How fashionable is the average Singapore shopper? Do you buy 'fashion' or do you buy 'clothes'?

Singapore is purportedly one of the world's “Fashion Capitals” according to a report by Global Language Monitor (GLM). In it’s annual list of the top 50 global fashion capitals released in August, GLM ranked Singapore at number eight – one above Tokyo!

Singapore? I hear you exclaim in disbelief. Yes; Singapore. Why? Because according to the formula used by GLM – something to do with how many times the word “fashion” and “Singapore” have appeared together in print and online media – Singapore is all about fashion.

While, I’m a proud fashionista – and proud resident of Singapore – I beg to differ with GLM’s claim. Singapore is not so much a “fashion” capital, it’s more of a “shopping” one. 

In a recent report, Fashion Nation, in the Urban section of the Straits Times newspaper, Sue Evans, the senior catwalks editor of London-based trend forecaster WGSN, said that Singapore was really just full of “fashion followers” not “fashionistas”.

And recent evidence appears to support her claim.

Singapore is home to fashion shoppers who would rather spend thousands of dollars on a handbag with an internationally recognized logo than a couple of hundred dollars on a one-of-kind, made-in-Singapore bag – despite the fact that they’ll get better value for money.

A Singapore fashion designer finds it hard to get any attention until she has “made it” overseas; or at least had her stuff featured or mentioned in an international publication. And while there is a huge amount of talent among Singapore fashion designers, I doubt anyone outside of the country could name one such designer.

Which is such a shame. Yes, Singapore is home to fabulous retail outlets and the government is amazingly supportive of young designers with funding – the Parco Next Next fashion incubator is supported by Spring Singapore – there remains, however, a lack of “buzz” about how good Singapore design is.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been personally, and effusively, thanked by young, Singapore designers for both bothering to turn up to their collection launches, and taking them seriously enough to review and write about their designs.

Even major Singapore labels like Raoul and alldressedup seem surprisingly delighted to have their collections featured regularly; and I’ve received lovely personal thank yous from major Singapore designers after featuring them in a story.

It seems that while the design skill is here, the average Singapore shopper is more enamoured of major international brands rather than supporting quality work from their countrymen.

On a recent trip to Australia I noticed one, important, thing about its fashion industry: the overwhelming lack of international brands.

In Australia young fashion shoppers rarely have access to global high street brands. It’s only in the last couple of years that the country has got its first Zara, Topshop and Gap stores – Uniqlo, H&M and Forever 21 are yet to arrive – and even the few that are in the country are isolated to a couple of the larger cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

On the other hand, Australian brands like Cue, Sportsgirl, Witchery, Country Road, Bardot, Kookai, Forever New, Valley Girl, Dotti, Ice and Supre all manage to fill the high street market with their own versions of street style fashion.

But more importantly, there are a huge number of Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) fashion companies that have won not only critical acclaim but are now branching out to become global fashion icons. 

Brands like Sass & Bide, Ksubi, Collette Dinigan, Cohen et Sabine, Mimco, Jayson Brundson, Seafolly and of course, the massive surfwear company Billabong, are established and recognisable names with retail outlets around the world.

Other, younger, brands have international cult followings – Alice McCall, Easton Pearson, Dion Lee, Akira Isogawa, Bassike, Lover, Yeojin Bae, Camilla & Marc, Bettina Liano, Chronicles of Never, Wayne Cooper, Stolen Girlfriends Club, Tato & Memi, Shakuhachi, Something Else, Scanlan & Theodore, Romance Was Born, Rodeo Show, Nicola Finetti, Peter Morrissey, Marnie Skillings, Manning Cartell, LifewithBird, Leona Edmiston, Ginger & Smart, George Wu, Friedrich Gray, Ellery … the list could go on. And many of these labels are actually available in Singapore multi-label boutiques. 

So, does it mean that Australians are more fashionable than Singaporeans? Hardly. Have you seen the average Aussie backpacker?

Or does Australia have all these established small fashion labels because the country is so physically (and expensively) far away that they need to create their own product to suit their market? Perhaps. Or perhaps it is more about being proud of their home-grown talent?

In the very interesting Roundtable Discussion with Fashion Industry Insiders in the same issue of Urban mentioned above, Joe Spinelli, head of fashion at Raffles Design Institute, pointed out that although Tokyo is considered to be a “fashion capital” the average shopper “... buys clothes. They don’t buy fashion.”

Which can also be said about the average Australian shopper and the average Singapore shopper; the difference being in Australia, and Japan, the average shopper’s choices appear to be broader and therefore more likely to be “fashion” rather than just “clothes”.

An example of the difference between buying “fashion” versus buying “clothes” was the difference between the reaction to the opening of H&M and the launch of the final +J for Uniqlo last week.

Thousands of people turned up for the H&M opening – they lined up overnight; in fact lines are still periodically forming – while there was barely a handful of people waiting to snap up the last pieces of the collaborative range between Uniqlo and Jil Sander.

Don’t get me wrong; H&M sells fashion. It’s just that it also caters to a much broader audience. The brand has items for everyone from Hello Kitty items for the kiddies to the aunties and uncles who snapped up its super comfortable underwear.

+J, on the other hand, is more conceptual and capsule. Jil Sander, after all, is considered to be one of the 20th century's top fashion designers and arguably the creator of modern minimalism; nor does +J cater to such a wide range of shoppers.

Still, does this explain why H&M got huge crowds, while +J didn’t? 

Partially; yes, it does. H&M is an internationally known brand, it’s something that even the least “fashionable” shopper would recognise and the arrival of the brand on Singapore’s shores for the first time has been heavily advertised for months.

+J, although part of an international chain, is more about  the international design cachet of the designer, Jil Sander. On top of that, it wasn’t a “first”, nor was it massively advertised.

Is +J too “conceptual” for the average Singapore shopper? I don’t think so. Although Singapore shoppers may appear to be more conservative in style, H&M is no shrimp in the fashion stakes. Nor are many of the other “fast fashion” stores; they all follow runway trends after all.

Maybe it’s just me? My love of the streamlined looks that Jil Sander made her name with – and that I can’t afford from her namesake label – means that I was always excited to be able to buy something from this designer at a price I could afford.

But surely, I’m not the only lover of affordable minimalism in Singapore? Oh well, all the more for me then – well, for as long as my credit card holds out.

What do you think? Is Singapore a “fashion capital” or a “shopping one”? Leave your comments below.