The annual Audi Fashion Festival 2012 is back again, bigger, spectacular and better than ever!
Themed ‘LIGHTING THE FUTURE’, this year’s festival, which will come under as one of the pillar of the Asia Fashion Exchange (AFX), will feature five show days, and an exciting line-up with a mix of emerging and established top-class names from the international world of fashion with a totally revolutionary new digital platform which will re-invent the fashion industry, all at the Tent@Orchard this May 2012.
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The Audi Fashion Festival,which is in it’s 4th installment for the fourth year running, has been synonymous with staging top names such as Missoni, DSquared2, Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood, Erdem and Ungaro, to name a few. The revered event has also been hailed as the main fashion event of Singapore.
It was our greatest honour to witness the unveiling of the designers for this year’s festival by Mr. Reinhold Carl (Managing Director of Audi Singapore), Dick Lee (Festival Chairman of Audi Fashion Festival) as well as Tjin Lee (Managing Director of Mercury Marketing & Communications) at the Audi Fashion Festival Press Conference on 15 March 2012, at the Red Dot Design Museum.
“The Audi Fashion Festival has been growing from strength to strength to be the marquee highlight in Singapore’s event calendar. It is a key pillar in the realm of fashion for us and it works well to complement the other activities in this field, namely the Audi Star Creation, Audi Red Carpet Night and the Audi Young Designer Award”
– Mr. Reinhold Carl, Managing Director of Audi Singapore
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The festival will kick-start and open on 16 May 2012 with the autumn/winter 2012 collection of avant-garde French fashion house Thierry Mugler by it’s Creative Director, Nicola Formichetti, who is well known for being stylist to the legendary pop icon of this generation, Lady Gaga and as Fashion Director in the Haus of Gaga as well as for receiving the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the British Fashion Awards 2010. He is currently also the Contributing Editor of Dazed & Confused Magazine as well as the Fashion Director of Vogue Hommes Japan.
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Another major International Highlight is French Designer, Roland Mouret, who will also be presenting his autumn/winter 2012 collection. Roland Mouret is best known for his iconic hourglass creations such as the galaxy dress and the moon dress, is a hot favorite amongst his A-list celebrities clientele which includes Nicole Kidman, Sienna Miller and Victoria Beckham. He will be bringing his signature red carpet glamour to the Audi Fashion Festival 2012 this May.
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And of course, our homegrown heroes, RAOUL and alldressedup will also be presenting their Autumn/Winter 2012 collections, reinforcing their status as Asia’s very own international labels.
Apart from the technology fused with the live-streaming of fashion show at last year’s Audi Fashion Festival, the new and breakthrough concept which will be introduced at this year’s AFF is the groundbreaking fashion portal, Future Fashion Now (FFN), which is created in collaboration with MasterCard Worldwide.
This portal, which is the first in Asia, allows consumers to place their orders for the latest runway designs and pre-collections online, and have their orders custom-produced for delivery before the next season arrives in stores. Through this, customers will, in a way, become their own fashion buyers. Not only that, this portal will also serve as a platform that will provide upcoming designers and emerging labels a stage to showcase their works, raise their profiles and sustain their creations, thereby increasing their visibility across the key Asian markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Some designers and labels in the Future Fashion Now include alldressedup, who will be presenting its autumn.winter 2012 collection as well as esther perbandt from Berlin, Jonathan Simkhai, MAE PANG, Max.Tan, Timo Weiland from New York (CFDA Incubator Program Designer), and Australia’s Yeojin Bae, all of whom will be presenting their pre-spring 2013 collections in a showcase by Official Imaging Partner, Canon. The designers will also each be unveiling a chic, customized case specially created for the Canon Ixus.
This year’s festival will also see the spotlight shining on emerging talents with its support for new generation talent, all with the aim to propel Singapore further into the fashion spotlight.
Along with FFN, the Audi Star Creation fashion design competition, which is in its third year running, will be presenting the capsule collections of its 2011 Winners, Chen Zhigang, Tiang Boon Tieon and Tsai Ming Hung. The Parco Next NEXT showcase will also be featuring its new batch of fashion design incubator project designers.
“I am very excited to be part of the Audi Fashion Festival again this year and am pleased to see how much the festival has evolved over the years. To take a step further, I will be spearheading the formation of The Collective, which will incubate and create opportunities for a group of four to five young Singapore designers who we feel are ready to take the next big step in their careers. These designers include Max Tan and Mae Pang who will be featured in the FFN showcase at the festival, as our first step in supporting our group of emerging designers.”
– Dick Lee, Festival Chairman of Audi Fashion Festival
“While big international names are always exciting for the Audi Fashion Festival, we have to evolve and stay ahead. To achieve our vision for Singapore to truly be a regional fashion capital we must look to the future. With the launch of Future Fashion Now, the festival is excited to be able to harness the power of digital media, and support the next designers of the fashion world.”
– Tjin Lee, Managing Director of Mercury Marketing & Communicaions & Festival Director of Audi Fashion Festival
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With such an exciting highlight for this year’s Audi Fashion Festival as well as top names like Nicola Formichetti for Thierry Mugler and Roland Mouret, Audi Fashion Festival is bound to be one of the nation’s most spectacular event, strengthening our country’s title as the 8th Fashion Capital in the world!
We definitely can’t wait for it!
For more information, visit http://audifashionfestival.com or http://www.asiafashionexchange.com.sg/
COUTURE TROOPERS MAGAZINE 
Very cute outfit!