Ong Shunmugam Cruise 2018 Collection

Priscilla Shunmugam of Ong Shunmugam explores romantic language, experiments with textures and dabbles into risqué silhouettes in the cruise 2018 collection, titled 'Love Letters'.

According to the designer: "The inspiration is quite multi-layered. There were a lot of things going on in my head at the time of conception, therefore there were a lot things going on during the translation. Essentially, Love Letters is about my exploration of expressions of love through written words. We looked at the art of letter writing and how it's still relevant though there are far more sophisticated way of expressing ourselves, such as sending an email or a Whatsapp message."

"Love is one of those things that you can try as hard as you want but you're never really able to define and explain; usually the best things in life can't be explained. When I write to someone that I love, I want to do it without using the four-letter word, choosing to express my fears, my hopes, my dreams, in a way that is raw and authentic and at the same time also universal, meaning to say they're open to interpretation." - Priscilla Shunmugam

It is the first time the designer use lots of black and white in its latest collection, playing the concept of putting pen to paper, putting things in black and white. You'll find a lot of textures, different fabrics and fabrications, and pieces that make you want to touch them.

This was the first collection that mixes batik fabric commissioned in Yogyakarta and worked with a workshop there which spent 6 months developing own batik design. You might not recognize some of these fabrics as batik but upon closer inspection, you'll see that it is batik. They're all hand dyed; it's difficult to do which makes them even more valuable, but we construct them in contemporary shapes to look brave, bold, very graphic.