Fashion has long been used as a vehicle for shining a light on social issues, and one Lasalle College of the Arts graduand has done precisely that with her Final Year Project (FYP).
Meet Nicolette Ow, a 24-year-old creative who’s now enrolled in Lasalle’s Fashion Media degree programme, and also holds a diploma in Temasek Polytechnic’s Apparel Design & Merchandising course. For her project, she embarked on the conception of In Plain Sight, a publication that delves into the stories and struggles of marginalised and oft-forgotten communities in Singapore through a series of styled fashion photoshoots.
Among them are elderly cleaners and migrant workers as well as foreign domestic workers who are also volunteers with Singapore-based charity, the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (H.O.M.E).
And in case you’re wondering, yes the publication will be on sale. “Pre-orders (for the first issue) have not launched yet as I am still in the process of working out all the logistics. While I can’t provide the price now, I am intending to price it affordably so it will be accessible to as many people as possible. I also plan to donate a portion of sales to volunteer organisations,” Nicolette shares.
Below, she tells the Weekly more about In Plain Sight, its conceptualisation and what inspired the styling of the fashion shoot, and how she hopes to spark more conversations about those who have fallen through the cracks.
