Venue, Raf and stuff

a fashion ed in Singapore for OWN magazine no.2


Venue guerilla shop with raf simons and puma merchandise.

An e-mail from photographer Loven Ramos:

"Our flight from manila was delayed a bit so we arrived in singapore at 530. we reached the hotel at 630 and we only had time to catch dinner at the nearby robertson quay area so i brought my camera with me and some clothes. by the time we finished, it was already 830 and had to do some shopping for freedom's stuffs (his son) at a nearby organic grocery store (really funky place!). in the end, it was already 930 when i finished and when i phoned the commes des garcons shop, it was already about to close and the bukit view street where it was located is at least 45 minutes away.

in the end, i decided to take the clothes out to the city. it was a great walk but the redeeming thing is i bumped into Raf Simons' Venue shop right smack in Clarke Quay! It's a portable fashion shop that was started in Berlin (see, your Berlin theme is really the IN thing!!!) It's been moving around Singapore for the past weeks and it's a surprise where to find it next.

Here's something from the website and presskit...
This Autumn/Winter 2006, VENUE presents an amalgamation of seasonal elements anddesigner talents, bringing you the very best of RAF, RAF SIMONS and PUMA® FASHION.
UNLEASHING THE VBOX into the heart of the city and giving our thirsty audiences aglimpse of the retail direction that we set out to revolutionize, the SHIPPING CONTAINERTURNED LUXURY STORE, marked an experimental and unconventional step into retailexpansion, steering the way to marketing and multi-label product partnerships.
Coming soon to THE HEEREN, VENUE will open the doors of its upbeat ground floorboutique, taking you on another fashion journey. This OCTOBER 2006, more fashionconscious customers can look forward to the eye catching and uncompromisinglycomfortable and meticulous designs in our collection. Welcoming the youthful genre ofthe mall’s clientele, NEWLY ACQUIRED CULT FASHION BRANDS will take centre stage forVENUE’s Spring/Summer 2007 collection.

See more of it at http://www.venue.com.sg/ Raf Simon's shirts are totally awesome! The Puma stuffs are also fantastic!

For the entire theme of the shoot, i was just mesmerized how freaking antiseptic singapore is and how bound it is with so many rules. When i placed the clothes around, it seemed like a grafitti and it looked as if we were trying to defy its self-inflicted anarchy. i shot the tapsilog team manila shirt in an upscale restaurant - bringing it down to the level of the pinoy street food culture. the pants, i hung them by the railings of the river, as if it were in pasig. your shirt, i shot in underpasses, much to the amazement of passers-by. and the havoc shirt right in front of the Venue Shop.

It was really fun. I got queries from curious people as to what i am doing, and i tell them its for a fashion shoot for a mag in the philippines - much to their amazement! it was really fun!

i went back to the hotel at past 12 and our flight was supposed to be at 6 am the next day, so i ended up not sleeping at all. hahaha.

i am redoing the pics for the timawa shoot. did it in drybrush style and laid it out with german words on them. will email them to you in a couple of days.

faith (his wife) saw the mag and was laughing her heart out about "ms. wannabe wintour's" articles. she's into a full week of work with full occupancy so im sure she wont have time to email you. we didnt even had time to celebrate her birthday!

hay naku. anyway, don, super thank you for the wonderful time we had at iloilo. we just wish that its a bus ride away!

we finally got a new house and we'll be putting in our shop-office-gallery on it. the french occupants will be leaving end of november so by december, its ours. hope we can see you here by then! are you interested in putting your stuff here? hope you can consider a "Smudge" partnership again! The museum-mall here is still on its final construction stage but we'll definitely let you know if there's somethnig available for you."