PeopleAsia caught Days 2 and 3 of Bench’s recent fashion week at Bench Tower’s Playground at the Fort. Leading designer Joey Samson capped off the three-day event with a 25-piece collection that highlighted his continuing love affair with tailoring and various suiting materials.
The collection was vintage Samson in terms of the designer’s playful approach in combining contrasting proportions, lengths, shades and even elements in a number of looks. With the exception of one look consisting of a checkered red jacket, contrasting shirt and printed pants, the designer again stuck to neutral shades such as black, white, khaki and various shades of gray.
Samson’s collection capped off the event, the third of its kind since Bench started producing its own fashion week a few years ago, which also earlier featured ready-to-wear pieces from Bench and Assembly. The latter is a high-end chain of multi-brand stores.
Apart from ready-to-wear pieces from American Eagle Outfitters and Human, two mass market brands also carried by Suyen Corp., Day 2 also featured the works of such young designers as RJ Santos, Jenni Contreras and Jaggy Glarino.
With Suyen’s support, the up-and-coming names also participated in the recent Tokyo Fashion Week. Although the three showed a penchant for juxtaposition as well as a seemingly ad hoc approach to fashion, they were also able to establish their respective identities with their individual collections.
Glarino’s inspiration for his contrasting black-and-white pieces, for instance, was most likely derived from sleepwear with obvious references to a number of Japanese elements thrown in.
For her part, Contreras came up with more colorful and linear ensembles that were part grunge, part preppy. Meanwhile, Santos produced a range of bold and sometimes printed dresses and separates, which derived hints of inspiration from the 1980s as well as graphic novels.
The fashion week opened this year by focusing on Suyen’s women’s wear brands such as Kashieca, Vero Moda and Karen Millen as well as the works of designer Vania Romoff.
