The Soul of Things (物の魂 Mono no Tamashi) is the seventh collection by Singaporean fashion designer, educator, and musician, Lilia Yip. The collection explores our age-old relationship with clothing through experimental pattern-cutting techniques and references to Eastern traditional garments from Japanese, Chinese, and Mongolian culture. 

Featuring six garments from the collection, this exhibition marks the first time that The Soul of Things will be shown in Singapore. The collection was first presented in 2018 at the Galleria Oryza in Hokkaido, Japan, touring later to the Kirsuberjatréð Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2019. 

Marking the third destination of the collection, this iteration of The Soul of Things recontextualises Lilia’s work with the introduction of original interdisciplinary fashion works created by three Singapore-based fashion practitioners: scholar-artist Angelene Wong, and image-makers Jaya Khidir and Ethan Lai. Through their works, the exhibition situates Lilia’s collection as the starting point to contemplate the themes central to The Soul of Things in new ways. 

Each garment in the exhibition captures the pivotal points that characterise Lilia’s journey with The Soul of Things. Some pieces have been adapted, edited, and added—emphasising the mutability of Lilia’s fashion practice and creative process. By remembering a time when clothes were seen as protective, ritualistic, and magical, The Soul of Things is a prescient celebration of our fundamental connection to the things we wear. At a time where we have grown increasingly removed from the origins of our clothing, this exhibition invites us to reacquaint ourselves with our worn histories. 

Programmes

Process Panel: Angelene Wong, Jaya Khidir, Ethan Lai

[This is a past event.]

Saturday 3 September 2022, 7PM - 8PM

Join curator Weiqi Yap as she speaks to the three collaborators of The Soul of Things exhibition, scholar-artist Angelene Wong, image-maker Jaya Khidir, and fashion photographer Ethan Lai, about the creative process behind their respective responses to Lilia Yip's collection.

Free admission.

Studio Walking Tours: Open Studio

[This is a past event.]

Saturday 20 August 2022, 11AM - 6PM

In conjunction with Asian Civilisations Museum’s #SGFASHIONNOW exhibition, Fashion On Display will be open to the public for visitors to learn more about what we do behind-the-scenes. Collect a stamp for every studio you visit, then return to ACM and collect a mystery catalogue. Check out the other participating studios here.

Free admission.

In Conversation: Lilia Yip & Weiqi Yap

[This is a past event.]

Friday 19 August 2022, 7PM - 8PM

Join curator Weiqi Yap in conversation with fashion designer, educator, and musician Lilia Yip for a behind-the-scenes look at The Soul of Things exhibition. 

Free admission.

Lilia Yip

Lilia is a fashion academic, designer, visual artist and musician. Her creative practice threads different strands: clothing, imagery, text, sound and a thorough understanding of material and drape are combined to build a subtle form of communication. She creates work that exists on the boundaries between our cultures, identities, histories and bodies; where the wearable, the surreal, the imaginative and mundane meet.

Lilia graduated from the Royal College of Art in MA Womenswear and has collaborated with the British Council as their guest designer, showcasing work in the Philippines and running workshops in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.  She has exhibited internationally in solo exhibitions and major group shows at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Victoria & Albert Museum.  She is a Senior Lecturer in Fashion Design and Development at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, and a visiting practitioner, teaching on MA Fashion Artefact and MA Innovative Fashion Production.

Angelene Wong

Angelene Wong is a doctoral student at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University and a dance artist. She completed her MA in Fashion Studies at The New School, Parsons Paris, in 2019. Since, she has continued pursuing her interest in the intersection of fashion, performance, and theory, in her doctoral dissertation. Her experiences as a professional dancer influence her research in fashion as she is constantly finding new ways for her kinesthetic sense to inform her methods, and in turn, theory to inform her dance practice. Most recently she co-authored Fashion, Identity, Image (2022). Angelene is also a part-time lecturer at the School of Fashion at Lasalle College of the Arts. 

Jaya Khidir

Jaya Khidir is a Singapore-based photographer whose image-making practice intersects with fashion and socio-political commentary. A graduate from the BA(Hons) Fashion Media and Industries programme at LASALLE College of the Arts with prior training at film school, Jaya’s visual language exists between still and moving images, fashion and film and aesthetic and cultural realms.

Ethan Lai

Ethan Lai is a photographer, videographer and co-owner of ThereIsA Studio. His portfolio spans London Fashion Week street style coverage, editorial work for such publications as Vogue Singapore, Men’s Folio and Pansy Mag, and personal work about style, tribes and identity. In life as in his work, Ethan is interested in the relationship between dress and the body, as well as the psychogeography of the local fashion scene. He credits his time at Central Saint Martins (CSM) for motivating him to push the boundaries of fashion image-making. Beyond photography, Ethan has made fashion films for the likes of Marques Almeida, created immersive 3D realms to best deliver his vision, and directed the celebrated CSM White Show. Ethan's goal is to demonstrate that fashion can be so much more than just beautiful; in his expansive vision, it is academic, light-hearted, dark, funny, sometimes all at once.