Local Streetwear

Streetwear was started in the late 70s / early 80s with skating and surfing. And now, Malaysia has started to introduce this line of fashion as well.

Stussy, one of the first pioneer to start streetwear. (PTWSCHOOL, 2013)

The Swagger Salon - Streetwear from Malaysia. (The Swagger Salon Gallery, 2011)

Below are photos taken from each brand's official Facebook profile and Tumblr as online ordering is one of their main market. So, how does Malaysia's streetwear sell their products?

(Reunion X Respect, 2012)	(The Swagger Salon Gallery, 2013)

That way. Note that the primary customer for these clothes are men. These women are objectified to a point that they don't even have to wear the clothes they are selling. Yes, sex sells, a lot of brands from foreign country does that too, but do we have to follow these trends blindly? There's no message behind these "concept", unless you think Reunion and "taikor" (big brother) means half naked women.

• PTWSCHOOL (2013) IN4MATION X STUSSY CAPSULE COLLABO 2013 / LOOKBOOK [Online image] Available from http://www.ptwschool.com/blog/in4mation-x-stussy-capsule-collabo-2013-lookbook.html [Accessed 20 July 2013]
• Reunion X Respect (2012) EDD.0402 (2012) [Facebook] Available from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=321040977973065&set=a.312389688838194.75875.101762383234260&type=3&theater [Accessed 20 July 2013]
• The Swagger Salon Gallery (2011) THE SALON TO GET YOUR SWAG ON [Tumblr] Available from http://theswaggersalon.tumblr.com/ [Accessed 20 July 2013]

Malay Fashion?

When you type "Malaysia fashion" on Google, what do you get?


Screenshot from Google (Source: Google, 2013)
A collection of modestly designed Malay traditional clothes with a twist. These women dressed appropriately and still carry the identity of Malaysia / Islamic women. But do we get to see these kind of fashion in the public? Rarely.

Idols on tv always carries themselves with fashionable or branded clothing, but do they look like this:


Yuna in New York Fashion Week. (Refinery29, 2012)
No. Check out local fashion magazine or stores that are considered "fashionable", they don't carry poster with these kind of styling.

Being an indie singer in foreign country, Yuna still carries herself with the identity of Islamic women in Malaysia - wearing tudung. Even with that, she stills able to dress stylishly.

Mizz Nia during Shout! Award. (Running with Passion, 2010)
And then we have Mizz Nina. Unlike Yuna, she doesn't wear tudung. She also own Mizz Demeanor that sells casual wear.

Even though both of them are Malay, they carry themselves differently. Who's the more fashionable one? Yuna was able to attend New York fashion week and got photographed because of her outfit. Compared to Yuna, what Mizz Nina wears doesn't considered as "fashionable" in the fashion industry, but why does Yuna get less publication locally? We do have fashion shows that twists Malay's traditional clothing, but they are not advertised widely. Fashion industry in Malaysia rarely publish styling as such. Instead, we like to have foreigners on our billboards and magazines.

• Google (2013) Malaysia fashion. [Screenshot] Available from https://www.google.com/search?q=malaysia+fashion&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=W-DmUf2DL42rrAfRgoDwAg&biw=1920&bih=923&sei=XuDmUeDeHsPWrQeKxIHYBQ [Accessed 17 July 2013]
• Refinery29 (2012) Beauty Flash! Cat Eyes And Orange Lips Is The New Classic Combo [Online image] Available from http://www.refinery29.com/street-style-beauty-yuna-zarai [Accessed 18 July 2013]
• Running with Passion (2010) Mizz Nina Was Robbed of Her Hot Chick Award @ Shout Awards [Online image] Available from http://runwitme.blogspot.com/2010/11/mizz-nina-was-robbed-of-her-hot-chick.html [Accessed 18 July 2013]

Choosing Topic

Upon receive our assignment brief, I was a bit struggled with which topic to work with. Usually I would just pick a question immediately, but there are so many possibilities with each of the questions for this module.

Question 1: It would be interesting to compare advertisements of local brands in different languages since we have so many different races living in Malaysia. Advertisements with different language definitely brings out different messages because of the play of words and cultural background.

Question 2: I love watching movies so this should be an enjoyment for me, but I had done similar topic last semester.

Question 3: Having interest in fashion, I have always pay attention to different (mostly streetwear) brands. And then I thought about local brands - How do they present their products?

Question 4: Another clash of culture and taste - I these kind of topics. But what local soap opera have I ever watch? Will they be accessable online?

Question 5: What makes this artist famous? Why? How? What was he doing before he became famous?

Question 6: Taking photograph is one of my hobby, but everyone has been claiming themselves as photographers these days, even when their photos look bad. I'm an active Instagram user and I've recently came across an advertisement about selling your iPhone photographs as stock. What has this hobby of mine become?

In the end, I chose to do question 3, because even though it's just consist of local market, there are still quite a lot of different style portrayed. There's streetwear, there's fashion event and there's people that sew and design their own clothes.