During my youth, Yangon was a difficult place to shop for your own personal style. People follow after one and just one trend as directed by the mainstream popular culture (imagine seeing a sea of the same clothes of different colours on various people of different sizes). There is nothing wrong with pop culture and following the trend, as long as you're comfortable with going after the trend.
Then, there are those with their own individual colours. For them, they either had to make their own or source from abroad. It was a challenge because of the country's political scene and the status of being closed off entirely from the world. Only a handful had the access to the latest fashion and trends.
Fast forward to 2010, Myanmar's change of the century.
The country opened up to the latest trends, and there had been an influx of franchise businesses. Along with the trends, the same problem persists; individuality. Posed was another problem - the inflation of currency and the fluctuating exchange rate, a proven challenge for the businesses, which led to very limited choices of clothing brands in shopping centres.
As someone who spent weekends on Oxford Street, Carnaby Street of London, and Bourke Street of Melbourne (the trinket shops there are amazing!) , I sorely missed the choices that the consumers were spoiled with whenever I'm in Yangon. There were clothing stores but difficulties like not being able to buy the right size (I confess. I still do not understand the Asia's concept of one size) , overpriced clothes for mediocre quality, like seams coming apart.
I also pined for the use of local models, and businesses coming up and trying out interesting concepts and adhering to a certain style for seasonal campaigns during the competition for market dominance. I have no problems seeing foreign models in the markets, however, I believe in promoting local talent to increase and promote diversity in the seemingly monotonous Yangon's fashion scene, where beauty standards seemed to lean towards one single ideal.
When Win Min Than (or Yvonne, if you would prefer to call her that way) came to me and asked me to be one of the campaign models for her self-curated clothing line at UNT Studio, as well as one of the people behind the scene for the brand development, for her first collection that she curated, I was more than happy. Her mission of promoting diversity of various colours and sizes, using relatable people as campaign models, and offering the best values for money on all the items stuck a chord with me.
I wanted to be a part of it.
And I did.
The brand founder Win Min Than spent weeks and months planning and executing the vision that she had crafted in her mind. She travelled back and forth between Myanmar and foreign countries, utilising all the contacts she could gather, to source the materials for the brand. Warren P, the creative director and co-founder, poured out his talent for the shoot with and mood boards he compiled while putting the knowledge he gained from studying fashion intensively in higher education.
All of the models in the campaigns for this collection #1 were everyday women, the women you see on streets; florist, doctor, engineer-to-be, and aspiring model who is also studying for a degree. Truly hustlin' women.
Personally, I feel that it is a great way to inspire girls through fashion since majority of the women population pays a good deal of attention to fashion, no matter their ages. This is definitely a step forward to empower women to send a message that they can pursue anything they want without compromising anything.
The shoot was tiring, yet extremely fun. All of us soldiered through the 6 hours shoot going through different outfit changes and poses. The most difficult person to work with was me, whose face was legitimately wired to twist in funny ways when the photographer pressed his camera button.
They all turned out great. I am one happy soul.
I'm excited to see how this venture pans out. It will be interesting to see a friend duo attempting to change Yangon's fashion scene with a mission in mind.
Before I sign out, here's a photograph of me living my dream of being in a Japanese high school-centric coming of age anime, completed with structured pleated skirt. Truly living the childhood dream, even if brief. Also, here's a visionary quote from the photographer Warren P, tapping into the minds of millennial's sentiment towards memes as inspired by the group photo below.
'Derps are fine. They give character to a photograph' - Warren P
Ah, derp memes, why must you exist? This is going to live with me my entire life.
Love Love Love,
Rosie
Note: If you would like to see more of Yvonne's UNT Studio's collection, please click
here.
Before I introduce you to Aye Mya, the main character of the entire exhibition, I think it will only be logical to explain about the girls from Myanmar's central region, or Upper Myanmar like how other Myanmar would call it. On a side note, yes the country and the people are both called Myanmar, not Myanmar and Myanmese. Even though I hate to admit it, there is a stereotype that girls from Upper Myanmar are more traditional, has tanned skin, adores tha-na-kha, enjoys wearing jewellery made out of gold, and are more inclined to adhere to traditional values of what, and how a woman should be. There is also a stereotype of Lower Myanmar girls too but that's for another day.
