By ANGELIN YEOH
alltherage@thestar.com.my

THINK of a chemical engineer and the last thing that comes to your mind is probably “stylish”. But at the recent Uniqlooks Malaysia Grand Finale at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Saiful Hifzudeen was the most stylish of them all.

Saiful is the grand prize winner in the male category of Uniqlo’s inaugural Uniqlooks Malaysia contest. The 25-year-old said he was inspired by the brand’s simple yet unique statement in style.

“When I first heard about the contest, I thought to myself, ‘man I can do this’,” said Saiful, who won him and a lucky friend a five-day trip to any major city in the world that has a Uniqlo store.

Saiful Hifzudeen (left) with Satoshi Onoguchi.

Saiful chose New York, and he’ll be going there with his best friend Raja.
Uniqlooks is a virtual lookbook site that give users a platform to showcase their personal style – the competition Saiful won was organised to encourage more Malaysians to be a part of Uniqlooks global network.

To be a part of the competition, participants had to submit their self-styled “looks” to the Uniqlooks website. Their get-ups were then opened for public voting, which accounted for 30% of the finalists’ selection process.

A total of 20 finalists (10 male and 10 female) were selected for the grand finale, where they were judged on their ability to mix and match clothing, catwalks, confidence behind the camera and creativity in terms of presenting themselves with style.

The grand prize winner in the female category, 26-year old graphic designer Fya Zainal, impressed judges with her creativity in layering different styles of clothing. The petite tudung-clad lass who is also a blogger said she didn’t expect to win at all.

“I still feel shocked. This is really unexpected because the other contestants were really amazing. Nevertheless I’m really excited. I love fashion and Uniqlo is great because of the various style choices and colours,” said Fya, who chose London as her preferred destination.

Fya Zainal

Managing Director of Uniqlo (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. and Uniqlo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Satoshi Onoguchi said the contest was introduced back in June to explore the local fashion scene.

“We were very interested to see how Malaysians would express themselves in clothing when we launched this contest. With the rich cultural background that Malaysia has, there is no doubt our fans would bring a fresh perspective in styling for Uniqlooks,” said Onoguchi.

Apart from their “anywhere in the world” trip, both winners also received style recognition from some of Malaysia’s top fashion experts and entertainment artistes.

Onoguchi said he was really impressed by the content generated by users on the Uniqlooks Malaysia website.

“Our products are made so people can display great styling and expression even with the most basic items. For what I’ve seen, Malaysians are great at mixing and matching clothing.”

The judges for Uniqlooks Malaysia were Onoguchi, celebrity stylist Cheah Wei Chun, top model Tengku Azura, top Malaysian deejay DJ Goldfish, celebrity makeup artist Geraldine Loy and actress Lisa Surihani.