High-flying fashion

AN airport is not your typical idea of a shopping or fashion destination, but that’s where I headed last week to attend the grand finale of the iStyle Fashion KL International Airport 2010 competition.

For the second year running, six teams from five fashion design schools – each consisting of a designer, stylist and publicist – competed for several weeks for the top prize. They were judged on styling, campaign strategy and presentation, as well as publicity initiatives.

The competition aimed at cultivating talents in the three fields, and promoting the KL International Airport (KLIA) as a lifestyle destination.

After three rounds of heats, team Black & White – made up of Siti Aishah Abdullah, 18; Derrick Tee Jing Wen, 21; and Vincent Leong Jia Hou, 20 – from the Malaysia Institute of Art took home the top cash prize of RM2,500 and other goodies.

Team Black & White from Malaysia Institute of Art (from left) Vincent Leong Jia Hou, Siti Aishah Bt Abdullah and Derrick Tee Jing Wen

The idea of their design, styling and campaign was that “black and white never go out of fashion”. The team used words like “classy”, “timeless” and “polished” to describe their finished product.

The first round required teams to create a look that accentuates the idea of feminity, while the second heat was male fashion-oriented. In this round, teams were tasked with creating a look that exudes masculinity.

The third heat required teams to create a fashion lifestyle advertising campaign.

“Each heat was so different,” said Derrick, minutes after his team was announced as winners. “We had to finish every round and start fresh on the next one, with completely new and different ideas each time. It was exhausting and stressful but we’re so happy it has paid off.”

What made the competition even more interesting was a special category in which the teams were asked to design and produce a fashionable yet functional attire for the airport’s frontliners.

Team Volatile's winning design for the airport frontliners uniform category

This prize went to team Volatile from SML Fashion Academy, made up of Celine Yap Chiew Pin, 24; Tee Ning Jee, 25; and Tan Kuan Wah,18. The team also won second prize overall and nabbed the award for best publicist.

Volatile had the most practical design out of the six teams, bringing forth an outfit that included dark blue pants with a matching long-sleeved top, made from material that’s almost crinkle-free.

“We thought about how they would have to walk around a lot all day, and decided that pants would be more practical than a skirt or dress, and we made sure the fabric is the type that doesn’t itch or make them sweat easily,” said Kuan Wah.

The design was stylish and attractive in terms of colours and cut, and stuck to the criteria of connoting airport hospitality. It also followed the corporate identity guidelines.

Celebrity fashion stylist Alex Eu was the chief judge for the competition. He had nothing but praise for the overall winning team, Black & White, who were consistently good throughout the three preliminary rounds.

“Throughout the past few weeks, they’ve shown great dedication to the competition, have come out on top for each round of heats, and really stuck to the theme of representing KLIA and Malaysia Airports according to the guidelines,” said Alex.

The panel of judges also included former beauty queens Deborah Henry and Elaine Daly, designers Sonny San and Michael Ong, as well as Faizah Khairuddin, senior general manager of the commercial services division of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.

Here’s some of the official photos from the three rounds of Heats, taken by Kim Mun.

Heat 1 – Be ACcerized