Renowned Singaporean fashion designer Priscilla Shunmugam, celebrated for her label Ong Shunmugam, seamlessly merges traditional Asian attire with modern aesthetics. After a retrospective collection, Vogue (Singapore)’s Weiqi Yap interviews Shunmugam about her innovative reinterpretation of the cheongsam, a classic silk dress embodying Chinese and Indonesian heritage.

Ong Shunmugam initiates our own contemporary Asian aesthetic by digging deep at our own sartorial and textile history and then incorporating these familiar influences into the modern wardrobe. The challenge lies in taking elements that the current generation of Asians consider to be outdated or restrictive—and see if we can fashion a rethink of traditional garments or textiles in some small way. Batik is a perfect example; the prints have a really strong aesthetic to begin with and its cotton makeup presents inherent limitations in terms of use. The rationale for creating a separate line of ready-to-wear cheongsams is its strange position as the most accepted yet contested symbol of Chinese identity. To some, it represents sophistication yet to others, backwardness. We knew it was too relevant a garment to ignore.