Let's Go - Shopping

Let's Go.... Shopping!

Fashion never goes out of style

Written by Meg Sine

AWA Fashion Show, Past and Present

2018

Every year, the top design labels of the global fashion industry and the haute couture crowd gather in New York, London, Milan and Paris for the world’s four top Fashion Weeks. In Singapore, the world’s fifth top fashion event has been the designer catwalk at the AWA Fashion Show! All LOL emojis aside, AWA’s annual fashion gala is typically a “beast of an event,” according to Kristen Graff, a longtime event volunteer. The show’s planning committee works for an entire year to select the venue, menu, runway designers, photographer and vendors for this largest of AWA’s major events. The volunteers include some twenty models, ten backstage helpers and ten additional organizers to handle publicity, ticket sales, decorations, musical backdrop and Lucky Draw prizes.

AWA encourages members of all levels of experience, age and size to volunteer as models. Prior to the show, the models attend catwalk training and fittings with designers. The day of the show, they have their hair and makeup professionally done. Each year’s show highlights a theme used to select participating designers. The theme is influenced

2008

2008

by both the inspirations and the desires of the American expat community, as well as current trends, innovations and creative explorations in the wider world of fashion. Not that long ago, AWA’s membership was comprised primarily of women whose husbands were diplomats or senior managers employed by multinational corporations. The AWA Fashion Show reflected the makeup of the membership. In 2008, for example, the venue was the Ritz-Carlton ballroom, and the event featured free-flowing champagne and a decadent chocolate fountain. That year, the American Association Singapore co-hosted the AWA Fashion Show as a prelude to the 75thannual George Washington Ball. Fourteen volunteers modeled a collection of elegant evening gowns, while a few lucky guys in tuxedos with matching bow ties and cummerbunds escorted the lovely ladies down the runway. These days, our membership demographics include career women, young mothers and women who frequently travel abroad. Athletic and leisure wear is

2019 standard wardrobe. Professional women need office chic. And comfortable clothes for the hot climate and travel are always in demand. While we won’t be gathering in person for this year’s Fashion Show, the show will go on, in a slightly different format. Co-chairs Erika Mesiero and Sabrina Dommenge, together with Designer Liaisons Sabrina Sikora and Yamile Sain, have selected eight designers whose businesses will be featured during AWA Fashion Month this April. Keep an eye out for details on the AWA website, in email blasts and on social media.

Meg lived and traveled all over Asia for almost 25 years before moving to Singapore with her husband in 2018. She enjoys biking, walking and quilting with AWA Creative Hands.