If you missed it when the ‘Gateway to Asia’ opened, don’t fret. UrbanWire brings you the highlights of Singapore Fashion Week 2007 (SFW07) that will have you highlight it as an established entry on your fashion calendar.

Marking its 20th anniversary, the SFW07 held from 12 to 21 October is a significant milestone for Asia’s leading fashion event. To strengthen Singapore’s position as a regional fashion hub, SFW07 presents a series of showcases featuring collections from the region to sell to the world.

FRESH! – The Graduate Showcase

Tapping on the talent in Singapore’s four major design schools – Raffles Design Institute, Temasek Polytechnic, LASALLE College of the Arts and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) – this showcase debuts the crème de la crème. It’s an exhaustive fashion effort where Pricilla Tan from NAFA walked away with an internship with the giant retail team of Topshop / Topman. Her winning collection, ‘Anatomy Becomes Ornament’ will be displayed in their local boutiques.

Singapore Fashion Designers Contest (SFDC)

To conquer Singapore, a designer must first conquer the SFDC stage. A crucial platform for the career launch of budding fashion designers, this contest is a nationwide search of the next ingénue of Singapore’s fashion industry.

Franco Tan clinched the runner-up position with his mysterious, all-black ‘Everybody Want Some’ menswear collection. The winning collection was also a men’s line – Chia Wei Choong’s military-inspired ‘My Escapist Fantasy’. Both designers represented Singapore in the Asian Young Fashion Designers Contest.

Asian Young Fashion Designers Contest (AYFDC)

Long recognised as a significant regional talent search, the 19th installment of AYFDC presented talents from China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The designers were competing for S$8,000 cash prize, an internship programme in New York with internationally famous designer Vivienne Tam, and a BA-Honours Degree in Fashion Design Scholarship Programme at the Raffles Design Institute.

After an hour of eclectic fashion shows featuring diverse fashion styles, Singapore’s Wei Choong attained top honours and was crowned the winner. To say Wei Choong was elated about his win would be an understatement. Smiling from ear to ear, he explained that he started drawing while in camp because he got bored, and that was how his collection became military and uniform inspired. Drawing inspirations from Balenciaga’s Nicholas Ghesquiere, Wei Choong strives to keep his collection “different yet consistent”.

Fashion Shares

A joint effort between the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFf) and the Health Promotion Board (HPB), Fashion Shares champions awareness and prevention of AIDS. On display were 60 unique and one-of-a-kind tee-shirt designs by personalities and celebrities. Singapore-born and Paris-based fashion designer Andrew Gn lent his hand in designing a tee-shirt depicting hope’s pivotal role in the fight against AIDS and is available for purchase at TANGS. All proceeds will go towards the Action for AIDS + HIV + Pregnant Mother’s Fund.

A necessary effort with a steep growth seen in AIDS records over the last three years, this is SFW07‘s way of giving back to society.

Singapore Fashion Week 2007 might have been over in a jiffy, but it’s only but a beginning for many who were inspired and impacted. Mark your calendars, because you don’t want to miss out again next year.