… to BOLD-ly go where no one has been before

by Steven Leong on Apr.17, 2008, under Events

Twice a year, Raffles Design Institute Kuala Lumpur holds it’s graduation exhibition & fashion show and 3rd April 2008 is when the 19th graduation show was held.

The theme this time is “BOLD”, what is BOLD really? “BOLD perfectly describes the aspirations of our students.” according to Mr. Chris Lee, Vice Dean of RDIKL and he adds, “they (the students) want to be bold enough to set new fashion treands or reinvent old ones, daring enough to defy all odds and (be) brave enough to take all the necessary risks that can evetually be rewarding for each of them.”

So… what does it mean? Being quite a self-professed fashion n00b, I won’t say much except that some designs were indeed thought provoking and challenging to very definition of how clothing should look like and there were others who were less interesting.

Lighting was particularly good this time as I had time to talk to the lighting technician before the show and got the lighting adjusted to levels that suit photography… and yes, I specifically asked for no follow spot during the actual show which turned out to be a good decision. From the runway patterns that I saw during the show, I am certain the follow-spot operator would be hard-pressed to be consistent or know which model to follow with the spotlight.

Joe Chia won the best collection that night, titled, “The Illusion”, in his words, he describes his collection as, “Dazzled feeling that inspired me. Illusion never fails to amaze, that with the one flat image which portraits a different dimension and point of view. Spiral forms. Together it sets the audience in dazzling and spinning mind.”.

Deep stuff for a young man who is just beginning his journey into fashion design? Maybe… but I think I can catch a glimpse of what he was describing while photographing his collection.

But of course, as per tradition, RDI KL holds it’s interior design project presentations as well as the Fashion Marketing booth displays during it’s graduation show. The Interior design students gave their best describing their vision how to transform the JW Marriot ballroom area into their dream design to a panel of expert judges. It would be really interesting to see RDI KL really give a free hand to one of it’s students to design the ballroom as they see fit, wonder if I will ever see that happen?

And of course, last but not least, this show’s marketing student designs were really quite outstanding compared to what I have seen before. Water curtains, live fish, perfectly theme colors are present this year… can’t wait for the next show.