When Esquire Singapore caught up with Ayden Sng last year, he was in the throes of filming the Channel 8 series All That Glitters. Much of the conversation lingered around the idea of typecasting—a familiar, if frustrating aspect of Singapore’s acting scene. It’s easy to empathise with Sng’s desire to break free from these shackles and truly test the limits of his craft. How many times can one play the good son, the polished, educated love interest—the character that always feels safe? But Sng isn’t one to shy away from reinvention. He’s an actor hungry for growth, even if it means throwing himself into the unknown and rebuilding from scratch.
When Ayden Sng first stepped into the industry at 25, Mediacorp was the unknown, an uncharted territory for a young actor eager to make his mark. Five years and countless Channel 8 dramas later, Mediacorp has become a familiar space, almost too familiar. The shows blend into each other, the roles begin to blur, and the people—well, everyone knows everyone. “TV filming in Singapore is like a big family,” Sng tells me, playfully cross-legged on a couch in a narrow studio. I’ve never been to the set, but I nod because I can imagine it. Sng, with his easy charisma, fills the room with a lightness that’s both infectious and disarming. He speaks with what I can only describe as a fragile meticulousness, but with the crew during the photoshoot, a more relaxed side of him surfaces, emboldened by the cadence of Singlish and the occasional slip into Mandarin. It’s been a long day—leather jackets layered against multi-layered turtlenecks, striking pose after pose under blinding lights—but you wouldn’t know it from the way he carries himself. There’s no posture here; this is the Sng his collaborators have come to know. It’s obvious he feels at ease here, but for an actor dedicated to their craft, comfort can be a cage, and growth, after all, often blooms in discomfort.
In late 2023, Mediacorp’s The Celebrity Agency embarked on a collaboration with China’s Huanyu Entertainment to select three local actors to be represented by the prestigious agency. Sng was selected as one of them, which meant that the actor would have to be based in China for the foreseeable future and direct his focus on the sprawling Chinese market. An opportunity like this is the stuff of dreams for many Singaporean actors because it could spell the eruption of their career into global heights, beyond the shores of our small nation. Yet, with any leap into the unknown, it carries its fair share of risks. For Sng, it is akin to pressing the reset button on his career. If navigating the local scene in Mediacorp was his first unknown as an actor, then the colossal landscape of China is his next great unknown.
Regardless, this is a fresh start, and in a market brimming with unlimited possibilities, Sng can finally break free from any typecasting and fully explore his range as an actor… right?
“In China, I’m essentially starting from scratch, so ironically, I’m looking to be typecast again,” he reveals, catching me completely off guard. Quite honestly, I had mapped out the entire interview in my head during my research—half-ready to set pen to paper and frame the cover story as “The Reinvention of Ayden Sng”. It would have been a grand angle that showcased how Sng has a second shot at avoiding the pitfall that is being typecasted. After all, wasn’t breaking out of typecasting part of his struggle back home?
He elaborates, “Stage one for any actor in a new market is to be typecasted because people need to think of you for a specific type of role, that’s the easiest way to get cast.” He continues, “After you’ve been in the market for a few years, that’s when you need to break out of that mould and showcase your versatility.” When we spoke to Sng last year, he was at the tipping point, on the verge of shedding that mould in the local market. “Stage three for me would then be to defy all of this.”
However, navigating a market as vast and varied as China’s means that “typecast” isn’t as simple as it sounds. “Honestly, I’m still trying to figure that out,” he admits. “China has a lot more genres than we have in Singapore—historical dramas, fantasy fighting, WWII period dramas. It’s a discovery phase.”
Despite this ambiguity, he’s finding his footing. In one of his recent projects, the wuxia drama 临江仙 (Lin Jiang Xian), he plays an immortal—a role that tested his physical limits as an actor. “It was my first time doing wire work, in over 40°C weather,” he recalls, smiling. “I was flying around with a sword for over 12 hours a day. It was exhausting, but memorable because it was a series of firsts for me.”
But there are challenges acting in China that go beyond the physical. The uncertainty of navigating a foreign territory, on top of the pressure of having to perform at the top of your craft can be intensely palpable. “You get one shot, and you have to make it count,” Sng confesses. This urgency means that now the hunger for growth he’s held for years—the one that has felt so distant—is within his grasp, he’s finally seizing it. From vocal training to movement classes and picking up the intricacies of wire work, Sng has been placed in an environment that demands rapid growth, a stark contrast to what he had been used to. “Growth used to be something that was always on my mind and was something I was trying to do”, Sng admits. “But now, it feels like I have to do it, and quickly.”
Despite the highs of being in a new market, being uprooted from everything familiar—culture, routine and rhythm—has been taxing. “Even though my Mandarin is fairly proficient, I don’t have the cultural context to respond in a way that is required of me,” Sng reveals, likening himself to a deer in headlights during social interactions. He also describes himself as a sponge, absorbing more than contributing, which he concedes makes him a dull conversationalist. “There are times when I wish I could reply to them in English, then I would know what to say, but I can’t.”
“And this is coming from someone like me who thoroughly enjoys Mandarin and Chinese.” Ironically, this challenge is part of why he loves being in China: the total immersion in Chinese culture. This affinity with Chinese culture can be traced to Sng’s childhood. “Growing up, I definitely consumed more Chinese content [than Western content],” says Sng, enraptured for the first time in our conversation. “Which is why working in China feels like a dream come true for me.” Before the internet made television shows and movies from other countries like China widely accessible, Channel 8 was the cornerstone of Sng’s childhood entertainment. “Chen Li Ping was my favourite actor,” he beams. “I watched her when she was [My Teacher] Aiyoyo.”
Creating and starring in Chinese media clearly ignites something deeper within Sng, which explains why his tone remains upbeat and hopeful, even while opening up about his challenges in China. The 30-year-old isn’t closing the door on Western projects just yet though. “The goal would be to be involved in more international projects,” he says. And in true Sng fashion, the reason is quite simple: growth.
Whether it’s Hollywood, the UK or regional countries—it matters not which foreign market he steps into. He’s more concerned about discovering the inner workings of the industry across different settings and refining his own craft. His journey in China is a prime example. “You go there completely clueless,” he confides. “You do two shows, and then you have a stronger understanding of what you can and cannot do. You realise what you’re weak at and the skills you need to improve on.” This learning process endows Sng with a roadmap, a clearer path towards bettering his craft and guiding him to becoming the actor he wants to be.
For many, success in this industry can be measured by the number of followers you have on Instagram, the accolades, the fame. But for Sng, the idea of “making it” isn’t as straightforward. “Someone earning SGD3,000 might want more, and when they get SGD6,000, it still won’t feel like enough,” he continues. “There’s always going to be something you want or feel like you need to improve on. So, it’s really about enjoying the journey.” Instead of asking himself “Have I made it?” his instincts are to ask himself, “Are you happy with where you are, and what you’re doing?
It is a grounded view of success, one that emphasises that cliché of journey over the destination.
Yet, in a career that has been marked by transitions—from Singapore to China, from typecasting to growth—Sng’s definition of “making it” is more about internal satisfaction than external achievements. He is more concerned with his own evolution than ticking off boxes of conventional success. “To create that kind of joy machine for yourself. That’s something that people need to find.”
The television format is fast-paced and unrelenting; actors are typically not afforded the luxury of time when preparing and filming for a role, especially in Singapore where productivity is a priority. While a drama with 30 episodes (roughly 1,200 minutes) may take three to four months to film, a 110-minute movie often takes just two to three months. For an actor, the unhurried, deliberate nature of cinema creates an ideal environment that allows them to fine-tune every performance and mull over every nuance. “Taking more time to create something good, that’s something that every actor would like to do,” Sng says, earnestly.
The extended preparation time that films offer actors—the slow burn of cinema—may explain why the medium has yielded some of the greatest acting performances in history. Think Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, Mahershala Ali in Moonlight, Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love. From Sng’s perspective, it wasn’t a particular film that has triggered his desire to explore cinema. Rather, it was the performances themselves that struck an emotional chord with him. “It’s just something that would make you want to be in a position where you can do something like that.”
His criterion for a good film is refreshingly honest, “as long as it’s entertaining”. Whether it’s laughter, tears, or fear, if the film elicits the intended response, he would consider it a success. And if it can keep his attention for more than 10 minutes… cue the score and hand over the Oscar. Who’s to tell Sng a film is bad if he enjoyed it? Film, like all art forms, has always been subjective. A distraught office worker suffering from corporate burnout will have a completely different experience watching The Perks of Being a Wallflower than an awkward teenager battling with social anxiety and identity. That same office worker could watch My Dinner with Andre and form their own interpretation of the film, coloured by their own life experiences. “Filmmakers, in some sense, have a huge role to be able to shape how their audience thinks based on their own worldview.” Sng opines. “But how the audience reacts to it is a reflection of overall social sentiment at that point in time.”
If you couldn’t already tell, Sng thinks—deeply. A scroll to the bottom of his Instagram page reveals pictures with long introspective captions attached to them—mini dissertations on maturity, identity and freedom. These days, those personal journal entries are long gone, replaced with simpler captions and sometimes, even just a single word. What changed?
“Somebody in the industry told me that nobody’s reading any of my posts,” he reveals. “They suggested one-word captions instead.” It’s practical advice considering the fleeting attention span in the landscape of social media today. However, there’s more to this than a strategic social media move.
“I think I used to have more things to say,” he reveals, pointing to the insular nature of filming in Singapore. “When you are stuck in an environment for very long, you’re not really absorbing enough knowledge to form a perspective about a lot of things,” says Sng, adding further depth to his move to China.
Comfort, close relationships and familiarity—these are some of the things Sng has had to leave behind in dedication to the craft. But there is something else: his cats.
“I feel like my cats would call me irresponsible because I’m hardly ever home.” His life is divided between two countries. He has cats in China, cared for by his assistant and also in Singapore, looked after by his family. It’s far from ideal for someone who doesn’t mind being branded as that “crazy cat uncle”. In a perfect world, Sng would have Doraemon’s magical door, bringing his cats along with him wherever he went.
He admits that the constant travel and time away from home come with emotional challenges. “I wish I could spend more time with them,” referring not just to his cats but to the other important people in his life. But instead of letting the guilt consume him, he approaches himself with kindness, “I don’t let the guilt eat me up. I know that I’m trying my best and that’s what matters.”
Photography, Digital Imaging and Retouching: Jayden Tan
Styling: Asri Jasman
Art Direction: Joan Tai
Hair: Christvian Wu using KEVIN.MURPHY
Makeup: Ying Cui Pris at AASTRAL BEAUTY using LANCÔME
Styling Assistant: Kyla Chow
Italian craftsmanship traditions meet Indian artisanal techniques in the latest Tod's Factory project. Renowned Indian designer Rahul Mishra—known for his incredibly intricate creations that draw inspiration from India's rich cultural heritage—reimagines a range of Tod's icons for both men and women, adding touches of opulence for pieces meant to be seen and admired.
Mishra explains that the Rahul Mishra x Tod's collection is a result of "drawing inspiration from nature, my constant muse, crafting classic in-house motifs and the distinctive foliage, synonymous with my designs". Kaarigar artisans were employed to decorate leather with embroideries reflecting nature. On the Tod's Gommino loafers and mules, these embroideries take on the shape of Mishra's Tree of Life motif and woven with silk on black velvet trimmed with leather for men, while women Gommino loafers are additionally done in a metallic nappa leather. Similar techniques are applied on the Di Bag and the Timeless T shoulder bag, amped up with sequins, crystals and beads.
More than simply introducing Indian artisanal techniques onto Tod's icons, the Tod's Factory project is an artistic dialogue. The project was launched in 2018, first with Italian fashion designer Alessandro Dell'Acqua and has since seen collaborations with creatives the likes of the late Alber Elbaz, Hender Scheme, as well as a three-prong with Moncler and Palm Angels. Tod's Factory allows these creatives access to the brand's craftsmen and savoir faire in Italy's Marche region, and of course, breathing new life to classic Tod's pieces.
This latest Tod's Factory edition is easily a standout based on the decorations alone. The Gommino loafers for men would make for the perfect evening option with suiting, while the Timeless T mules are an easy way of dressing up a classic white-shirt-and-jean pairing. Because when the pieces are this beautiful, they deserve all the spotlight.
The Rahul Mishra x Tod's collection is now available in boutiques and online.
It might be odd to think that something as angular as this tote is called the Rocking Horse. The name actually refers to the line’s initial bag designs constructed with a curved base that allows them to easily rock like a rocking horse, and are distinguished by the “b” closure. Its tote incarnation keeps things classic with a briefcase-like silhouette for some serious corporate-appropriate style chops.
We could all do with some added height and when it comes to heeled boots, hardly anything comes close to Hedi Slimane’s versions for CELINE. These are cut in a familiar Chelsea shape for fuss-free slipping in and off and the pointed toes immediately help to elongate the legs further. Also, peep that subtle Triomphe branding right at the ankle—an extra touch of if-you-know-you-know branding.
Gucci’s connection with London’s The Savoy goes all the way back to when founder Guccio Gucci worked as a porter at the famed hotel. The experience prompted him to found his own luggage atelier upon his return to Florence (no guesses what that eventually turned into). This cabin trolley is a nod to the very beginnings of Gucci, but of course, updated with wheels and a telescopic handle. When not in use, it makes for quite an ornamental interior piece much like a classic travel trunk.
Nothing comes close to being as classic and unbelievably versatile as a pair of leather lace-ups. You’d easily be able to dress them up or down and they go with just about anything. Tod’s may be known for its pebble-soled Gomminos but the comfort of its footwear translates even to something as sturdy as a pair of leather lace-ups. The lugged rubber sole gives it a more contemporary flair and traipses the line between formal and casual seamlessly.
The TUDOR Black Bay is an icon. And like most icons, it requires little tweaking. This latest iteration keeps all the design aesthetics with a monochromatic intent that successfully highlights every detail to perfection. The black sunburst dial is undoubtedly subtle but perfect for a timepiece you would want to put on every day, for any occasion.
RIMOWA’s Personal crossbody bag receives a new seasonal colour in a stunning shade of emerald green, and it’s quite honestly one of the more eye-catching shades in its aluminium series yet. The shell is wrapped around leather straps in a darker shade of green that matches the leather interior, and the palladium hardware contrasts beautifully against the rich hue. It could be an intimidating colour to wear but match this with neutrals for a surefire way of pulling it off.
With an Art Deco-inspired bottle design, you would think that Penhaligon’s The Dandy is somewhat of a traditional, masculine fragrance—heavy, woody and mildly overbearing to most. Yet, the fragrance surprises by being woody without that heavy lingering of intensity. The hints of warm, spicy notes cut through slightly after a while for a more balanced take on a liquor-forward scent. The Dandy is definitely more of an evening scent but its lightweight quality could just as easily be used in the day too.
Never underestimate the power of a scarf, especially one with hand-rolled trims and in colours that will never go out of style. Loro Piana updates the paisley print with bold, stark lines for a more elevated look. It’s a cashmere-silk blend that’s incredibly lightweight yet will definitely provide some warmth should you need it; or wear it loosely around the neck (in as many permutations as you could think of) to simply add a touch of irreverent elegance to an outfit.
The beauty of a Loewe candle is that the moment the wax completely burns off, the ceramic vessel can be used in a myriad of ways, all while looking like a piece of art. The latest Wasabi scent is one of the line’s more intense offerings with its green and spicy notes reminiscent of that first whiff of a spoonful of wasabi. Fair warning: this may make you crave for some sushi.
Yes, you don’t necessarily need a card case any more since everything is pretty much be done with your mobile. But neither do you need a watch nowadays too. It’s all about the aesthetics and this piece by Saint Laurent is a slim iteration with four card slots (just right). It also comes with a detachable strap you’d able to secure around a belt loop or wear around the neck as an accessory. The design is clever—the card slots are enveloped within a leather housing for added security.
Photography: Jaya Khidir
Styling: Asri Jasman
Photography Assistants: Aliy Alam and Syed Abdullah
Miu Miu’s predominantly women-centric fashion hasn’t stopped it from encroaching into the men’s wardrobe. Those of us who lived through the 1990s may remember Miu Miu’s menswear line launched for the Spring/Summer 1999 season through to its final collection for Spring/Summer 2008. The brand has since sneakily relaunched menswear without explicitly calling it as such, but instead, began introducing a number of male models on the runway as well as offering select designs in a bigger range of sizes.
The quiet repositioning of the Miu Miu brand runs in tandem with its sneaker collaborations with New Balance. Also offered in slightly larger sizes—they go up to a IT46—each drop has progressively grown to be so coveted that they are sold out within hours on official launch days, despite the hype around sneakers no longer being what it was years ago. Miu Miu’s collaboration with Church’s that began for the Autumn/Winter 2023 season also followed suit.
The marketing strategy for Miu Miu has in turn, shifted to skew towards a genderless approach. Musician and actor Troye Sivan walked the Spring/Summer 2024 runway show, and in Singapore, the brand has expanded its roster of influencers to include those who identify as male.
As slow and steady (and subtle) as Miu Miu’s renaissance has been, it has undoubtedly worked to its favour. Like an unforgettable earworm, Miu Miu has grown to be at the top of consumers’ minds. The Lyst Index—a quarterly report of the “hottest” brands as tracked by fashion technology company Lyst—sees Miu Miu climbing up a rank, replacing sister brand Prada as the number one brand for the first quarter of 2024. It’s a stark contrast from two years ago when Miu Miu didn’t even make the list’s top 20. The brand only managed to crack the list for the last quarter of 2021 and has remained on it since.
The Lyst Index has grown to be an industry-accepted indicator of a luxury fashion brand’s popularity. The platform boasts at least 200 million users annually and is primarily used to search for fashion items across multiple e-commerce sites. Think of Lyst as the fashion equivalent of Skyscanner. A quick search on Lyst results in a seemingly endless number of, well, listings of the same item available on online stockists ranging from SSENSE to Harrods. This data is part of the information Lyst collects in order to form its quarterly The Lyst Index. Lyst also takes into account searches outside of its own platform as well as social media statistics for a more rounded view of consumer trends.
The reality is that the business of fashion isn’t a bubble contained to just how a product is moving or not. Much of a brand’s popularity is due to a combination of external factors as well. In the case of Miu Miu, its Spring/Summer 2022 collection became a kind of cultural phenomenon owed to its Noughties-inspired aesthetic of branded boxers peeking through the tiniest of bottoms. It became such a hit that the collection graced multiple editorial magazine covers and fashion spreads—the latter at times featured on hyper-masculine male models. For Halloween the year of the collection’s runway show, it became a viral sensation after recreations of the now-signature Miu Miu look made the rounds on social media.
Gucci’s ranking on The Lyst Index proves that sales figures don’t exactly maketh a brand’s popularity. The Italian fashion house maintains its 11th position on the list, buoyed by the campaign launch of creative director Sabato De Sarno’s first Ancora collection, his first menswear show in January, a Horsebit campaign featuring actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, and more. Lyst also notes a 10 per cent increase of searches (as compared to the previous quarter) for Gucci accessories among its users following the Autumn/Winter 2024 womenswear runway show in February.
However, financially, the figures tell a different story. Gucci parent company Kering Group reported an 18 per cent decline on Gucci’s revenue for the first quarter of 2024. Its revenue across its direct retail operations as well as its wholesale business both suffered a hit. At the same time, Kering Group proffers that De Sarno’s first collection (dropped from mid-February) “have been very well received, particularly in the ready-to-wear and shoes categories”—although it did not disclose the metric used to come to this conclusion.
The Lyst Index isn’t the only list that has cropped up over the years. Business of Fashion released its second The BoF Brand Magic Index co-created with data insights company Quilt.AI in May 2024. Unlike The Lyst Index’s more trend-driven metrics, The BoF Brand Magic Index identifies and ranks brands based on their impact on customers. It measures this based on three metrics—alignment (how clear a brand is to customers), engagement (how effective a brand is at inspiring customers), and intent (how effective a brand drives customers to search for it). Brands are ranked based on these individual metrics; the combined scores determine their overall ranking with the lowest total at the top. The report covers a six-month period from October 2023 to March 2024.
It’s not surprising that given the differing methodologies used in both reports, the results are different. The BoF Brand Magic Index determines the alignment metric by using Quilt.AI’s proprietary AI models that detects content by both brands and customers, categorising them based on 12 Jungian archetypes, and determine similarities between the two. It’s this consistency between brand and customer content that ranks Dior, Balmain and Tod’s as the top three for alignment—their brand values are being received and replicated by their target audience. Business of Fashion believes that “alignment is a leading indicator of commercial success” in the long-run.
Take it this way, there is reason why Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are two of the biggest musicians in the world right now. One can argue that the songs are not immediately addictive such that they would be stuck in a person’s head all the time, but the concepts and storytelling surrounding their albums draw people in. It’s this overarching narrative beyond the songs and lyrics that keep people talking and engaged. The same goes for luxury fashion. Fashion has grown to be more than just good, wearable design—how it’s being communicated and marketed play important roles on the success.
This is the reason why brands like Jacquemus and Loewe have constantly managed to be talked about both for their collections as well as the stories built around them. Jacquemus, for example, drives virality with its uniquely shaped products such as a literal Nike Swoosh crossbody bag and impossibly tiny bags that spawned a multitude of memes, while at the same time, working with artists to stir online conversations via eye-catching stunts. An eight-second clip in 2023 of vehicle-sized Jacquemus bags seen driving around Paris was so realistic (it was the work of a 3D artist) that it had people questioning if it was a real-life brand activation, because it felt pretty much in line with what Jacquemus would do.
Loewe’s consistent craft-centric approach to all it does translates exceptionally well on social media where it breaks down the make of an item—all without revealing too much of its in-house secrets—for all to witness. But at the same time, its constant dabble with the art world and surrealism allows it the freedom to not take itself too seriously. The brand has crafted a niche on TikTok where it works with content creators, giving them carte blanche to create content in their own vision. At the same time, its own campaigns aren’t typical product pushes, but instead rely on creative storytelling while embedding the collections into them.
Good design and storytelling are most often related although not necessarily so. As much as there are the Beyoncés and Taylor Swifts of the fashion world, there are the legends—the Mariah Careys, the U2s, and the Stevie Wonders that don’t necessarily partake in the hit-making agenda. Instead, they have built such strong legacies that they don’t have to market as much to be desirable. You’d go to a concert by these legendary musicians clamouring more for their best hits from decades ago than their newer releases. It’s not that the new songs are not great, but rather, the old ones carry such weight and are just so eternally beloved. And these legends were the blueprint of greatness at one point and have influenced generations after.
Hermès, Chanel and even Louis Vuitton are such brands. The latter is constantly on the top 20 of any list because it continues to enact creative change in the contemporary sense, but just like Hermès and Chanel, the Louis Vuitton name is already historically synonymous with luxury that the desirability is always top-of-mind. You don’t necessarily see Hermès and Chanel aiming to create viral content or use marketing gimmicks to draw attention—they’re just simply not on-brand.
There’s undoubtedly a need for fashion brands to be more all-rounded in their approach to create desirability in order to cut through the noise. We are living in a society where access to information is wide and getting hold of our attention increasingly becomes a difficult task as swiping through content after content has come to be almost second nature. The existing fandoms will stay for the new releases but it’s attracting a new audience to listen in and be part of the community that takes real work, especially for more contemporary brands.
Being at the top—whether it’s for the quarter or the half—is how one deciphers the position. Fashion moves at such a fast pace these days (even for luxury fashion) that the rankings can fluctuate quite dramatically. It means little to have a viral accessory or moment that spikes engagement and interest, unless a brand takes the step to develop the narrative further.
At the end of the day, it is consistency in both design and narrative that are key in creating any meaningful impact on a bigger scale and for a longer time. No brand wants to be a one-hit wonder; every brand wants an evergreen discography to bank on for years to come.
After almost two months since Walter Chiapponi's swansong at Tod's for its Spring/Summer 2024 women's runway show, the Italian brand has announced a successor. Matteo Tamburini has been given the creative reins and is set to make his debut in February to showcase Tod's Autumn/Winter 2024 women's collection. Tamburini comes from Bottega Veneta, where he has been working since 2017, first under the creative directorship of Tomas Maier.
And hours before Tod's made its announcement, Givenchy made public its decision to end its partnership with creative director Matthew M. Williams after three years. Williams is set to officially step down effective 1 January 2024, with his final efforts for the fashion house—the Pre-Autumn 2024 collections for both menswear and womenswear—scheduled to be unveiled this month. Expectedly, no successor has been named yet. The in-house design team is said to be filling in while a new creative head is officially confirmed. Williams joined Givenchy in 2020, succeeding Riccardo Tisci's 12-year run.
It's Maison Kitsuné's Parisian-meets-Japanese aesthetics combined with Samsonite's practical and functional travel companions. The Maison Kitsuné x Samsonite collection plays on the former's signature Camo Fox motif in two monochromatic renditions across a range of lifestyle and travel accessories. Highlights include a reworked version of Samsonite's Spinner 68 luggage—perfect for long trips—and a compact Crossbody bag made to be an indispensable daily accessory. Every piece in the collection also comes with a detachable charm.
The Maison Kitsuné x Samsonite collection is now available in Samsonite stores and online at samsonite.com.sg.
Ahead of the launch of the Spring/Summer 2024 collection by Kenzo, comes a special capsule collection with Japanese artist Verdy. A longtime friend of creative director Nigo, Verdy added his artistic, graphic expressions to the main Spring/Summer 2024 collection. The Kenzo x Verdy collection serves as a precursor with motifs—a number of Kenzo-branding reworked in Verdy's style—taken from the aforementioned collection and translated across a range of easy-to-wear staples rendered in muted colours.
The Kenzo x Verdy collection is now available on kenzo.com and in Kenzo boutiques from 4 December 2023.
...Dior Men. Just before Louis Vuitton held its first-ever runway show in Hong Kong this week, Dior Men made the announcement of its Fall 2024 runway location in the same city. The fashion house has already been making destination runway shows a constant endeavour, especially for its pre-collections with the latest held in Cairo in view of the Great Pyramids.
When it comes to profiling an actor like Keita Machida—to talk about how he got here, there’s no better place to start than, well, at the beginning.
In 1990, the Machidas welcomed baby Keita into the world. Little Keita grew up in a household filled with three generations of Machidas. As the only son, he was doted on (he has two sisters).
“I lived my early life running around in the woods,” Machida said. “I grew up with kendo (which is the Japanese martial art of swordfighting), baseball, swimming and many other sports.”
He was a precocious child, a bundle of energy that needed an outlet, and he found release in sports. Motion would be a constant theme in his life. How his body—a machine of blood, bone and flesh—could engage in the science of movement.
After passing the Dai 3kai Gekidan Exile audition, Machida became one of its members. That same year, he kickstarted his acting career on the stage in Rokudenashi Blues.
It was a rather circuitous journey to becoming an actor. “I think I was ultimately led down the acting path. If there wasn’t an opportunity, I would have forged a career on my own.”
When he’s not acting, Machida plays sandlot baseball and trains at the gym. He has also recently taken up golf. “I haven’t played video games for a while but before that, I used to play a lot of the Final Fantasy series and Ghost of Tsushima.”
Like many others, acting jobs slowed to a stop for Machida during the pandemic. With the country’s borders closed and being stuck indoors, Machida could return to the familiar source of comfort: watching TV programmes and films. “I watched movies and dramas incessantly,” Machida said. “It reminded me of the importance and happiness of the industry that I am in—creating works that people can consume and be entertained by. As a public figure, it’s important to feel gratitude for this and I want to perform as soon as it is possible.”
A youth spent glued to the screen (both big and small) seeded a desire to become an actor. Again, this might be how Machida is fascinated about what his body can do in the face of limitations. In this case, allowing himself to inhabit a character unlike his own.
From dramas to manga adaptations, in his 13-odd years of acting, Machida has amassed a massive portfolio. Regardless of the genre, he is attracted to multi-dimensional roles. To him, each role possesses its own unique difficulty.
One of the bigger productions that he has been involved in was Netflix’s Alice in Borderland. When asked about other manga adaptations that he wants to be part of, Machida said, “I know it’s difficult, both in terms of my age and the greatness of the original work, but I always wanted to play Mitsui from Slam Dunk. I’m always captivated by the charm of the character.
“In adapting an original work, I try to reflect the image of the original work as much as possible,” Machida said. In playing Karube in Alice in Borderland, Machida tapped on his character’s penchant for patterned shirts and chain necklaces. “Fashion is a very important tool of expression because it can be effective in bringing out a character’s inner self and personality.”
So what does it say about Machida’s own place in the fashion scene?
You can’t box Machida into a particular taste. It’s ever-evolving as he constantly gets fresh exposure to many different styles. He relies on his stylist Ishikawa Eiji for sartorial counsel.
“I’m always indebted to Ishikawa as he teaches me about the world of fashion.”
It’s paying off. Last year, Machida was appointed as a Friend of the Italian fashion house Tod’s. He didn’t think that Tod’s would approach him for the campaign. “I’ve always been interested in the brand but it inhabits a glamorous world in which I never thought I could be included.” But since his appointment, he likened it to an expedition to the museum: “I’m completely intrigued by it all.”
If there is a fashion accessory that he’s excited about it would be his Tod’s shoes. “I feel it’s important to have a good pair of shoes. The beautiful quality and comfort are wonderful,” Machida said, excitement hanging over every syllable. “Tod’s shoes give me confidence and are the key to any outfit.”
It’s a perfect summary. In the end, wherever you are, as long as you’re comfortable, that is a good place to be.
Photography: Chee Wei
Creative Direction and Styling: Izwan Abdullah
Hair and Makeup: Kohey
On-set Stylist: Eiji Ishikawa at TableRockStudio
