Three years ago, Andrew Tan dreamed of the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week Ready to Wear (KLFW RTW) and decided to make it a reality. A runway show, showcasing local designers’ collections, KLFW’s maiden show in 2013 drew visitors and fans from around the country. Today, the event has become one of the most highly anticipated fashion shows in Malaysia. The third installation of the KLFW took place last week at the Pavilion shopping mall in the heart of the city and featured an impressive line-up of over 80 designers.

This year, foreign designers also made an appearance — Songul Cabaci from Turkey, Jarred Baker from Australia, James Hock from the UK, Thomas Wee from Singapore, YESIR from China and Mel Ahyar from Indonesia showed their collections at the KLFW’s runway. 

The who’s who of the fashion industry were seen at the event which started on Aug 12 and culminated on Sunday. The Young Designers Arena kicked started the show last Wednesday with an assorted collection by various designers for online retailer, Zalora. In fact, several of the designers’ collections can be purchased through Zalora, which now has a presence in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. 

The event also saw the grand finale of the 

AirAsia Runway Ready Designer Search 2015, and the winner, Lee Bao En from UCSI University, won return flights to Tokyo, 60,000 BIG Points, a Dell Inspiron laptop and a guaranteed spot to showcase a full collection for next year’s event. 

The KLFW RTW 2015 ended with Rizman Ruzaini’s dramatic extravaganza which featured guest singers like Anuar Zain, Ning Baizura and Ziana Zain, bringing another exciting fashion week to a close. 

Live it! brings you the highlights from the event.  

Islamic Fashion Festival

This year, the Islamic Fashion Festival made its first appearance at KLFW with ready-to-wear pieces showcased for Muslim men and women. Aini Bakker showcased Middle-East-inspired pieces in shades of brown, beige and cream. Yajameel’s line of traditional Malay wear for men featured an impressive line-up of outfits with songkoks and sarungs in metallic colours. Farel Mikhail, on the other hand, presented a collection of colourful tops and headscarves with flowing skirts and loose pants. The entire Islamic wear show was an eye-opening look into the world of fashion thousands of miles away from home. Modern, chic and with an element of class, the whole show successfully exhibited the cutting-age styles — a stunning ensemble of clothing that appeal to Muslim women the world over. 

Ezzati Amira

Inspired by nature, flora and fauna, Ezzati Amira’s collection at KLFW featured models strutting their stuff barefooted in an array of mostly solid-coloured outfits — black, cream, gold, orange and green — adorned with flower crowns. Some of the pieces were reminiscent of traditional Greek clothing, and the whole collection ranged from casual to formal wear. There were outfits perfect for work and others perfect for a beachy vacation. Taking a minimalistic approach to her designs, Ezzati wowed her many fans who congregated at the event to catch a glimpse of her pieces. 

Aere

Raja Nadia Sabrina, the heart and brains behind Aere, showcased a stunning collection made up of flowing dresses and skirts in pastels. Nadia started out as a fashion blogger, and last year, started up Aere in order to share her creations with the masses. “I wanted to create pieces that were staples but with a modern and fresh take,” she says. “My designs are mostly for the modern working woman.” Nadia’s personal style was evident in her KLFW line-up, as there was a coherent theme that ran throughout. From interesting headpieces to long skirts and airy tops to chic semi-formal wear, they were perfect for the working woman. Aere sports three distinct lines — Aere Might, which is work wear, Aere Light (evening wear) and Aere Night (sleepwear). 

My Apparel Zoo

Founder and designer of this fashion label, Ellie Norman, describes the line as “colourful, unique and feminine with a slight edge” and this was indeed reflected in the Spring/Summer 2016 collection. A variety of floral prints were spotted throughout the day-to-day-wear pieces like pencil-cut skirts and dresses, colourful tops and white blouses. Some of the two-piece clothing can be easily mixed and matched with others to create different attire combos. Apart from the diverse colour palette ranging from bright yellow and hot pink to monochrome, print motifs are speckled throughout the collection — be it throughout the whole garment or strategically placed on a single wide collar or waistband of a dress.  

Adila Long

Adila Long’s collection successfully proved that songket is not just for traditional attire. She presented a collection that embraced the beauty of traditional songket material with a modern spin. Models strutted down the runway in structured jackets and tapered pants made fully from songket and suits that could take the wearer from boardroom to cocktail party effortlessly, owing to the grandeur of songket. The collection also featured cropped pants, blazers with kimono-inspired bows at the waist and a high-slitted long dress.

Mimpikita

The feminine designs and sensuous materials that make up the brand’s Spring/ Summer 2016 collection is interestingly inspired by the arrows that the designers came across while travelling. The three designers, who are sisters, — Nurul Afidah Zulkifli, Amirah Hanis Zulkifli, and Fatimah Ani Syahira Zulkifli — explain that “the collection incorporates the lines from the arrows as well as the arrows themselves”. The primary materials used in the entire range are linen and chiffon that create the lines that are associated with the arrows through asymmetrical and cut-out designs. Mimpikita showcased a range of tones — from the popular black and whites to brighter shades like teal and orange as well as earthy tones — by either playing down a brighter colour with a more neutral one or by combining a few vibrant hues to create a statement piece that is hard to miss.

Zero to Ten

Drawing inspiration from the marble and stone structures witnessed during his travels in Istanbul, designer YC Yeap strived to recreate this through the layering of materials like shantung silk and fabric netting. “I imagine the wearer to be everyone,” the designer points out when asked who he had in mind when designing the outfits. He also describes his collection as “high street fashion that is affordable” and this is apparent in the choice of predominantly black and white colours as well as the casual and fuss-free designs. Some of the pieces like the oversized blazer and shift dress had an edgy feel to them, enhanced further by finishing such as geometrical prints and round cut-outs fitted with metal circles. Zero to Ten is one of the few street wear styles at KL Fashion Week this year with a dash of colour as seen on the red jumpsuit that ended this show.

Innai Red

Oriental designs and vibrant hues make this collection. Designers of Innai Red, Juliani and Arene, say: “This year’s collection is inspired by origami as you can see from the pleat and folds on the clothing, similar to the folds that are essential to origami.” The designers aim to alleviate materials like cotton and linen which are usually associated with more casual wear as these materials portray the origami-inspired pleats well.  Elements like Chinese knots on the back of a dress, kimono-like designs, as well as recurring nature-inspired prints in bright tones against white backgrounds reinforce the oriental theme of the collection.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 20, 2015.