Clean clothing for the Seoul

Dressing up in a “sleek” and polished manner is not always my forté as my taste in off-duty clothing veers towards the campy side. I sometimes loathe myself wearing things that I think too feminine, but keep cheating myself nonetheless thinking it is workable and man-able. Therefore there is a need to constantly remind myself that I NEED TO STOP buying women's stuff!

Scha Alyahya x Fashion Valet collaboration

I'm diverting my travel-laden blogpost with local fashion news. Too much of travel does make me miss a bit of frivolity once in a while. Having no ample time to be glued on TV like I used to before, I'm not overly well-versed with the who's who of local entertainment industry, but it's not so easy easy to ignore when it comes to Malaysia's immensely known celebrity Scha Alyahya. With her innate sense of style, it's natural to see her collaboration with notable online retailer of all South East Asian design Fashion Valet come to fruition. The Scha x FV collection features contemporary voluminous silhouettes coupled with the ever so favorable pastel tones and color blocking - predictably going to be received pretty well by the young and urban demographics of Malaysian fashion-conscious girls.

Prints and sportswear: Adidas Originals x Mary Katrantzou

Mary Katrantzou, the Cyprus-born print queen has expanded her portfolio by collaborating with sportswear giant Adidas. Reminiscing her fledgling design days (dresses with chain prints) she has gone very far has her not?

It's just a but of a bummer that there is no menswear clothing in the collection (for the obvs reason, of course). But street footwear fanatics rejoice, as there are men's shoes included as well! Should I ditch my sparingly worn, floral print adorned Raf Simons?

Coach fall/winter 2014, Kuala Lumpur

Coach isn't exactly under my usual artistic label focus but I am aware of its commercial success with practical and functional leather-ware. The mammoth brand's reputation has been attributed to its diverse range of handbags that fit casual and office settings (being a household name Coach bags are coveted by my sister, cousins and even my aunts). But what I can say is their previous offerings may be still not necessarily my stylistic cup of tea.

KLFW 2014: Sandra Azwan, Pearly Wong

Sandra Azwan

Honestly speaking his ready-to-wear collection is among the ones that piqued my interest during KL Fash Week. The design is playful, wearable, and a breath of fresh air from a sea of monochrome, pastel or digital prints. The Geometrical Abstractions collection comprise of dresses in bold lines and solid colours - the bright green, red and mustard simply pop, and I must say, they match these Jump From Paper bags. Looking at a glance the first of the pieces look like American footballers' body gear, but in a good way, of course... 

KLFW 2014: Mimpi Kita, WANPA, Rico Rinaldi

Experiencing KLFW 2014 has taught me to appreciate local designers more. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't want to but previously there's not much platform to showcase the talents online, at least. And given my current profession which puts me in a situation where I appreciate fashion shows on the Net easier rather than in-person, therefore it's hard to really judge something, when all I read is some paltry mini-articles on local fashion newspapers highlighting certain designer, or worse, a gossip-cum-celebrity-worshipping-tool kind of publication. That just doesn't really give all these hardworking creative people justice. So it's good to finally see designer after designer passing the KLFW short runway, and in effect, create awareness to an untrained eye / outsider like yours truly. Attending KLFW this year alone has made me Google more KL designers and in turn follow them on Dunia Fashyon Instagram.

Introducing: Chiyo

KL Fashion Week 2014 organised a pop-up store at Parkamaya, Fahrenheit 88 and as I was perusing the clothing on display and genuinely admired the über-cute and quirky designs, that look like something that come from a Japanese/Thai/South Korean designer for an untrained eye, when a girl appeared. It was a serendipitous occurrence as I wasn't expecting anyone so kind to walk me through the collection. Turned out that I was speaking to Chiyo designer herself, Isabel Lam. The label Chiyo is her brainchild (the name came from Isabel's Chinese name 'Chi Yoi', and as she's heavily influenced by Japanese fashion, she decided to make it Chiyo which means 'thousands of generations/ everlasting' in Japanese).

Rizalman for Zalora 2014

Notable Malaysian fashion designer Rizalman has collaborated with Zalora once again to produce a collection for Raya 2014. I wasn't personally there to see the presentation, but a dear friend of mine represented and took some photos for DF. It's good to have a friend who's willing to take an afternoon off to attend such events. Timing is always an issue as typically such presentations are carried out during standard working hours. Shame on me for not allocating more time working during those lunch hours. Now my claimed hours are not easy to come by. Such is the peril of a civil servant...

Zakwan Anuar Fall Winter 2013 Presentation

I had no expectation set upon attending Zakwan Anuar Fall/ Winter 2013 show last Wednesday. I came to support a former staff who is now working as part of the design team; and I was invited by Jiman Casablancas, a cool PR guy who I have known over the years through several exchanging of interesting conversations we had at parties and events around town. Hafidz enlightened me just before the show (through phone call as he was in Malacca at work) that his previous collection was all about houndstooth check and beautiful brocade incorporated into very clean shift dresses or offered as separates. How enticing!

CAMERAderie: Urbanscapes 2012

‘CAMERAderie’ is a column on DUNIA FASHYON where we try to encapsulate an event in a concise form of photographs. A collection of photos is compiled together to best sum up the whole occasion that took place, in our own perspective.

Today, CAMERAderie covers the Urbanscapes festival 2012 that took place last weekend. A rainy day meant a muddy ground, with people using all kinds of footwear (and the lack thereof) to facilitate them moving through the field. There are also images of fashion enthusiasts picking the latest trendy bargains, music lovers  congregating to view Yuna, food hawkers selling their munchies, the Kaki Seni girls trying their hardest promoting art participation and simply fest-goers chilling out on the creatively piled up wooden pallets...

The Urbanscapes 2012

Believe it or not last Saturday  was our virginal experience at the Urbanscapes (day one) at Padang Astaka, Petaling Jaya! I have been meaning to attend this two-day long annual arts and music festival since two years ago, alas the odd working hours deterred me to do so. The two years of waiting proved worthwhile, with a respectable list of performers and vendors in the event line-up.

Historically the event celebrated its tenth installment this year, and The Star had an informative coverage last September about the company Freeform Sdn Bhd which organises the Scapes and their hardships to realise this occasion as the only cultural festival in Malaysia (this includes treading on the edges of bankruptcy).

H&M Kuala Lumpur Store Opening Official Video

So H&M has finally released the Opening Party video on their Youtube channel yesterday. It was worth the wait as the three minute and a half clip looks pretty amazing!

The production team successfully captured the mood and emotions surrounding the party night and the excitement during the opening day. Kudos to the creative team at KIX!

Do you like it? If yes, then share!

Written by Arman
twitter:@malaychic

Louis Vuitton and Daniel Luren collaboration

I am not ashamed to admit that before I was exposed to the vast universe of fashion, my style obsession was narrowed only to ‘everything-Louis Vuitton’. Years away from that phase now I still have fond interest & enthusiasm on this brand and avidly follow Marc Jacobs striking career at this glorified luxury French label.

Marc Jacobs modelling the 2009 version of the Stephen Sprouse's collaboration
Image source: Highsnobiety.com

Marc Jacobs’ passion in art has immersed seamlessly into the collection he has created for the house. It all started back in 2001 when the collaborated works with Stephen Sprouse was introduced (those hot-ticket Graffiti-laden bags were later reintroduced in 2009, this time in neon options). Then there were Richard Prince (whose The Nurse Series of paintings were then translated onto the runway and his signature art technique applied onto the bag craftsmanship) and recently a collaboration with Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama who single-handedly make polka dots relevant in the fashion world all over again.

AVICII x Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren

And we will never get back to
To the old school
To the old grounds, it's all about the newfound
We are the newborn, the world knew all about us.
(We are the future and we're here to stay)

We've come a long way since that day
And we will never look back at the faded silhouette
We've come a long way since that day
And we will never look back, look back at the faded silhouette

I first heard of the name AVICII when his single ‘Levels’ was included in the album Now 81 (I am an avid collector of NOW That’s What I Call Music, by the way). Apart from the now-defunct  ‘Swedish House Mafia’ he is probably the best electronic music export of Scandinavia.