In fashion, there is a certain magic in beginnings. Each year, Singapore’s design schools release a new wave of graduates, and with them, a bloom of ideas that test the boundaries of imagination. For this whimsical shoot inspired by figures that feel almost arcane, Vogue Singapore turns its lens on 10 collections from Lasalle College of the Arts, Raffles College of Higher Education and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts—each one a glimpse into how the next generation is shaping the city’s sartorial landscape.
From painterly brushstrokes to modular garments, and from ancestral references to reimagined craft, these collections echo the deeply personal journeys of their makers while gesturing toward the possibilities of what lies ahead. Together, they remind us that graduate design is about raw beginnings as much as they are a step forward—where distinct visions meet the discipline of process and the intimacy of narrative, offering a rare glimpse into the future of the local creative landscape and beyond. Below, peruse through the 10 distinct graduate collections and the stories behind their designs.
Alice Tan
Tan’s collection, Whom, explores the contrast between perfection and imperfection through a psychological lens. “I wanted to bring to life the story of how people often hide their flaws beneath what they show to the world,” she explains. Layered fabrics with varying transparency represent the hidden parts of identity, while hand-painted brushstroke gradients express shifting inner emotions. Her process began with a quiet question, unfolding into a series of visual experiments. “I painted brushstrokes across garments like emotions flowing onto canvas,” she shares. “Every seam and drape whispered a part of the narrative.” Using calligraphy ink, Dylon powder and batik dye, Tan applied ink painting techniques to create expressive, living textures. Materials like cotton twill, linen and sheer poly-cotton were chosen for their different levels of visibility—reflecting what we choose to reveal or hide. “My work challenges the idea of perfection often seen in fashion by embracing imperfection as part of beauty,” she says. “Instead of polished prints, I used hand-painted brushstrokes to create raw, expressive textures that feel alive.”
Tan Sii Mui
Through modular garments that echo fragility, Tan’s Impermanence collection explores the fluid nature of change and the art of transformation. “I wanted to create something that feels caught mid-shift—raw, modular and reflective,” she shares. Inspired by the idea that nothing stays the same, she saw modularity as a way to express transformation. “I was interested in garments that aren’t stagnant—where you can wear them differently and they keep evolving.” Her process began with research into erosion, weathered surfaces and layered architecture, which led to visual collages and asymmetrical draping that captured a sense of garments in motion. Fabric experiments like spray dyeing and subtle bleaching pushed the idea further. “One challenge was balancing concept with wearability. But those imperfections became part of the story.” She used cotton suiting, viscose jersey and washed twill—fabrics that held both structure and softness. A monochrome palette of black, grey and off-white was textured to evoke a worn, time-altered feel. Metal eyelets and rivets added modularity and fragility in one gesture. “My work challenges the idea of permanence in fashion,” Tan says. “It’s not just about how a garment looks, but how it feels, evolves and resonates over time.” Impermanence resists fast fashion’s fixation on polish, offering instead a steady, emotional futurism.
Lau Qi Zhe
Anchored in the dualities of nomadic life, Lau’s graduate collection captures both its freedom and hidden discipline. “I first loved its beauty,” she explains, “the freedom to travel with your home, enjoying nature. But deeper research showed nomadic people follow strict orders. I wanted to turn out this dark side in my collection.” Garments integrated with bags represent the burdens nomads carry, both physical and spiritual. Red thread evokes blood and punishment, while black hues reflect mystery. “The collection tells people: behind good things, bad or unexpected things happen. Look at the surface and the details behind.” To mimic the look of blood, Lau turned to thread manipulation: tangling, knotting and clustering. “Accidental knots resembled blood cells,” she shares, “creating organised chaos echoing coagulation and vitality.” Favouring quiet expression over loud branding, her work is rooted in emotion, wearability and hidden symbolism. “This creates quietly powerful clothing—introverts’ armour, contemplatives’ conversation pieces.”
Jane Simorangkir
Simorangkir’s graduate collection, Destroyer of All Things, Alchemist of One, traces a personal journey shaped by ritual, grief and connection to heritage. Drawing from her Batak and Hainanese backgrounds, her process began with instinctive sketches and notes in her Creative Process Journal. Over time, those early impressions evolved into garments layered with memory and symbolism. Her research explored sacred geometry and traditional motifs, raising questions about identity and cultural inheritance. Velvet and denim were chosen for their contrast in texture and feel, while hand-beading, foil techniques and metal details added depth to each look. “The motifs came from me working purely on intuition, each one born from what I had been exploring in my creative process journal,” Simorangkir shares. After eight months of trial and error, the collection took shape as emotional armour—structured and symbolic, with every element carrying weight. “My work is about making people feel—whether that’s discomfort, curiosity, grief or reflection.”
Min Khant Kyaw
Kyaw’s collection confronts the haunting reality of sleep paralysis, translating years of personal struggle into a sculptural, emotionally charged body of work. Drawing on a childhood marked by loss and fear, Kyaw channels the paralysis he experienced—both physical and emotional—into a series of garments that are as expressive as they are exacting. “By transforming something haunting into art, I’ve reclaimed control and shaped my story into a powerful visual language.” Specialising in women’s evening wear, Kyaw’s process centres on precision and symbolism. Every element is intentionally constructed to embody sensation and memory. Heavy, structured textiles represent the crushing weight he has felt in episodes of sleep paralysis, while light, floating fabrics and sheer lace hint at the sensation of being untethered, hovering between body and soul. The result is a tension between elegance and unease. Adding another dimension are sculpted 3D-printed human hands—hyperreal and unnerving—positioned to grip, crawl or linger. These ghostly forms stand in for the ‘sleep demon’, evoking the presence that haunts his nights. “My work challenges existing fashion ideas by merging emotional vulnerability with high-concept design,” Kyaw explains.
Michelle Prudence Prasetyo
Channelling the delicate beauty and urgent fragility of the Great Barrier Reef, Prasetyo’s collection dives deep into this wonder. Inspired by Indigenous views of the reef as a living ancestor, she transforms natural forms into intricate, wearable stories that demand attention and care. Her design journey began with detailed sketches inspired by coral formations, which gradually evolved into vibrant, 3D-printed forms. But the process wasn’t without its setbacks—failed prints and limited budgets tested her patience and perseverance. Through it all, materials like brass, silver, chrysocolla, enamel and anodised aluminium helped her bring colour and texture to life, echoing the reef’s rich, layered ecosystem in every piece. “I wanted to preserve something on the verge of disappearing by turning it into something permanent and wearable.” she shares. With each carefully sculpted piece, her collection is a gentle nod to what matters—a quiet urgency to remember and protect what’s still alive.
Terry Lim
Rooted in personal memory and research, Spectre by Lim explores identity through the lens of Cantonese opera. Drawing on his upbringing and his mother’s role as an opera performer and instructor, the collection re-interprets this influence in a fashion context—disassembling, refining and reconstructing it through contemporary tailoring techniques. Lim’s process began with intensive research, including interviews with his mother, deep dives into traditional costumes, and a trip to Guangzhou’s Cantonese Opera Museum. “I spent a lot of time researching, including speaking to my mum, digging through her costumes and even flying to Guangzhou to visit the museum,” he says. Constructed primarily in wool, each garment experiments with layering and structure. Draped forms echo opera’s sense of movement and grandeur, while tailoring elements reflect Lim’s meticulous craft and construction. More than replicating opera costumes, his silhouettes are designed to reimagine them through a current lens. “For me, it’s about using design to explore questions of identity and heritage,” he shares. “Our work moves through the in-between spaces shaped by Singapore’s cultural intersections, seeking ways to reconcile and express them with authenticity.
Aurelia Carissa
Carissa’s collection, The Garden, draws from her childhood love of crafting and the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement. She connects William Morris’s fight against machinery overtaking craftsmanship to today’s concerns about artificial intelligence threatening human creativity. The Garden is her way of showing beauty that’s carefully cultivated. Her process was hands-on and experimental—drafting patterns, making toiles and sourcing floral fabrics in blush pink and mossy green during a Hong Kong trip. Carissa drafted and sewed almost every garment herself, including all the surface embellishments and crochet accessories. “Though my process is rather chaotic, there’s always a moment of self-criticism in every design,” she says—a reflection of her commitment to slow, intentional making. Carissa rejects fashion’s growing homogenisation, challenging the idea that style should be exclusive. “I want to move away from fashion as a status symbol,” she explains, “and reclaim it as a space for self-expression and individuality.”
Putri Adif
In Eka, Putri reflects on cultural preservation, technological innovation and personal heritage. Rooted in her Javanese and Peranakan ancestry, her graduate collection reimagines traditional craftsmanship through a contemporary lens. The title—Eka, which is Sanskrit for ‘one’—speaks to her vision of unity: between generations, between memory and material, and between the artisanal and the digital. Inspired by heirloom jewellery and everyday objects passed down from family—like a twisted gold bangle and a brass betel nut case—Putri transforms inherited forms into wearable design. Kebaya silhouettes and kerongsang fastenings are reconstructed with 3D-printed elements, created in collaboration with Baëlf Design and artisanal makers in Bali and Borneo. Silk jersey and silk douppion were chosen to echo the richness of Javanese attire, while remaining light enough to move and drape around her sculptural hardware. Her process involved deep ancestral research, draping experiments and technical exploration in computational design. “I believe that it’s important to preserve my Javanese culture,” she shares.
Lau Shi Ning
Lau’s graduate collection, In Memory, began as a reflective exploration on emotional design and became a tribute to her late grandmother. Guided by Donald A Norman’s theory of Emotional Design, she set out to explore how garments can hold memory, comfort and meaning. When her grandmother passed midway through the project, the work deepened in sentiment. “Although it started with grief,” she shares, “it ended in celebration of her courage, her grace and her softness.” The collection uses techniques like blind drawing and blind draping to externalise internal emotion, turning personal loss into physical form. Habutai silk, linen-cotton blends and hand-dyed ombré tulle make up a palette that’s gentle and intentional. A jacket-dress, echoing the shoulder pads her grandmother used to sew into blouses, becomes a subtle nod to strength. With a background in healthcare, Lau brings a reflective, human-centred approach to fashion that prioritises connection over spectacle. In Memory invites others to slow down and appreciate the beauty of the smaller, often overlooked moments in life. “I see design as a reflection of the world around us,” she shares. “I am drawn to blending traditional techniques with contemporary elements, mirroring the multifaceted conversations between art and design.
Photography Zantz Han
Styling Nicholas See
Hair Ken Hong using Goldwell
Make-up Kimberly Chee using Dior Beauty
Manicure Michelle Leow
Florist Fawn World
Hair assistants Ace Chai and Jeffrey Hew
Stylist’s assistants Hayley Rikke Lee and Lance Aeron
Models Anakha Muraly, Kim Jiho and Marinet Matthee/Mannequin Studio
The September issue of Vogue Singapore—themed ‘The Big Fall issue’—is available online and on newsstands.
