Event Post: An Insider’s Look at Blueprint 2014 Tradeshow Singapore
Last week, I was invited to head down over to Singapore for the Audi Fashion Festival and Blueprint 2014, and seeing that I couldn’t be in two places at once, I had to skip the Tory Burch Press Day (yep it’s opening here! 😉 )
Blueprint 2014 is a four-day event held on 15th to 17th May. Also known as “Asia’s Fashion Gateway”, the first 2 days is a Tradeshow where industry insiders including buyers, media (including bloggers like myself), and trade visitors get to preview the Pre-Spring 2015 collections from more than 200 local and international emerging ands established designer labels. The participating countries include China, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Slovakia, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA and Vietnam. And guess what? The designers were also present at the event, so I got to speak to the designers and ask about their collections and inspiration. 😉
Queued, got my media pass, and off I went into the Suntec City Convention Centre (Halls 401 and 402) to explore the treasure trove of designers wares. But first, the welcome note and opening fashion show featuring 11 labels: Bitching and Junkfood (UK), Morphe (India), Zê Quun (Korea), jan|sober (Indonesia), Natalie B Coleman (Ireland), Rêvasseur (Singapore), Roggykei (Japan), Svetlana Jushnerova (Kazakhstan) and our very own Rico Rinaldi (whoop whoop, Malaysia represent!)
Fabitoria |
Morphe (India) |
Natalie B Coleman (Ireland) |
Bitching and Junkfood (UK) |
Haven’t we all been there? LOL This totally made me laugh |
Revasseur (Singapore) That cap reminded me of the octopus-witch Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” |
Rico Rinaldi (Malaysia) |
Finale |
After the fashion show, off I went to explore the tradeshow! Here are some of my favourites, and is it weird that I fell in love with more necklaces rather than bags? LOL
Kenny Li |
Hong Kong designer Kenax Leung’s collection is all about digital prints. Me likey!
This skirt is to die for! |
Australian Designer Doris Q
Now this made me take notice, not because of the prints, but because the label was called “Organs Without Body”, which totally reminded of philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of the “Body without Organs” – one of the theories I’d be exploring in detail for my PhD dissertation on Fashion, lol
Singaporean designer Ling Wu’s booth was all about snakeskin. Check images below for two of my favourite pieces. I’m never a fan of black bags, but I SO wanted to buy the shoulder bag below!
And then it was exotic skins galore in every colour imaginable with Marvellous Field..
One of my favourite booths ever at Blueprint this year, Hong Kong based accessories label, Matter Matters. I loved the frame clutch and the triangular bag with contrast coloured chain strap (SGD 600+)in pastel blue on the right!
On to Cecilia Ma, also from Hong Kong, whose necklaces I absolutely adore, with quirky clutches to boot!
Dying over these pieces with fuchsia floral accents! |
And another accessories designer I love, homegrown Singaporean label, Carrie K. Totally loved her “A Beautiful Mess” collection which features a paint splatter design. The necklaces and cuffs are dual-sided with metallic leather on one side, and patent leather on the other! Talk about versatility! I had a chance to speak to the designer and she said that “A Beautiful Mess” was inspired by Singapore’s very clean and almost clinical state, so this collection is supposed to shake things up a little!
Enamel rings and metal |
British jewellery and accessories label Nocturne. All completely hand-made but instead of crystals, glass is utilised.
Another favourite, “NoBeing” from Hong Kong, and their latest “Strings” collection.
UK shoe brand Kandee (you can find the boutique at the Mandarin Gallery) has started to experiment with small accessories like pouches and card cases which are just too adorable!
A little too much like Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2014 collection, no? |
Fukuoka Asia Collection (Japan) was a little too ‘out-there’ for me |
On 17th and 18th May, Blueprint transforms into an Emporium, and is open to the public. During these two days, the designers will be selling of their sample pieces from next year’s Pre-Spring collection (meaning that you get to purchase and own a piece more than 6 months before they launch officially!), Limited Edition pieces as well as off-season collections – almost all of which aren’t available locally in Singapore. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to shop the items because I had my flight back to KL booked for the 17th. *Sobs* because there were quite a few things I wanted. I persuaded the designers to sell me some of their wares, but they weren’t allowed to else they’d be short of items to display during the tradeshow. 🙁
This was the only thing I managed to come back with…
Special Thanks to Blueprint for the invitation and all-access Media pass!
Stay tuned for my post on Audi Fashion Fest on Monday! 😉
All images by Bag Addicts Anonymous