This is the final week to see and enjoy the glamor-infused exhibits of Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World, especially one very green, very famous dress
New addition: The Andrew Gn dress worn by the Princess of Wales that is the fervent pride of the museum
Three weeks after the Andrew Gn (AGN) retrospective opened at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACN), the Princess of Wales made global headlines shortly after attending the trooping the colours in London to commemorate the birthday of King Charles III. The media widely approved her "eye-catching" (the favourite adjectival phrase) green dress with square, jeweled brooch-buttons that were inevitably compared to the kerosang (fancy fastenings on the Peranakan baju kebaya) here. The dress was by hot-in-our-city-now designer Andrew Gn. ACM was totally over the moon—its delighted director Kennie Tng congratulated his favourite designer on Facebook two days after the dress made its very public appearance, sharing a Vogue UK editorial, titled "The Princess of Wales turned to an Unexpected Designer for her Trooping the Colours Look". Interestingly, on vogue.com earlier, Mr Gn was described as our "country's best-known fashion prodigy".
The press here was rather slow to pick up the story. While The Straits Times ran a Reuters report of the parade on the day itself, it took our national paper another 18 days to note Princess Catherine's choice of dress for that occasion. But that was mainly to announce that the outfit—the only piece from Mr Gn's Voyage spring/summer 2023 collection that he had in his studio (apparently, he made only two)—had joined the 100-plus outfits currently on show, now in its last week at the ACM exhibition Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World. ST enthused that the museum, not the nation—heading into the National Day celebrations—was "buzzing with excitement as a new dress [found] its place" in the "ongoing exhibition focusing on the works of the Paris-based home-grown designer to the stars". It must have been such a coup for ACM, but it is not known how many who have already been to the exhibition would pay again to see that one dress in a green akin to agar agar jelly, worn not by stars, but a princess.
Pick a hat and pose: Activities to boost attendance to the AGN exhibition
Unless you took advantage of Fashion Playground: Weekend Festivities—the open-to-all event conceived to improve the attendance to the AGN exhibition. ACM has been frequently commended on their approach—distinguished by a common touch—to drawing crowds to their exhibitions. And they were at their grassroots best, again. About nine weeks after their biggest fashion display opened, they organised the festivities of "free DIY activities" in the museum foyer to heighten the appeal of the AGN exhibition, including admission without charge to the latter for Singaporeans and PRs. If you had been there, you would have appreciated the community club energy of the extra-curricular fun that unfolded around the reception counter. You could take photographs, wearing assorted accessories to mimic the AGN glamour; make paper dresses a la AGN for Barbie; redeem ice creams; and, when the shopping bug bit, explore the flea market (on level two), 'Fashion Insiders Market', that featured stalls by influencers and celebrities, including one bored-looking Paul Foster.
For those who missed that weekend, there was the Chic and Proud: National Day Open House on the very day we celebrated the birth/independence of our nation. Again, the admission to the AGN exhibition was free for Singaporeans and PRs. And, you get to, once again, play with Barbie (in "extremely limited quantities", the museum warned) by putting paper dresses on her lithe body. But if even the generosity of ACM on that day was missed, there were the Contest Giveaways: Guess which celebrity wore a featured AGN dress (posted on Facebook) and "stand a chance to win a pair of tickets" to the exhibition daily, from 17 to 30 July. We do not remember ACM's other large-scale fashion exhibition Guo Pei: Chinese Art and Couture in 2019 to be accompanied by so many activities to boost visitor numbers. Why would AGN's marketing department need to go into hyperdrive to boost the attendance if the numbers were not encouraging to begin with?
Barbie in AGN-inspired paper dresses
In case you need ideas on how to dress your Barbie
Hitherto, it is not known how popular the exhibition has been or how many visitors it has attracted. As far as we are aware, ACM does not release figures. But from the several visits that we made (to study the fascinating exhibits and to be among future dress antiquities), the galleries had been empty of visitors. When we asked one of the security guards if the exhibition was well-attended, he said, "okay, lah", with a you-know-as-much-as-I glint in his eye. Among the fashion folks we spoke to, those who have seen the exhibition do not intent to go again, not even if the dress the Princes of Wales wore could be scrutinised up-close. Those who haven't, are not planning to. Reasons were withheld. One told us that she did not want to "sound unpatriotic". For not viewing an exhibition? "Aiya, you don't know, lah," she replied. When we mentioned that it appears that not many people have seen it, quite a few surmised that Andrew Gn "is not well-known enough here".
Which may explain the rash of publicity that Mr Gn had fostered in the year leading to the exhibition. The Andrew Gn label has not been available here to buy or view before 2023, as such, it is possible that Mr Gn did not see the necessity to promote his designs to our island's consumers, especially when his biggest market—America—required his considerable attention, professionally and socially. But since ACM's in-Paris, pre-pandemic proposal to Mr Gn that an exhibition in his honour should be staged back home, the designer's gowns were suddenly worn by local celebrities, namely Mediacorp's, such as Zoe Tay in a floral yellow gown for the President Star Charity concert in October last year. Mr Gn revealed through Instagram that it was the former TV host Sharon Au, now based in Paris and once a collaborator with Akinn, who introduced the long-time stylist Jeremey Tan to him. It was the beginning of the designer outfitting other national pop icons, including Kit Chan (also styled by Mr Tan). But could the stars suddenly wearing AGN have been too little, too late? It is hard to say if the publicity gathered sufficient momentum to augment the allure of the AGN exhibition.
The yellow dress (second from left) worn by Zoe Tay President Star Charity concert last October
Or, if the clothes themselves were sufficient draw. All of the pieces were donated by Mr Gn. It is not known how much curatorial power ACM exercised. It is possible that ACM had only those given dresses to choose from in order to fit into their thematic galleries. Some of the pieces selected look like fillers (perhaps why some had to be on mannequins positioned in the shadows or perched way up so that they would escape close examination?), while others are repetitive in silhouette or motifs (but euphemistically described as "recurrent"). As one designer who saw the exhibition told us, "Andrew has many pieces that are nicer, I don't think they got his best outfits." It is also not known why ACM did not choose to buy what they might need (budgetary constraints were often cited). Five weeks after the exhibition opened, we spotted a dress (among several others) on the auction site Live Auctioneers that we had seen on one of the ACM exhibits—a butterfly-print caftan with bejeweled neckline and placket that was going with the opening bid of US$170. There were no takers. ACM could have had that for a song.
Could it also be due to the lack of sufficient choices that some pieces, clearly too small to fit the mannequins, were still exhibited? One particular dress remains in our minds: a sleeveless, silver gown with a plunging neckline. It is memorable for its relative simplicity of line, as well as a startling back—the zip in the centre was gaping, showing its teeth and tape! Right at the top, the opening did not meet, which suggested to us that the usually-employed hook-and-eye closure was somehow absent or lost. The exposed and the missing were deeply disconcerting, if not alarming because Andrew Gn had boasted; "My clothes are very couture without being couture." Which did he really mean—"couture" or "not being couture"? The curious thing is, why did ACM not notice that unsightly gap when they have been always proud to showcase "craftsmanship"? And if they did notice, why was something not done about it? On other pieces, we too spotted technical and finishing irregularities, but had to dismiss them as part of the effort to show that these clothes were, in view of the changing nature of creativity, not the result of AI and attendant machines. Contrary to what has been suggested, we were not deliberately looking for flaws and lapses in judgement. They called out to us.
The surprising finish at the back of silver-sequinned gown
We were, to be certain, not expecting Savage Beauty at the V&A—the British institution ACM's director Kennie Ting had hoped that the museum under his charge would one day be similar in standing. When we learned of the staging of the AGN exhibition last year, our interest were, in fact, quickly piqued. We have had few precious opportunities to look at Mr Gn's clothes upfront. While we have seen many of the runway images of his collection, the actual garments in our very presence would be a more enlightening view. Yet, the ACM exhibition, while purported to be an "extraordinary retrospective", offered a less seductive narrative of the "journey" that Mr Gn embarked since leaving our island to realise his dreams (the exhibition is not in chronological order and is split into three areas of the museum, which may be disorienting for some).
For most attendees, Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World places before them what extra-ornamental fashion that they'll never require—or wish to posses—could look like. These are clothes for occasions far grander than any hotel ballroom wedding. The easily-awed, such as students, may find in the exhibits masterstrokes to admire. For those seeking to enrich themselves through a show that is supposed to emphasise the epitome of one man's design and technical might, the AGN exhibition could be a let down. If anything, it is a bare outline of a professional quest, a mere glimpse into an atelier, of which it is impossible to know the extent of its true capacity and savvy. Pride to celebrate the one among us that has achieved the success that Andrew Gn has may go with impartiality to discern what his achievements isn't. Excellence, even positively skilled designers know, is not necessarily perfection.
Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World ends on 17 September 2023. Admission fee applicable. Photos: Chin Boh Kay
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