She, Too, Went To Paris

Style On The Dot

Oct 2

Winner of Singapore Stories 2022 Kavita Thulasidas showed her collection during Paris Fashion Week for the first time. Did she put our island in the map?

Kavita Thulasidas (left) taking the customary bow at the end of the show

Like Carol Chen (陈慧敏) before her, Stylemart's Kavita Thulasidas debuted in Paris through part of her prize for winning last year's Singapore Stories, organised by the Singapore Fashion Council (SFC, former Textile and Fashion Federation or TaFF). Early this evening (about 1pm Paris time), her collection was "livestreamed" on Instagram through the Stylemart Instagram page. SFC's director of industry development Leonard Augustine Choo, in an interview with CNA two days before the show, called it a "significant event". This was culmination of a year's work since Ms Thulasidas's victory at the annual competition. In the same interview, Ms Thulasidas told the news channel that she was in Paris "to tell the Singapore story, so it's all about—you know, I have reflected, em, the strength in our diversity, our culture, and our heritage through the elements in the embroidery. And the cuts and styles are very contemporary and modern, with an Asian fusion twist... to represent Singapore in its true aesthetic sensibility."

It is not clear what aesthetical truth Ma Thulasidas had hoped to show or speak for. For many Singaporean designers, ethnic flourishes define the Singapore fashion narrative, and the more they are able to incorporate them into one garment, the better they can give an account of the story. In Paris, Ms Thulasidas did not set herself apart, probably to the delight of SFC. Her collection, Heritage Reinterpreted, was a retelling of what she envisioned for the SFC competition: the amalgam of what has been for a long time considered the crux of our fashion identity—the wealth of our ethnic visual identities. If the audience made up mostly Westerners, it could be assumed that they wanted to see an excess of artistic traditions tethered to our culture. Ms Thulasidas happily served them, like a buffet, even when she put out a paltry ten looks

If the audience made up mostly Westerners, it could be assumed that they wanted to see an excess of artistic traditions tethered to our culture. Ms Thulasidas happily served them, like a buffet

On IG a week earlier, she said that she has been "working on making this a full collection." It is unfortunate that she did not include the six pieces of her winning Singapore Stories entry so as to make the Paris presentation fuller. But less than half a dozen looks for a "full collection" is really serving only appetisers and calling them a complete meal. However, she could not have increased the number, as a restriction of ten looks was set out by the organiser of the show, Spotlight.Fashion—an event intermediary that, according to the company's website, makes available "a hybrid turn-key solution for brands looking to create events and activations," including during Paris Fashion Week. That distinction is necessary as the Spotlight.Fashion show—a joint-presentation, described as 'Spotlight Collective SS24, with three other brands—was not part of the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week, put together by Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM).

You can show during PFW, but it is inaccurate to suggest that you are part of the week-long event as if you were listed on their calendar. Last year, Carol Chen was careful to state that clearly (but not thoroughly—she still wrote that her collection was "launched at Paris Fashion Week") after participants of her joint-show, then organised by the Jakarta-based Fashion Division, were issued letters by FHCM to be careful of how they communicated their show time in Paris. Ms Thulasidas has generally avoided using any preposition to describe her modest presentation, staged at the Hotel Alfred Sommier, in the Madeleine neighbourhood. But, she did occasionally say, prior to the show, that the collection was "set to unveil at the Paris Fashion Week", which could potentially offer the consideration that she showed in the same event as Dior or Chanel. At this juncture of SFC's admirable attempts at pushing a designer to bring fame to our island, it could be misguided to think there is one who could stand alongside French Heritage brands.

In that CNA interview with Ms Thulasidas, anchor Loke Wei Sue offered a pertinent point that had curiously alluded SFC thus far: "You talked about telling Singapore stories— however exciting that story is, it has to be well told to count as a story worth the telling." What was Ms Thulasidas's story and was it good enough to justify her showing in Paris that came with the concomitant expense? The main point for her seemed to be the embroidery—surface embellishment that for many designers (and SFC alike), are what constitutes the favourite quality "craftsmanship"—which she has proudly declared to be done in India, the country "making luxury fashion for the world", as Forbes announced in a recent report. If all that thread work were to be unstitched, it is not certain that the designs would stand admirably on their own. Describing the cuts as "contemporary" was not saying they were innovative. In fact, Ms Thulasidas's way with patterning erred on the conservative, just as her tendency to boast about her predilection for "attention to detail" was clichéd. Her claims did not necessarily mean a thing, since Ms Thulasidas had not pointed out what those details were.

Ms Loke continued: "Now that you are in Paris; you look at the quality of just tailoring alone, how do you ensure—yourself and our sector here as well—that we reach that kind of standard, so that we deliver, not just an exciting story, but a very well done story?" Unsurprisingly, she did not answer that question. The tailleur was not the crux of her collection. But, perhaps it was too much to expect Ms Thulasidas to carry such a responsibility? On IG, she has referred to her "couture-like construction", but as we have repeatedly said, "couture-like" is not couture. Even clothes made by hand do not necessarily commensurate with the "standard" that Ms Loke referred to. It has been mentioned to us that "well done", like nice, is subjective. But Ms Thulasidas's mash-up of ethnic motifs and silhouettes—"Indian, Malaysian, Chinese", she proudly stated on IG—could be considered confusing for a global stage. We may be a plural society, but are our sartorial choices so rojak? To be sure, she tried to embroider current into her designs: e.g. a qipao came with flowing drapes, emerging from the posterior!

Ms Thulasidas's mash-up of ethnic motifs and silhouettes could be considered confusing fovfdçcr a global stage

Ms Thulasidas told CNA's Ms Loke, "with Singapore, we have a very rich, colourful cultural background. On that perspective, we have something very fresh, very new." It is admirable that the Stylemart owner-designer saw freshness and newness in a design approach that has been adopted here for an extremely long time, especially when it comes to costumes for the contestants representing our state at international beauty pageants, but that perceived novelty was not apparent; it certainly won't be here, in her home market. Her collection, dominated by special-occasion wear, married the shapes of the ethnically familiar with the supposedly "modern", all decorated by the hands of the karigars (Urdu for artisans), whose minute embellishments (so distant from what in Paris is broderie moderne) perhaps provided the exotic factor (or fodder for the next Asian Civilisations Museum exhibition that continues to market ours as a heritage of a "port city")—just as a trail of a sari fabric would—to an audience not yet satiated with embroidered flowers and such.

Kavita Thulasidas's Paris debut perhaps also showed that the admirably sanguine Singapore Fashion Council believes that creativity in Singapore has not remained fallow and that their Singapore Story winner could be the next Andrew Gn. The council's Leonard Augustine Choo told CNA that Kavita Thulasidas's Paris debut is "the beginning of the internationalisation of even more Singapore brands". Perhaps more germane would be if she would return. Or, would she follow the footsteps of Carol Chen, with no more Singapore stories to tell, less so now that she has returned to her home in the US. Indeed, one Paris show does not an international label make. Although Kavitha Thulasidas the label is available in the brand's first and sole eponymous standalone store in Colombo, Sri Lanka since 2019, it is insufficient to throw light on what led the SFC to be so upbeat, and believe that their latest fashion pride and glory could be "one of Singapore's most successful exports", as Mr Gn has been touted to be. Perhaps, when the truly creative is in short supply, hope will do.

Photos: gorunway.com