Last night, insiders from the worlds of fashion, technology, art, finance and real estate gathered at a well-appointed address in an upscale neighbourhood of Singapore to witness the launch of Modamorphosis, a new multi-disciplinary company aimed at disrupting the status quo of fashion and art.
But what exactly is Modamorphosis? And how did it come about? Launched by Jamie QQ Wu and Brooke Smith—two self-described fashion enthusiasts who met at a Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles over a year ago—the company bills itself as an “alchemist”, bringing different mediums and industries (but primarily fashion) together to create magic.
“We talked about, “where do we think the future of fashion is going?'” Wu explains. “And we never stopped talking to each other for about a year … which led us to this “third child” [NB: Wu has two children] in the making—it’s an exhibition and gala, and there will be a lot of details to be unveiled in a few months’ time.”
Set to launch in 2025, their first exhibition will focus mainly on emerging designers from across the globe “who are behaving like artists,” Wu says. “The intention is to preserve and support this level of creativity is one of our missions, because if we don’t, it will disappear.”
Revealing a bit more about the upcoming exhibition planned, Smith added that the exhibition wouldn’t just be a static display, but rather, seek to engage and immerse the audience through a multi-sensory experience with opportunities to touch, smell, hear, feel, and try the pieces. “[We want to] allow people to experience the power and potential of these technologies and materials,” Smith says.
According to Smith, the idea of alchemy as Modamorphosis’s first exhibition theme stemmed from the innovative designers and creators who are working as “alchemists, chemists, technologists to reconsider, and also re-engineer, the material and physical possibilities within garments and foreign material.”
To drive home the point, Wu was wearing a dress by innovative emerging American designer Caroline Zimbalist, who works with biomaterials and natural fibres to create wonderfully sculpted pieces. The dress that Wu wore last night? “It’s made of seaweed!” she gleefully told me.
A slate of top tier creatives who will be collaborating on Modamorphosis’s first endeavour was also announced, among them Singaporean botanical art studio Humid House, who will create installations for the exhibition; international design firms Studio (D) and ITAK, who will be handling spatial design and creative production; and the consummate events connoisseur Sarah Martin—previously the CEO of Arts House—who will be bringing the exhibition to life.
Food—and the future of food—will also be a key consideration for the gala, and to that end, Wu invited cutting-edge cultured meat brand Forged to give a taste of what to expect with a specially created “Forged Cigar” canape filled with their lab-grown quail meat, served with a caviar bump, for the evening.
Summarising the key points of the night Smith says, “I think fashion has only just scratched the surface of what’s possible for dressing our bodies. We now have crazy small, powerful robotics, wild biological materials and open source artificial intelligence.”
She adds, “Seeing all of these amazing visionary designers gives me a great sense of optimism that we can repair a relationship with the natural world, while also producing really fulfilling and dynamic forms of self representation.”
As for what form the exhibition and gala will take, and—more importantly—where it will be held, Wu teased that more details would be forthcoming in a “bigger, better, more fantastical party to announce everything.”
“Singapore is starting to get more interesting,” one guest mused as we made our way out for the night. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon.
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