Malaysian designer, Melvin Ashly Shah, made waves at the Korea-ASEAN Fashion Week 2023, held in Busan, South Korea. This fashion event beautifully blended traditional and futuristic styles, featuring captivating hologram fashion shows and innovative AI-driven experiences.
Malaysian designer shines at Korea-ASEAN Fashion Week
The “Korea-ASEAN Fashion Week 2023” was held from October 12 to 13 in Busan, South Korea, at the Busan Fashion Biz Centre Fashion Convention Hall.
This year’s event was organised by the Busan Federation of Textile & Fashion Industry Association.
The event featured the convergence of meta-fashion, metaverse, and traditional fashion through hologram fashion shows, as well as some artificial intelligence-driven experiences.
The two-day event comprised a fashion show during the opening ceremony, hologram fashion shows, Korea-ASEAN designer fashion shows, the Korea-ASEAN Fashion Industry Development Forum, and AI virtual fitting exhibitions.
Melvin Ashly Shah of the Malaysian label Atelier Prive Melson, who is a member of the Malaysia Official Designers Association (MODA), is the only Malaysian designer selected to participate in this prestigious event.
MODA is committed to supporting Malaysia’s fashion industry and creative talents by inspiring them to innovate, collaborate, and make their creativity more accessible to a wider audience. Shah is one of the outstanding members of this association.
He also won the Best Costume Award by Sheng Tai International, which organised the Met Gala Malaysia 2021.
Along with Shah, there were five renowned ASEAN designers from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
“I am honoured to have been invited to present two collections at the Korea-ASEAN designer fashion shows, as well as to participate as a panel speaker in a forum discussion on the ‘Impact of Virtual Human in the Fashion Industry’,” said Shah, adding that an English/Korean interpreter was on hand.
When asked if this was his debut in Busan, he said, “I have been invited to showcase my collections in numerous Fashion Weeks in South Korea, especially in cities like Busan Metropolitan City, and Daegu, the living embodiment of South Korea’s traditional culture and contemporary magnificence.”
Shah had accomplished his goal of appearing on a global stage and was delighted to be invited to the country with four seasons.
“It was a great opportunity, but it was also a challenge in terms of ideas and creativity. Fabric choices had to be appropriate for the seasons, and there were other factors to consider just to work on a collection. It took me six months to prepare for the two collections that were showcased.”
Concept and design
His first collection was a ready-to-wear (RTW) Cruise Collection 2024/25 titled “Couleur De La Mer” with a resort wear concept.
His second collection was a collaboration with the Busan Federation of Textile & Fashion Industry Association, which featured a RTW Spring 2024 Collection “Beojkkoch” (cherry blossoms in Korean). The beautiful colours of cherry blossom flowers in the springtime served as inspiration.
Both of his collections were made of silk, and the fully printed ones in an array of spring cherry blossom hues looked comfortable and breezy.
It was an overwhelming response from the audiences for Shah who was fully sponsored by Busan Federation of Textile & Fashion Industry Association.
