My Favourite Things: 12 little black dresses
Last week, we talked about the significance of the number 8 to Chihuly Lounge. For this coming week, it's the number 12! So, what's so significant about that? Well, for a start, you have 12 stalks of red roses, 12 months that make a complete calendar year, 12 jurors in the American jury system, the once-12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road. In fact, 12 is also a symbol of an organisation's structural beginning as well as its governmental perfection. Isn't that amazing?
Well, the number 12 is also reason enough for a good bottle of Clos Du Mesnil 1995 and a hearty dollop of good cheer for Ms Ice Tan, founder and designer of By Ice, a local fashion couture that will be 12 this 25th September. And to mark this special occasion, Ice has decided to share the joy of her success with all you fashionistas out there on My Favourite Things!
I first trundled into her store by chance while window shopping at Parkway Parade and for a good ten years, never saw any reason why I should stop doing so! In fact, By Ice is the only local fashion couture I've been faithfully patronising all this time simply because the clothes she makes really fit the Singaporean female form! Seriously, I'm a confessed pragmatist when it comes to buying things. I'd rather go back to the same bakuteh shop if I know for sure that I can derive the same level of oomph with the same amount of dollars!
That's what By Ice promises each and every season: consistency, consistency, consistency! And over these years, I've admittedly amassed quite a collection of clothes from By Ice. One of my personal favourites and is one of Ice's bestsellers is a black chiffon dress that comes complete with lining and can be worn in multiple ways.
Ice is evidently quite an avid experimenter. She has to be. With increasing competition from cheaper, mass-produced imports, and increasing scores of couture wannabes out there, she has to fiddle with new design ideas, explore unconventional textural combinations, and scour for interesting colours and prints in order to make her dresses something you'd love to own! In fact, what you get at By Ice is purposefully created to accentuate your curves the right way, highlight your best features, and bring out the best in you!
With a name like Ice, this self-styled, self-made local designer could have easily been mistaken to be a icy-cold character who's aloof and self-absorbed. That, however, is far from the truth. In fact, what really stands out is the fact of her honesty, candidness and an apparent lack of snob although she's every good reason to be. Having trained for a few years at Anteprima and studied at the famous Parsons School of Design New York, and with two successful By Ice outlets under her belt, this woman is as clear as the light of day and humble as a church mouse.
So what inspires her designs? Her answer is as simple as it is reassuring: every design stems from her personal experiences in life. She would never put out a single item in her stores at Bugis Junction and Parkway Parade that she wouldn't be proud of wearing and completely comfortable in.
Want to be a part of the 12th anniversary celebrations of By Ice? Join me on Evening Drive from 5 to 8 pm only on Symphony 92.4fm.
