daniela monasterios tan
portfolio
PERSONAL statement 4
DESIGN in context: mash-up 7
DESIGN WITH COMMUNITIES: WORKSHOPS 27
RESEARCH AND CURATION 29
LECTURING 35
PERSONAL PROJECTS 37
fiNAL WORDS 50
Personal Statement:
Co-Founder of Mash-Up Fashion Lecturer at Lasalle College of the Arts Assistant Curator to Circe Henestrosa
I am a creative innovator whose design career over the past 6 years has been a cross-over between research, theory and practice. Using my ability to reflect and desire to conduct research, I am able to continually engage in diverse projects that develop a refined perspective on fashion design. I co-founded Mash-Up, a Singapore based fashion brand, known for it’s fun and unique aesthetic. With my strategic direction, Mash-Up has worked with fashion and lifestyle partners such as UNIQLO, TOP SHOP, H&M, Parco Shibuya, Lo
mography, The National Library Board, and Pioneer. The brand’s reputation spans South East Asia; stockists include Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Tokyo and Indonesia. As an academic practitioner, I develop my research and theoretical practice as a lecturer of Contextual Stud ies at Lasalle College of the Arts, as well as an Assistant Curator to Circe Henestrosa, international fashion curator. Furthermore, I am an international collaborator most recently codesigning a t-shirt collection with
London fashion label Kabukimono. My work included concept development, embroidery and visual animation.
Theory & Practice My design practice is fueled by theoretical understanding and research; both for commercial and personal practice.
Research & Curation
Design in Context: Mash-Up
Research & Education
Design Experimentation
Above: Debut collection for Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2012 “Totemania�, photographed by David Teng.
Design in Context: Co-designer and co-founder of Mash-Up 2011-Present I co-founded Mash-Up with 2 partners in 2011. Mash-Up was founded as part of a fashion incubator programme in 2011 with Parco next Next and the Textile and Fashion Federation of Singapore. The programme consisted of mentorship and training in various disciplines including business management, marketing, production and design mentorship. Mash-Up, is the result of constant collaboration with other Singapore-based creatives. Each fashion collection integrates different ideas and research about contemporary and historical micro-cultures, be they ethnic or youth subcultures, from around the world. The brand caters to a niche following of customers who enjoy unusual and fun streetwear. Creating a fashion collection is similar to curation: decisions have to be made about the different components – the fabric, prints and silhouettes - that best represent the story that one wants to illustrate. This would extend to the image-making process as well; through catwalk or static fashion photography. Through managing the brand I have developed skills in conceptualization, teamwork, constant self-examination and time-management.
Above: Mash-Up Autumn/Winter 2012 “Atlanta Goes to Atlantis”, photographed by Nathalie Thery.
Above: Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2013 “Cyber Ndebele”, photographed by Kenneth Loe on a Lomography camera.
Above: Mash-Up Autumn/Winter 2013 “Locos In Tokyo”.
Above: Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2014 “Chiang Mai Takes a Holiday�, photographed by Lenne Chai.
F/W 2014
@ W H ATA M A S H U P
#MASHUPDIGITRIBE
Above: Mash-Up Autumn/Winter 2014 “#MASHUPDIGITRIBE”, photograped by Natsuko and Art Direction by C+C&Co, a creative agency based in Singapore, they conceptualized our campaign and created a series of 5 videos.
Above: Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2015 “Les Femmes D’Alger”, photographed by Joyce Lui. Opposite page: Work process for Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2015 digital prints. The collection, ‘Les Femmes D’Alger’, was inspired by the cubist idea of deconstruction.
Design in Context:
Mash-Up Achievements 2012-Present Under my direction and collaboration with my partners Nathanael Ng and Shaf Amis’aabudin, Mash-Up has successfully grown to include stockists in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Mash-Up has shown in Singapore Audi Fashion Festival 2012 and 2013, Asia Style X Style Fashion Collection 2013, Digital Fashion Week 2014, Bangkok International Fashion Week 2014. Mash-Up was also part of a pop-up event in Parco Shibuya in Tokyo early 2014 called Singaporium directed by Daniel Boey.Other pop-up events include: TOPSHOP at Knightsbridge and Keepers. In 2014, we held a solo exhibition-fashion presentation at Canvas Singapore. Mash-Up has held DIY workshops for National Library Board, Parco Singapore, Lomography, Canvas Singapore, H&M Singapore and Super0. Mash-Up has also been comissioned by UNIQLO to design four seasons of UT Feel The S.E.A. t-shirts, representing Singapore.
Opposite page: Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2012, at Audi Fashion Festival 2012.
Fashion Show and Trade-Show 2013
Above: Booth at Blueprint Trade Show 2013. Opposite: Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2013 at Audi Fashion Festival 2013 and at Blueprint Fashion Showcase.
Abov
ve and opposite page: Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2015, at Digital Fashion Week 2014.
Fashion Shows 2012-Present
Above: (clockwise top left) Mash-Up’s pop-up shop in Tokyo as part of Singaporium; a design exchange with Parco Shibuya in 2014, crowd at the opening event for Singaporium, set-up at TOPSHOP Knightsbridge featuring Mash-Up’s Autumn/Winter 2013, poster for Mash-Up’s pop-up store at TOPSHOP Knightsbridge. Opposite: Exhibition/Fashion presentation held at Canvas Singapore in 2014 to launch our Autumn/Winter 2014 exhibition. The collection was inspired by internet art and social media. The dialogue between real life and online life is explored further through a cross-media collaborative series of videos and images done in collaboration with videographer Glen Ong and photographer Natsuko and the creative team behind C+C&Co. Special thanks to The Puttnam School of Film, LASALLE College of The Arts for their support.
Pop-Up Events & Exhibition 2013-2014
Lifestyle Collaborations 2012-Present
“Through Mash-Up Eyes” Designs comissioned for LOMOGRAPHY’s DIY La Sardina camera. The final product was exhibited in LOMOGRAPHY stores around Singapore. For this project, we used upcycled denim and a variety of stitches to create a Mash-Up camera.
Design in Context:
Mash-Up for UNIQLO 2013-Present
In 2013, Mash-Up was comissioned to represent Singapore with a series of designs for the UT Feel The S.E.A. collection. Mash-Up has designed 4 collections for UNIQLO to date. The designs have to go through a refining process with the team from UNIQLO. For these collections, we had to create bold, fun designs that could suit a mass audience without compromising our brand identity.
Lifestyle Collaborations 2012-Present
Design with Communities:
Workshops held with Mash-Up 2011-Present Mash-Up has done a variety of workshops, comissioned and voluntary.
We use workshops as a way of connecting and inspiring participants. The brand begun with DIY and upcycling aesthetics, and we
contiue to share our passion for craft with children, students and also the general public.
Above: Embellishment workshop with Lomography, badge-making workshop with Canvas Singapore Opposite page: (clockwise from top left): Tie-dye workshop with the National Library Board, tie-dye t-shirt done by workshop participant, upcycled puppet workshop with students from a tribe-hill school in Chiang Mai.
Research and Curation: Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses Of Frida Kahlo 2012-Present My interest in Fashion Curation was sparked by my experience assisting Fashion Curator Circe Henestrosa for the past three years on “Appearances Can Be Deceiving:The Dresses of Frida Kahlo”, an exhibition at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico. The exhibition was the first time Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe and objects were exhibited to the public. It was a stimulating and inspiring experience to be able to learn about a great person so intimately through her objects. While the exhibition was held in Mexico, Henestrosa and I worked from Singapore with contributors in London, conservationists in Mexico and a photographer in Japan. It was
a truly global experience and I was exposed to the back-end of exhibition work where I aided with the museum panels and the exhibition captions, as well as with communications and organization of research.
Curator:
Having to deal with time differences and external workloads from all parties, I learned the importance of clarity, prompt and organized communication and discovered the potential and possibilities of working with overseas collaborators with the heavy use of technology. My language skills in Spanish were of great use to aid in the research.
Conservation:
Circe Henestrosa (Singapore) Exhibition Designer: Judith Clark (London)
Renato Camarillo (Mexico) Photographer: Ishiushi Miyako (Japan) Catalogue Designer: Charlie Smith (London)
Opposite and following pages: Exhibition set-up in Mexico City. I assisted in the research and organization of the museum panels and object captions. This exhibition explored dress, ethnicity and disability through the objects of Frida Kahlo.
Las apariencias engañan: los vestidos de Frida Kahlo
Appearances Can Be Deceiving: Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe
Frida Kahlo nació en la ciudad de México en 1907. Fue hija del fotógrafo húngaro-alemán Guillermo Kahlo y de Matilde Calderón y González, originaria de Oaxaca, de madre española y padre mexicano. Frida, quien tanto nos dijo de sí misma a través de sus pinturas, ha dejado también una profunda huella en nuestra mente con su singular apariencia y estilo único.
Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in Mexico City, the daughter of German-Hungarian photographer Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón y González, herself born in Oaxaca of a Spanish mother and Mexican father. The artist, who has told us so much about herself through her paintings, has also left lasting impressions in our minds through her look and style.
Parecía que poco quedaba por decir o aprender sobre Frida Kahlo cuando en 2004 fue descubierto su guardarropa aquí, en La Casa Azul. En la parte superior de la casa, dentro del baño de azulejos blancos contiguo a la habitación de la pintora, se encontraron alrededor de 300 prendas tradicionales de origen indígena y prendas no tradicionales, además de joyas y accesorios, medicamentos y aparatos ortopédicos. Todos estos objetos se conservaron encerrados por más de 50 años, primero por petición de Diego Rivera —esposo de Frida Kahlo y uno de los grandes muralistas de México— y posteriormente por decisión de Dolores Olmedo, mecenas y amiga de los artistas.
It seemed that there was little more to say or learn about Frida Kahlo, when in April 2004 her wardrobe was discovered here at ‘La Casa Azul’. In the upper part of the house, in the white tiled bathroom adjacent to the artist’s room, her wardrobe and personal belongings had been kept for more than 50 years by specific request of her husband, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and later by their patron and friend Dolores Olmedo. Around 300 traditional and non traditional garments, jewellery, medicines and orthopaedic devices were discovered.
Las apariencias engañan: los vestidos de Frida Kahlo exhibe estos objetos por primera vez. Ambientada en cinco salas, la exposición revela la consciente elección de Frida por vestir indumentaria tradicional tehuana para estilizar su figura y construir su identidad a partir de su discapacidad, la tradición, la moda y el vestido. Por otro lado, se muestra cómo la figura de Kahlo continúa siendo inagotable fuente de inspiración para grandes artistas, firmas y diseñadores de moda internacionales, Lupa, tales como Jean Paul Gaultier, Dai Rees, Comme des Garçons y Riccardo Tisci, entre otros genios creativos. Circe Henestrosa, Curadora
Appearances Can Be Deceiving: Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe displays these objects for the very first time and is a study of Kahlo’s construction of her own identity. Themed into five rooms the exhibition focuses on the construction of Kahlo’s style through disability, tradition, fashion and dress, showing the original ensembles and objects drawn from the Museum’s collection. It also shows how Kahlo’s personal style remains a source of inspiration for international artists and designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Dai Rees, Comme des Garçons and Riccardo Tisci.
illustration de Ruben Toledo Circe Henestrosa, Exhibition Curator
Above and opposite page: Research that I conducted on Latin American fashion and co-wrote with Circe Henestrosa. The article was published in “In�, a Chilean lifestyle magazine.
Above: Bright Young Things was a Level 3 Diploma in Fashion project where students had to respond to an industry brief. Charles Rezandi and I led this project with workshops and consultations which culminated in the students test-trading their products for sale in SUPERSPACE, a multi-label store.
Above: Exercises I carried out to engage students during more theoretical Contextual Studies tutorials.
Lecturing Lecturing and tutoring work at Lasalle College of the Arts 2013-Present
POP03 is a Level 2 project that I led with Ginette Chittick, the Programme Leader of the Diploma in Fashion in Lasalle College of the Arts. Over a period of 15 weeks, we conducted lectures and workshops to teach students the skills needed to create a Micro-Business. They had to hand-make objects to be sold at the school campus in a popup store. The marketing collaterals on this page were done by Level 3 Diploma in Fashion students majoring in Management.
Personal Project: Collaboration with London-based label Kabukimono 2014-Present
Welcome to Lonely Faces: a tale of emotions expressed through a clan of abstract t-shirts. I believe in engaging in design work that is not just theoretical or digital, but tactile as well. While travelling in Europe in 2014, I collaborated with London-based Kabukimono. The director Edward Vanes, painted the t-shirts on an easel, while I hand-embroidered the eyes and hand-embellished the t-shirts before they were finished at Fashion Capital, London.
Designer: Edward Vanes (London) Photographer: Chen Moran (London College of Fashion)
The collaboration included a series of conceptual photographs with Chen Moran, a photographer currently studying in London. They were retailed in Singaporean multi-label SUPERSPACE.
Opposite page: Shots from 2 minute stop-motion animation created for Lonely Faces Collaboration. Following pages: Lonely Faces collaboration shot by Chen Moran.
Personal Project: Textile Illustration and Embroidery Hand embroidery and illustration is part of my design practice as a fashion designer. It’s incorporated into my work with Mash-Up and other personal collaborations during my travels.
Clockwise from top left: Embroidery done while travelling in India 2013, embroidery done for Mash-Up Spring/Summer 2015 Collection, embroidery done based on my research and memories of Bolivia, scan of embroidery work-in-process. Opposite page: Embroidery for POPin Criss Cross Exhibition in 2014 at The Arts House.
Personal Project: Final Collection for BA in Fashion Design 2009
My BA in Fashion Design final collection was where my research, practice and contextualization first took form. I did a variety of textile manipulations, all aided by research and hands-on experimentation; techniques that I still explore to this day with Mash-Up and personal projects. Over a year, I researched and conceptualized my collection using the theme of Urban Tribalism; creating a new streetwear tribe for the urban city. It was inspired by Native Americans from the North-West Coast and their totems, as well as the underground scene in downtown New York in the 1980s. Con-currently, I explored the idea of ethnic appropriation through my final year thesis which was questioning the right way to use ethnic elements in fashion. I was researching and trying to draw the lines of cultural and ethnic appropriation and used my thesis to inform my practice to explore that I was not merely appropriating Native American and Downtown New York’s counter-culture, but hopefully creating new meaningful design conversations. My graduate collection was featured in Elle Singapore and was the starting point of Mash-Up, which I launched 2 years after graduation.
Opposite page: Development from my BA sketchbook.
Above: Drafting and construction manipulation. Opposite page: Development from my BA sketchbook that was later turned into a print.
Lupa, illustration de Ruben Toledo
Above: Prototype using upcycled materials like food wrappers, inspired by Native American practice of using every part of an animal from its meat for consumption to its bones for decoration. Opposite page: Textile development for BA collection.
Final Words
This is a work-in-progress visual journey of my development as a fashion designer, business owner and researcher.
Above and previous pages: Photo-shoot for final BA Collection, photographed by Estee Hamid and styled by Nathanael Ng.
daniela is adnalie adnalie.com daniela@mashupcollective.com