From The Straits Times    |

Singapore label Eight Slate is more than just a fashion brand dress.jpg

Eight Slate’s Savina Chai; and a maxi dress (above) from the label. Image: Eight Slate/ Savina Chai

EIGHT SLATE
www.eightslate.co

Ms Savina Chai, 21, started the brand a year ago after graduating from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in apparel design and merchandising, retail and visual merchandising.

“I wanted to create something for myself rather than work for others as I believe in what I can do. I also wanted to be a game-changer in the local retail industry as I thought it was really stagnant,” she says.

Singapore label Eight Slate is more than just a fashion brand savina.jpg

Eight Slate’s Savina Chai (above); and a maxi dress from the label. Image: Eight Slate/ Savina Chai

The name Eight Slate – a combination of her personal lucky number and the raw mineral – encapsulates the brand, which she describes as her “very raw, very personal life project”. She runs it with the help of two interns.

Her designs are simple and elegant, from feminine pleated skirts to edgy leather halter tops, in classic colours such as black and white. Materials used include vegan leather, taffeta and Japanese cotton. Prices range from $42.50 for a leather top to $86.50 for a maxi dress.

Her online presence on Instagram, which has just over 40,000 followers, has garnered attention for the brand. She also holds regular pop-up events.

Her clothes are made in China and she comes up with eight to 10 new designs a month.

On what she hopes to achieve with Eight Slate, she says: “I’m using it to show that, no matter what happens, a woman’s personal style does not change. It is an attitude and a representation of her inner personality.”

She is also using her brand as a platform to promote the work of other creative types such as photographers and film-makers.

For example, film-maker Shane Lim, 25, who won three National Youth Film Awards for his short film, November, earlier this year, shot a short film for her August campaign.

Jasper Tan, 24, who has shot music videos for local acts such as Gentle Bones, also worked with her on a short film for another of her previous collections.

These can be viewed on her blog, www.savinachai.com.

She says: “My label is more than another fashion brand. I want to promote local talent and combine our forces – fashion, photography, film – to represent our aesthetic.”

This story was first published in The Straits Times on August 13, 2015. For similar stories, go to www.sph.straitstimes.com/lifestyle.

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