See A Little Bit Of Singapore In Tokyo This Weekend

A bit of our little red dot is going to be transplanted into the city of Tokyo this weekend, in the form of this year’s edition of the Singapore: Inside Out exhibition, organised by the Singapore Tourism Board.
Previous editions of this travelling exhibition have been held in Beijing, London and New York since 2015, and this year the chosen destinations are Tokyo and in November, Sydney. The whole idea of Singapore: Inside Out is to bring the Singapore creative identity to the rest of the world, in the form of showcases that are also carefully curated with the host city’s audience in mind.
We’re especially excited about this month’s Tokyo edition because it stars one of our own: Josiah Chua, NYLON Singapore‘s Contributing Senior Fashion Stylist, will be exhibiting his fashion creations!
 

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Jo’s had strong ties to the land of the rising sun for some time now: besides having studied and worked there, his fashion designs often bear strong fantasy themes, with obvious anime influences. His eponymous label is stocked in Tokyo, and a one-of-a-kind creation was ever picked up by the Mother Monster herself, Lady Gaga.
For Singapore: Inside Out, he’ll be presenting a first look into his 2018 capsule collection, titled “光”, which is “light” in Chinese. The collection comes inspired by Sailor Moon, also Jo’s favourite anime series, and this manifests in the form of holographic materials, plenty of iridescence, and strong, graphic shapes on floaty dresses.
 
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Think the magical sequence when the regular schoolgirls transform into their magical soldier alter-egos, with the bursts of iridescent light that never failed to capture our imaginations as children glued to the TV screens every weekend morning. For this exhibition, Josiah will be working with Media Art Nexus, an art collective based in the Nanyang Technological University, to create an interactive projection of dazzling stars and light that moves with the viewer, all to evoke that specific magic of Sailor Moon’s transformation.
 

 
Other creatives that will be part of Singapore: Inside Out in Tokyo include sound artist Zul Mahmod, local gallery shop Supermama, KITCHEN. LABEL, a Singapore and Tokyo-based record label. There will also be partner events running in tandem with the exhibition, such as a collaboration between Tokyo’s Dominique Ansel bakery and Singaporean chef Malcolm Lee of Candlenut, to create a Peranakan-inspired dessert stocked at Dominique Ansel’s Omotesando bakery.
Hear more from the participants of this year’s exhibition in this video:
 

 
The Tokyo edition of Singapore: Inside Out will be held from 25 to 27 August 2017, at the BANK Gallery, Tokyo, Shibuya-ku, Jingumae 6-14-5. Admission is free. More information on visitsingapore.com.
 
Photos courtesy Josiah Chua. Photography: Jovian Lim; Photography Assistant: Vincent Ng; Styling: Josiah Chua; Styling Assistant: Misato Kato; Model: Mei @ Basic Models.
Special Thanks: Verb