Is S'pore ready for a fashion museum?

A brisk line-up of travelling fashion exhibitions - with the latest an archival Dior show - and a steady clip of fashion-centric shows staged by museums here are positive signs

- Carmen Sin

A brisk line-up of travelling fashion exhibitions - with the latest an archival Dior show - and a steady clip of fashion-centric shows staged by museums here are positive signs Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting The Senses, an exhibition of the Dutch designer's work, was held at the ArtScience Museum.

(ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO)

It is a busy Monday morning in Tanjong Pagar Distripark as full-skirted gowns, a loaded crown and a latex couture belt are gingerly removed from their dust bags over the whir of installation works.

Their handler is gloved and freshly touched down from Dior Atelier in Paris, France. She is putting the final touches to the archival pieces at UBS House Of Craft x Dior, a show surveying 79 years of the French luxury brand's couture work that runs from Nov 21 to 23 at New Art Museum Singapore in Tanjong Pagar Distripark.

The garments are companions to 37 new photos by former editor-in-chief of fashion magazine Vogue Paris Carine Roitfeld and Italian photographer Brigitte Niedermair, whose stay in town has drawn a small international press pack.

It is at least the third fashion exhibition staged in Singapore in 2025 a brisk calendar dominated by Dutch designer Iris van Herpen's five-month retrospective at the ArtScience Museum, Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting The Senses.

In October, French luxury maison Hermes' The Silky Way at the Marina Bay Sands Event Plaza took visitors through an odyssey of its trademark silk scarves.

All three are the first Asian stops for the displays.

UBS' country head for Singapore Young Jin Yee tells The Straits Times that Singapore is a natural choice as a "window to Asia".

The bank is a regular art world sponsor, but it hopes fashion can help it reach clients it sees less often, like wives of the super-rich and second-generation clients more hipped on the arts, adds Ms Young.