Singapore Fashion Week: Jeon Eunha stands out with her designs for older women

This year, at Singapore Fashion Week (SGFW), we’ve seen many collections dedicated to women’s fashion and nearly all of them are focused on the young.

One designer, however, has stood out from this year’s line-up by presenting a mini-collection targeting a different market segment: women in their 50s and 60s.

“While doing my research for this collection, I realised that there’s not much fashion for older women,” said Jeon Eunha during an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore ahead of her show on Friday (27 October).

Eunha was one of 10 designers from the MDIS School of Fashion and Design who presented her collection as part of the school’s graduation show that was held in conjunction with SGFW.

Her collection was themed “Glow in Age” and comprised six different looks. Eunha played with stretchy and soft fabrics to ensure that the women wearing them could feel comfortable and stylish at the same time.

“There are not many fashion designers who focus on older people. I think older women want to feel sexy and stylish too,” said the 26-year-old, adding, “Women in that age group have bigger curves and that’s one thing I had to be mindful of when creating this collection.”

Eunha spent nearly a year working on her collection, which played mainly with dark blue colours and a tinge of bright orange or green. The prints on the outfit were inspired by glowing deep sea creatures.

“I was looking up on the Internet for visual elements related to the word ‘glow’ and all I could find were images of glowing sea creatures in the deep ocean… it fit the concept,” said Eunha, a South Korean who moved to Singapore three years ago to pursue fashion design.

Eunha intentionally selected an older woman to model for her fashion campaign. During the photoshoot, Eunha caught a glimpse of how her clothes could impact the self-esteem and confidence of older women.

“The model we picked had never gone for a fashion shoot before. She normally had to model as the nurse or the grandmother. So when I picked her, she wasn’t sure how to pose like a model,” said Eunha.

Further into the shoot, Eunha said that the model became more confident. “She even asked if she could buy the clothes,” said Eunha.

The aspiring designer has witnessed a growing ageing population in both South Korea and Singapore and hopes to do more for them.

“I (hope to) produce more clothes for older women after this,” she said.

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