By Karen Gwee (12A01C)
If you haven’t seen the dreamlike posters dotting our school, or the enigmatic videos playing occasionally in the canteen, I suggest you remove yourself from the rock you are probably living under. Raffles Runway has been going on a publicity blitz for their upcoming annual fashion show, R Project 2012: Memento Mori, to be held this Friday and Saturday. And it hasn’t been for naught – tickets for Saturday’s Gala Night sold out in 25 minutes, while tickets for other shows are going fast. The overarching theme of the show is Apocalypse, with other alliterative concepts as sub-themes: Animalism, Annihilation and Awakening. R Project this year looks set to be dramatic and theatrical, overflowing with beautiful and inspired designs. Raffles Press checked in with Raffles Runway Chairperson Jolynn Lim for a sneak peek at Memento Mori.
How has the experience of organising Memento Mori been for you and your Exco?
Stress is really an understatement I will say, haha. We started planning right after R Project 2011: Caelum, so it is a good year’s worth of solid preparation and the intense period started in March this year. Personally, it has taught me many valuable lessons on liaisons and diplomatic skills with co-workers, sponsors and peers. As clichéd as it may sound, this huge event can be seen as a microcosm of the real working world, where you have to deal with really nice people who can propel your show to greater heights and the not so nice ones that can derail you and slow down progress. For my EXCO (and myself too), this whole period is really tense and stressful for us, so balancing the heavy CCA workload and school work proves to be yet another difficult task to surmount. Yet, how many students can boast about organising a huge fashion show with close to 73 designs and 34 internal member designers?
Above all these, we truly enjoy what we are doing and in retrospect, I am sure the six of us are more than willing to do this again :)
We’ve heard some interesting things about Memento Mori – professional models from the likes of DKNY, a possible internship in Milan, and some really revealing outfits. What can you tell us?
Haha yes, but exact details cannot be released as of yet! There will be 2 internship spots for best designs to the major fashion houses in Milan (!!) for about a month or so. Crossing my fingers here too, it is really a very big incentive for all of us to do our best. Not to worry, the really super revealing ones have been vetoed by the teachers in charge and it will certainly not compromise on the feel and look of the entire outfit! And no wardrobe malfunctions so far in our photo shoots and rehearsals, so we are glad on our side too! Perhaps the designers really just want to bare their soul and all for the show!
This time of year, the CCA Exco of 2012 will be handing over to the Exco of 2013. Is there any advice you’d like to give to your juniors?
Brace yourselves; the fashion world is a cruel world. But at the same time, always maintain your views and stay firm to your grounds. Liaison with external organisations and sponsors is markedly different from asking the school for additional funding, they have been in the industry for long and this is what they do for a living, so do take their advice. Having said that, given the choice between an entirely student run initiative and a guaranteed good show but mostly run by professionals, I will advise the new EXCO to choose the former. At the heart, R Project is started, run by and made for students so try your utmost to keep the Rafflesian brand of style going strong.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
For the first time in Runway history, we will be having a J2 Graduating Batch Collection themed “Awakening” where we showcase all 16 outfits by our J2 designers. The common colour for all is white, which gives the idea of purity and strength through rebirth. So do look out for it! It will be placed at the end of the show.
Tickets for R Project 2012: Memento Mori are still on sale. Tickets for Friday, 11th May, 8pm are priced at $20/25 while tickets for Saturday, 12th May, 2pm are priced at $18/20.
