The growing popularity of the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week “Ready to Wear” (RTW) has ushered in the event — now in its third year — again, this time featuring even more designers and more exciting brand new collections. In 2013, the KL Fashion Week RTW was conceptualised as a B-2-C platform for Malaysian designers to showcase their RTW collections and highlight the strength and creativity of Malaysia’s fashion industry. Last year, the event saw a staggering 100,000 visitors throng Pavilion KL over the five days the event was held there, and over 80 local designers’ collections were showcased. 

This year, from Aug 12 to 16, the KL Fashion Week RTW will be back to present an eclectic mix of designers over five days. These designers will be showcasing their never before seen “runway collection” exclusively at this event. 

Andrew Tan, founder of the KL Fashion Week RTW, undertook the mammoth task of bringing together various facets of the fashion industry under one roof.

“Working closely with Tourism Malaysia helped us invite five international guest designers from China, UK, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia to facilitate creative bilateral dialogue between our local and international designers to promote international growth of our local designers in the future,” he said at a press conference on July 30. 

“The impact of the KL Fashion Week RTW will trigger the beginning of a powerful economic growth of our Malaysian fashion industry, as Malaysian textile and clothing exports are set to double to an annual value of US$7.5 billion by 2020, according to a report that was published in issue No 158 of Textile Outlook International, entitled ‘Prospects for the Textile and Clothing Industry in Malaysia’,” Tan continued. 

The KL Fashion Week RTW has in the past successfully generated commercial and international attention to the local fashion industry, design houses, fashion centres and specialised dyeing and finishing facilities — evidence that the event has now become a yearly not-to-be-missed attraction.

Tan believes that a lot of the success that the KL Fashion Week has achieved is a credit to Malaysia’s fashion and textile industry. 

“To the untrained eye, it’s all about fun and glamour. However, beneath the surface, we are hard at work, facilitating dialogues and networking opportunities among designers, suppliers, manufacturers, departmental stores, stockists, online retailers, fashion journalists and mainstream media,” Tan elaborated.

The focus of this event has always been on encouraging local designers and brands to cultivate their passion for fashion by providing a platform that gives them recognition, something on par with the international market, so that they can be inspired to further develop their skills and contribute to the industry.

Apart from the highly-anticipated collections from established designers, the fashion week will also be hosting the AirAsia Runway Ready Designer Search 2015 to uncover the latest creative talents in the local fashion scene. Ten young designers out of over 300 entries from the top fashion schools will be selected, and the top three will be announced at 12pm, on Aug 16. These winners will have the honour of having their designs featured on the KL Fashion Week 2015 runway, as well as winning AirAsia prizes like air tickets and BIG points.

Some of the veterans, such as Eclipse, Khoon Hooi, Alia Bastamam, Jonathan Liang, Silas Liew and Syaiful Baharim, will be making an appearance on the runway again this year, while some newcomers will be showcasing their collections for the first time, including the Young Designers’ Association who will be opening the show.

An exciting event not to be missed this year is the Islamic Fashion Festival which will be taking place on Aug 13 at 12.30pm, a show unique to the KL Fashion Week that has generated a lot of interest in previous years. In addition, a Royal Songket Terengganu showcase by Yayasan Tuanku Nur Zahirah on Aug 15 at 9pm is another interesting show to look forward to. 

The Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week “Ready to Wear” will take place at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur from Aug 12 to 16, and shows start at 12.30pm daily. For a full list of events, visit www.klfashionweek.com. 

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 5, 2015.