This post was meant to be posted in early November. But I was caught up in waves and waves of meetings, interviews, etc. Now I finally sat down to finish up this post properly and with some photos too!
The past 2 months had been pretty well spent. I finished school by mid September. Was involved in the Fide Fashion Weeks for 2 weeks. And my personal life had seen quite some ups and downs. Not forgetting we are yet to start preparing for the exhibition taking place at our graduation in December.
There is a change in the school planning of their term breaks. Now students have 2 weeks. Which meant that they all have 1 week less of school to prepare for their final project. I was caught in this change in my last and final term. It was a mad rush churning out my final project for Garment and Composition module. On the eve/day of submission, I worked till 4am, slept an hour or so and woke up to rush it out by 7am before I rushed to school to have it scanned and submitted before our exam at 9am. I never had to work like this before. And I must say my parents were so shock to see the way I worked. Till this day, I still get comments like "if only you'd study this hard for your degree...". Haha. It was so funny. Even when my dear friend mel saw me working on technical flats (an assignment my interviewer gave me), she said "I have never seen you so focused when we studied together!!!". Ok im enjoying this shock from my friends and family. Cos it meant that they could see what this mean to me (:
A few weeks later I went on a short shopping trip to Bangkok with my family. And when I came back, I found out I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Fide Fashion Weeks. And the best part of it was my role - Liason Officer. Basically I welcome the designers and VIPs at MBS hotel, and facilitate in their movement between the hotel and the event hall on their first day. I made sure they follow their schedule and turn up for their interviews and fittings. I was overjoyed to be interacting with these designers first hand!
I met the shy Burkman Brothers with their cute model friend Frank!
Michael Cinco was the most humble yet funny designer whose clothes were even more terrific than the designer himself. 
The legendary Kenzo Takada has a very charismatic qaura who never fail to smile at silly fanatics like us wanting a photo with him.
Madame Guo Pei had the largest entourage of assistants and models with her upon her arrival and the longest show (2hrs) of jaw-dropping outfits. The following are some of my favourite looks. I added videos of every single outfit on my instagram!
Sebastian Gunawan is the most good looking designer who has an equally gorgeous collection of dresses. Not forgetting his beautiful niece who is pleasant both in her looks and her character.
And the loveliest old lady I've ever met. She is 60+ years old I heard. Given her age, she moves really slowly and always carry a smile on her face. Whenever anyone greeted her, she will stand up and walk towards him and shake his hand. She may not understand a single word of English yet she will smile and nod at you. Everyone is humbled at her presence. And she is present for every show during her stay in Singapore. So humble and so respectful of everyone. Mind you, she is one of the best wedding designers I've seen and one of the first in Japan! Her personal assistant (an old man who seem as old as her) is always around to make sure she is ok and he is just as polite as she is. She is definitely one of my favourite person at the show.
There are so many more cool designers I've met over the 12days at the event. On Aura tu Vu. Lie Sang Bong. Students from Atelier Chardon Savard. And many many more.
I also had the honour of meeting and working other awesome people such as Daniel Buoy and his team, the Japanese "feather lady", etc. And then, as always, there are divas amongst some famous names. I was so disappointed by one of my favorite designers. But overall it was definitely an eye-opening exposure to the industry and many up-close experience of the amazing couture clothes.
Graduation will be happening at 10 December for me. Unlike the advance diploma students, me and my fellow coursemates will have our own exhibition on graduation day. We have been working on the proposal for more than a month already. Not that it was constantly rejected, but they kept asking for more details. So now with less than 3 weeks to the event, our designs are still not approved. I wonder how are we going to come up with the looks by then. Perhaps a miracle would be helpful.
I started searching for job back in early September. Back then I wasn't super proactive because the deadlines of the final projects were pressing more urgently. But since then, I had been sending out countless resumes and had a few interviews. Some were fine. But I went for some which only left me feeling shit when I stepped out of the office. I was demoralised and had lost most of my confidence in my own skills. Because of the minimum pay that e2i is insisting on, I had a hard time because many local companies are too small scale to afford to pay me that amount. I think I could have easily sent out 30+ resumes.
Finally last week, I got myself a job! As of December, I'm going to be a fashion designer at Moda Ling Pte Ltd. They are an established company dealing with corporate uniforms - mostly hotels. One of the best part is that I'm going to be dealing with Optitex - a new auto-cad software they bought recently. Another perk is that the office is a half an hour trip from home! Ok more about my job another time. Till then!
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