World Runway Premiere (Fashionquake Aid 2011) Event

I managed to snag myself some tickets for the World Runway Premiere (Fashionquake Aid 2011) event, so I dragged along my friends, Josephine, Jeremy and Cockroach (that's her nickname, she's a major fan of Gazette). I was pretty starting to get pretty ill (still haven't fully recovered) but even my illness wouldn't stop me from attending such a major fashion event!

A slight background of the event, unlike its famous big sister, the Tokyo Girls' Collection (TGC), WRP is NOT a fashion event for brands to showcase their latest collections. Rather, it's a fashion tournament involving teams consisting of stylists, wardrobe assistants and makeup artists/hairstylists from 8 countries who compete to style their models according to the theme, which was "street-chic".

The teams came from Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, USA and Singapore. They had to shop for their collection from local shops and had to keep within a strict budget (I think it was bout $500 per model).

Onto pictures! Though I apologise for them being so blurry, with my camera out of order, I had to depend on my crappy iphone pics, though jeremy did help me by taking some pictures too! So the less blurry pics are his. Do click on the pics for a bigger view, that way you can see the outfit and makeup details alittle better. >.<

If by chance anyone does take the pictures for whatever purpose (tumblr etc.) Please, link it back to this blog, I took an insanely long time editting the pics, joining them together and choosing the best of the many crappy ones I had. Thanks!

Most pictures are from the large screen because we were seated insanely near the side of the stage. It was fun because we were the "cheerleaders" and they gave us flags to wave about. The stage was like 2 "Y" joined together, and the entire team were judged on a few categories (styling, makeup, hair, walking, uniqueness, team presentation & creative vision) with the total score making up the final score. Only 4 teams were selected for the second round, and then the winner was chosen.

USA played with textures greatly. They layered alot and their models were often adorned with heavy jewellry that almost resembled medieval chains. Makeup consisted of intense contouring with blush and highlighting being overly emphasised coupled with dark eyes.

Italy focused more on strong colours and bold makeup. I loved the reddish leopard dress in the third picture, it was accesorized with a chunky gold belt that appeared to be made from thread spools or bangles, super creative! The model on the far right picture had feather earrings or hair acccesories, which is very on trend right now.

I felt that Russia failed totally in meeting the "street-chic" theme. Their look was soft and muted with a colour palette consisting of nudes and whites. It was very different and no doubt, stood out in its own way, but like I said, personally it failed to meet the theme. But I cannot deny that I loved their makeup so much! The models had soft, glowing porcelain skin with the barest of blush and liner to give it that ethereal, forest nypmh look. Their hair and makeup were accesorized with flowers, and I think gardening foam.

Brazil, was in no doubt the most fun of the lot! The models sashayed down the runway decked in colourful, blinged out clothes and waved and danced about. I certainly felt like I was attending an actual TGC with the models' fun antics. They even came down at the last moment carrying the Brazil national flag, a definite showstopper! Makeup was fun with lost of glitter shadows and eyeliner and fun pops of colours everywhere be it the lips, blush or just the amazing clothes.

From here on, the following countries were the ones that made it to the second round. The other countries that failed to make it assisted the other countries during the 20 minute interval that they were given to get the models to change into their new outfits and to freshen their makeup.

Honestly, when I first saw Singapore's collection, I thought they were the Japan team. The 2 pictures from the right came from their first collection, and the third picture is their second round collection. The models were decked out in alot of neon colours, Hello Kitty and hoodies with cat ears on them, the whole thing was alittle too "kawaii" for me. The second collection had little relation to the first collection other then having the same makeup and bright colours. Most of them were decked in cheongsam-inspired dresses that had the most garish prints on them, I seriously thought the outfits were more suited for getai singers (performers who sing, dance and perform comedic acts during the Hungry ghost festival, to entertain both the living & the dead who had returned) then a styling tournament

France on the otherhand, played it bit too safe in my opinion. Their outfits were fun no doubt, but in a more Friday office dress down getup kindda way but they were bang on trend with high-waisted shorts, polka dot patterns and vintage style dresses with waists being cinched in with a wide belt. Their makeup was obviously a nod to geishas with super pale skin and painted red lips and perfectly coiffed dark hair.

Japan reminded me alot of the dramatic antics of a John Galliano show. Models had their hair decked out with interesting headgears that seemed to be made of coloured netting and flowers and other random knick-knacks, all placed atop the models' perfectly pulled back hair in the most precarious manner. Models sashayed down the runway waving huge umbrellas and fans, looking sombre with their pale skin, kohl-rimmed eyes and stark black lips. Clothes were heavily layered, or in some cases, like the 2nd picture from the right, heavily adorned with amazing details and all of them had at least one material on them, somewhere, that had some kind of Japanese print on it, be it floral or Japanese cranes.

UK was the eventual winner (and my personal favourite!). It was a dead giveaway that the styling team was heavily influenced if not, paying homage to the late Alexander Mcqueen. Models had dewy skins, with the appearance of just a touch of makeup, nude lips and then heavily emphasised brows, with extra feathers and glitter foil attached to their brows. Clothes too covered the bare minimum, but had great amounts of detailing on them, with lots of metallic accents on them or a mixing of textures. They looked so futuristic and awe-inspiring, no photo does them complete justice, I am now deeply obssessed at finding out where the styling team got their outfits from, because I totally want the whole collection!!

At the end of the tournament, all the models and styling teams came onstage to await the results. UK walked away with a total score of 79, and became the first winner of the World Runway Premiere event.

The event was great fun, but alittle messy. Models were still practising their walks when my friends and I were let in, but then again, we were the "cheerleaders" so we were allowed in alittle earlier then others to get us to rehearse our flag-waving and cheering. Once, due to a technological malfunction, the timing went off-schedule and our host, Utt, had to come out and buy alittle time by interacting with the audience.

I was also really upset when I noticed about a 1/4 of the people attending the event were more interested in the Korean performing artist, se7en, then the actual event. They waved glowsticks aorund and suddenly the whole audience was so alive with fangirls screaming away when he performed. They promptly left, the moment his performance was over without even having the courtesy to wait alittle while more for the tournament results.

But no matter, as a trial for what's to become a major fashion festival for the next 5 years, it was done superbly and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to attend this event. Cross my fingers and hope that I'll be just as lucky next year!!