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Author Topic: World Runway 2011  (Read 9473 times)

Offline maliciel

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World Runway 2011
« on: September 21, 2011, 06:10:47 PM »
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On the 18th of September, the first ever World Runway was staged in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and JPHiP got a chance to be in on the historical moment.



Tokyo Girls Collection: Fashion, Music and Cars.


Despite sharing a founder with the renowned street fashion exhibition Tokyo Girls' Collection, Jake f.R, World Runway (WR) has a distinctly different concept. The Fashion Group of 8 - composed of Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, Singapore, UK and the US - were given a budget of only 500 dollars. Given the shoestring budget, the teams were to satisfy themes given by the judges in 2 days. The prize for the winning team? One hundred thousand dollars, with half going to earthquake efforts in Japan (hence the name Fashionquake Aid 2011). In subsequent years, the winning teams would be allowed to pick the causes that the half went to.

Aiming to exhibit clothes that anyone can buy, the penny pinching nature of the show would enable the girls in Singapore to feel inspired and connected, a departure from the haute couture of most fashion shows. Unlike TGC and other fashion shows, there would be brand mixing, to enable the stylists to really work within the budget. Even the models were said to be 'not perfect', adding to the unpredictability of the show. Mr Sugar, the director of World Runway, said that given the credentials of all the teams involved, the budget and models should have no impact on the quality of fashion presented. Likening them to master chefs, Mr Sugar emphasized that it was not a matter of what was given, but how it was used.

Given the unproven nature of the concept, it was stressed that it was all a trial to see how well it fared, and that the officials did not expect the fanfare and pomp of something as established as TGC.
 
 

 
The show on Sunday got off to a rocky start, with entry to the general public delayed by almost half an hour. As everyone settled down into their seats, there was a short performance by Ren Kido (it suspiciously looked like a time wasting tactic) as last minute preparations were done. Two local celebrities walked down the runway, parading local stylist Jen Su's clothes.


Catering to meganekko fans everywhere

A short VTR followed, with MTV VJ Utt coming out to address the show at the end. After a short explanation of the show's concept and introducing the teams, it got on the road.

Each team sent out a selection of models, each to satisfy the theme of street-chic:



The French team


The Brazilian team's models were fun and interacted well with the crowd


During the interlude, Korean singer NARE came out to perform. Her powerful vocals were more than enough to entertain the crowd, as the judges debated on their picks for the second round. The eventual winners to go on to the next round were picked - Japan, Singapore, UK and France.



NARE killing the crowd softly, with her song


Sugar reading out the results of the first round from his iPhone


The UK and Singapore teams celebrate getting to the next round


Mr Sugar pulled another trick out of his hat, annoucing that each of the advancing teams had to pick one of the losing teams to assist them in the next round.



Jen Su announces Singapore's pick: Brazil


With eyes on the prize, the pairs of teams pulled out all the stops.



Singapore's entries


The Japanese had huge props


The British team gave one of their models a train


The French playing it safe


As the last teams came out to present their models, it led up to the most anticipated moment of the night (at least, for most of the crowd). Korean pop idol SE7EN came out to rapturous applause and screams. Performing a setlist of 4 songs, he captivated even the media present as they were reduced to fangirls.




Digital Bounce


SE7EN reducing fangirls to mush


Disappointingly, many of the crowd started walking out after SE7EN was done performing, presumably to catch him leaving the stadium in a van. However, the end of the performance also signalled that it was time to announce the winner. This time, the scores were made public with teams being evaluated according to a few criteria.

In the end, the sophisticated styling of the UK team won over the judges, and they took home the crown.



UK winning with 79 points


The team rejoicing on their win


Taking a group photo amid the confetti and fanfare



At the post-event interview, the organizers deemed the event a success, emphasizing that it can only get better as more events are carried out. Ending it, they highlighted that many more WR events were to come, and hinted at the possibility of many other locations to stage it.



The UK team fielding questions from the media


All in all, the event was a resounding success. Audience numbers were decently high (around 4500 people attended), although it raises the question of how many were there to see SE7EN, and how many were actually there to look at the fashion show. It was rather disappointing to see that the concept of the show was not held to, although the absence of Evan Czar might have been a significant contributor to it. The aim of 'fashion you can buy' was obviously disregarded, as stylists went for pomp and high fashion instead. The high price of the ticket entry was also called into question, as there were not many girls in Singapore (whom the organizers specifically said they were catering to) who would pay that amount to watch a fashion show.

However, as had been emphasized many times prior, this was just a trial event, and there can only be greater things to be expected from the team that built up Tokyo Girls' Collection to the huge event that it is now.

Check out the rest of the photos from this event in the gallery (warning, some shots are a little risque): http://events.jphip.com/worldrunway2011/World%20Runway%202011/

Special thanks to Supermerlion for providing some photos.

Offline daigong

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Re: World Runway 2011
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2011, 08:27:59 AM »
GO BRAZIL!!

great photos mal. whatta concept, I'm trying to ID some models but wow I'm just shocked and stunned granny pants are in.

Offline maliciel

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Re: World Runway 2011
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2011, 08:30:57 AM »
IIRC, the models are mostly from the Singapore edition of Vogue. I've seen a few of them on some publications here, too.

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