Hello!

My name is Nadya Wang. I am a fashion historian and the managing editor of Fashion & Market, which documents the Southeast Asian fashion ecosystem, spanning 11 countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia, including diasporic practices.

I am pleased to have put together this special issue of The Fashion Studies Journal, featuring fashion and Southeast Asia. It builds on the conference Front and (Off-)Centre: Fashion and Southeast Asia, organized by The Courtauld Research Forum and Fashion & Market, which took place in May 2023.

The issue explores some of the themes that emerged from the conference. Broadly, creative agency can be observed in historical and contemporary fashion practices in Southeast Asia, and we have much learning—and unlearning— about this to do. In addition, pride in local knowledge systems drives preservation, including innovation, of the traditional for the present. And most importantly, there is intentionality in creating things of lasting value.

The fashioned body is a key theme in fashion studies. In this issue, Angelene Wong traces the development of the fashion modeling industry in Singapore in the 1970s and looks at how posing techniques allowed models to perform modernity. An interview by Lucy M P Burns with Cambodia-born artist Anida Yoeu Ali about the costumes in her oeuvre highlights the power of the clothed body as a form of expression.

Conversations around sustainability are increasingly interwoven with fashion. Chi Yen Ha writes about eco-fashion in Vietnam through the case study of Kilomet109, and Jesse Madrigal explores effective messaging about sustainability to consumers in the Philippines. Fellow Filipino Esme Palaganas muses about bayanihan, the spirit of community, and its positive impact on designers, such as Filip+Inna, which, like Kilomet109, collaborates with local artisans.

Creative agency makes innovation of the traditional possible, even exciting. Rohaizatul Azhar interviews Kel Wen of Behati in Malaysia, which is reinventing traditional outfits within the contemporary fashion space. In the same vein, Sharrona Valezka writes about Sejauh Mata Memandang, an eco-conscious label in Indonesia, and its reimagining of batik.

And finally, fashion is deeply personal. Pixie Tan asked her students to study a cherished item in their wardrobe. Through collecting their stories to make zines and exhibiting them, she created the circumstances for a shared experience. This is similarly what the special issue as a whole aims to achieve for fashion studies in Southeast Asia.

To complement the essays and interviews, six photographers are sharing some of their images with us. Artu Nepomuceno, Chiron Duong, Elizabeth Kezia, Farid Renais Ghimas, Lac Hoang, and Zicky Le take us through the processes of making these images, from the initial ideas to the execution with their respective collaborators.

On this note, thank you to all the writers and image-makers for contributing to this issue. Together, their efforts represent some of the best Southeast Asian fashion practices today, and I am chuffed to be in their company. I would also like to extend a big thank you to Pixie for designing the graphics and layout for the issue, and to Sharrona for creating the graphics for each story, in addition to laying out the issue in a fully downloadable e-publication, which we understand is a first for The Fashion Studies Journal!

Special thanks to LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore for the research funding for the Fashion & Southeast Asia Research Lab by the School of Fashion, which has contributed to making this issue possible.

If you have comments or suggestions, I would love to hear from you at nadya@fashionandmarket.net.

Best wishes,

Nadya Wang
Guest editor

^{SELAKSANA. Image courtesy of Brigitta Viannie Djakarya.}



This issue’s publication is supported by