SINGAPORE: As an industry insider, fashion show producer Daniel Boey is surrounded by international labels. But that didn't stop him from feeling upset when his favourite Thomas Wee jacket was stolen.

He begged Thomas — a prolific designer in the 90s — to make him another jacket. The two started discussing the fashion scene. One thing led to another and Thomas will make a comeback with a highly anticipated runway show at this year's Singapore Fashion Festival (SFF).

The Singapore Tourism Board-supported extravaganza started on Friday with a gala show and an appearance by Brit whiz Matthew Williamson and will end next Sunday with ck Calvin Klein.

Daniel's personal love of Singapore fashion is one reason why he fits perfectly into the role of the SFF creative director. It's a post that he held four years ago and he calls his return "a homecoming in a renaissance year".

"I'm a big advocate of Singapore designers. Please don't call them local designers because it smacks of colonialism," he told TODAY.

One of the first things that he did was to bring back Blueprint 2008 with the DesignSingapore Council to showcase newer talents here.

With this, younger labels without sponsors' backing get to be displayed at the festival. The cost of staging an individual show can run into a five-figure sum.

Designers galore

Daniel, an industry veteran of 17 years, also hopes to introduce international names during the festival. But while Matthew Williamson, Anteprima and ck Calvin Klein are familiar names here, it takes the blue-blooded fashionista to know Qiu Hao, Ritu Kumar and Carlos Miele — who hail from China, India and Brazil respectively.

"When I was in China, I did straw polls among the media there and Qiu Hao's name came up often as someone to showcase in Singapore," Daniel explained. "I also spoke to some people in the media and fashion industry here on which designers they hope to see at the SFF." He added that Brazilian designer Carlos Miele is a big name in the West and that he wants Singapore audiences to "discover" Carlos before the rest of Asia does.

Daniel, who's been working "28-hour days with the help of Red Bull", doesn't make decisions about the SFF alone. There's comrade-in-arms Tjin Lee, who returns this year as the festival director after a stint in 2004.

Tjin told TODAY that she has been sleeping only four hours a day — the bride-to-be has had to shelf preparations for her wedding next month — and that, some days, she's at the tent premises until 2am.

She oversees matters including the budget and sponsors. But why so many fashion-unrelated sponsors such as "Official Vodka" and "Official Dessert"?

Tjin pointed to the S$1.2m SFF tent structure at Ngee Ann City's Civic Plaza and said: "Private sponsors pay for this and it's nice to know that we aren't using taxpayers' money."

The managing director of homegrown Mercury Marketing & Communications has also invested in more stage lights, an elevated 22m catwalk and an 8m-wide LED screen. The last lets designers have more creative leeway with their backdrops and saves the time spent on setting up one between shows.

"For the SFF to be world-class, we cannot skimp on the set-up. We need to convince international brands to take part by showing what Singapore can do," Tjin said.

On the designers' line-up, Tjin said she might have been able to bring in more names if she had more time. "Realistically, you need about 10 months to bring in someone like John Galliano. We also have to include designers whose clothes are or will be sold in Singapore as the SFF is a retail festival."

Daniel and Tjin seem to have an affinity for Britons this year. Besides Matthew Williamson and Singapore-born, London-based Ashley Isham, the other British personality is supermodel Erin O'Connor. It seems it took a six-figure sum to get Erin here.

An SFF for all

Besides luxury and local labels, department stores Tangs and Robinsons have their own fashion shows. Said Tjin: "These stores are where the public shop and their customers can become a part of the festival."

Added Daniel: "Everyone wants to be a fashion industry insider and there are those who'll kill to attend fashion shows. The SFF allows the layman to rub shoulders with fashionistas whereas no amount of money will get you entry into the Singapore Fashion Week (a trade event in October)."

This is why for selected festival shows, members of the public can buy tickets at just S$10 each. In previous years, tickets could be downloaded for free online but Tjin explained: "Those who are willing to pay $10 will be truly interested in turning up. And $10 is not that expensive."

Also, shopping malls such as Raffles City, The Centrepoint and Vivocity are holding their own week-long SFF-linked events and shows.

Tjin doesn't mind the friendly competition away from the big white tent. She's even open to the idea of extending the festival to suburban areas in the future.

"It's good how retailers island-wide are adding to the buzz. The festival to me is like a symphony," she said. "We have to play like an entire orchestra to make good music." - TODAY/ac