festival 2006 (this year: 24 March – 2 April). About 30 regional & international brands present their Spring Summer dedigns at the festival. JPG specificaly showed this time his odyssey-inspired Spring Summer 2006 collection: his designs were really cool and most of them looked wearable actually!
The festival is one of the Asia Pacific’s key fashion events. Most of the shows are held in the Tent at Ngee Ann City in Orchard Road. Many Singaporean (not only) celebrities show up (unfortunately most of them not recognizable for us, coming from the other part of the world…). One of them was the local super model: Dennis Keller. On the JPG show, she was running around with a microphone smiling in the most adorable way you can imagine, making interviews…and even hosted another event we have been to this week:

Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award (MBAFA) (this one took place in Zouk (one of the hip Singaporean clubs) on March 28th . A few words description about that one from the net:

During MBAFA emerging Asian fashion talents are given the opportunity to showcase their collections and springboard into the international fashion arena. Amongst the panel of distinguished expert judges will be international London-based Singapore designer Ashley Isham

(a propos, he presented his collection on Sunday 26th March at the tent).
The whole event, as the name itself indicates, was SPONSORED BY MERCEDES-BENZ : ) This will definitely bring a measurable increase of the brand awareness and the brand image all over the region, since the show turned out to be very impressive and well organized. The designs of the 10 young regional designers were fantastic (!), with a Malaysian fashion talent winning the contest. We mustn’t forget excellent food and fine selection of drinks we were enjoying the whole evening. And the party of course, which we joined after the show, together with other guests, models and sponsors. The atmosphere was great! Especially that some “a little bit” bizarre or,…let’s say, extravagant individuals showed up on the dance floor – how typical for the world of fashion & art however, very interesting for me – a graduate financier!

Talking about celebrities, one of the faces of this year Singapore Fashion Festival was one of the hottest and most in-demand British supermodels, Lily Cole. She was also one of the models presenting proudly Jean Paul Gaultier collection. We truly enjoyed both events that we were to! You do not get to see the finest fashion designs every day, especially enriched by the unique Far East vibe!

Here are some photos from the Jean Paul Gaultier show:[all photos here]

Pictures of the Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award 2006: [all photos here]

Update: Here is an article that I recently found about Lily Cole “Lily Cole stops traffic on Orchard Road“ read the full article here!

Thaipusam 2006

Thaipusam is the most dramatic of all Hindu festivals. Celebrated during the full moon in the Hindu month of Thai, it is a day of fasting, thanksgiving and consecration.
The festival is an intense show of faith. The devotees go on a three-kilometre trek with ritualistic act of worship and thanksgiving. The main participants in trance, haul or carry beautifully decorated kavadis (containing milk pots). These are literally hooked to their bare bodies. It is a display of belief that transcends pain.[Visitsingapore.com]

I have never seen such a festival before. It hurt just by looking at them, so we decided not to stay very long. Take a close look at the photos…

Chingay Parade of Dreams 2006

Even in Singapore there is something like our famous “Fasching” or Carneval. On the 4th of February we decided to go to Orchard Road to see the Chingay Parade of Dreams which is held anually during the Lunar New Year.
Touted as Asia’s grandest street and floats parade, we expected a lot. The streets were barred by fences so that people could not step on the street. Just the volunteers and people with a special pass were permitted to pass the fence.

After one hour the parade finally started and apart from the interesting and beautiful location, it was a little bit disappointing. Compared to the german carneval parades there wasn’t this special atmosphere. The local groups and the foreign acts were dressed beautiful but somehow we missed the fun and the excitement in their faces.
If you haven’t seen this parade before it’s worth a visit, but I won’t keep it in my mind as the best parade I’ve ever seen. Go to the photo section to see more pictures.
Visit http://www.chingay.org.sg/ for more information!

Chinese New Year Light-up & Singapore River Hongbao

Chinese New Year Light-up Our trip at Chinese New Years Eve started with a taxi ride to little Chinatown. We arrived at the entrance to Chinatown and it was so crowded we couldn’t believe our eyes. More than you have ever seen on any jumble sale in Germany … For the Chinese the new year will be the year of the Dog and Chinatown was transformed into a colourful playground which showcases all the animals

in the Chinese zodiac signs, and especially signs of the the Dog. The funniest thing I’ve seen on the huge market was the waxed ducks, I took some pictures of them, just check out the pictures section.Singapore River Hongbao The second stop that night was in front of the Esplanades (cultural centre) where there was a big firework at midnight. We were standing with hundreds of chinese waiting for the firework and drinking our warm 7-11 beer, which actually was better than buying a beer at one of the stalls there for 10S$. The firework was really good, check out the pictures!