A bird in the hand
A local designer picks up first prize at a Singapore fashion competition
Even as a child Soravit Kaewkamon wanted to be a fashion designer, drawing and designing in her spare time and hoping that one day she’d be able to break into this highly competitive field.
Today, armed with degree in fashion design from Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Decorative Arts, she’s well on her way to making a name for herself, amassing prizes and awards for her work and landing an internship with a well-known menswear firm.
Soravit’s most recent conquest was winning the Audi Star Creation competition in 2012. An Asia-wide fashion design competition that aims to promote and develop emerging Asian fashion talents, it’s held annually in Singapore under the auspices of Asia Fashion Exchange (AFX), a collaboration between International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, Spring Singapore, and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
“My motivation for joining Audi Star Creation was a desire to become a successful and internationally recognised designer. I was also interested in becoming acquainted with fellow designers across the region and wanted to expand my design knowledge outside of the classroom,” she says.
Chosen from amongst 255 entries across 13 countries, Soravit was the sole Thai winner in the Audi Star Creation’s four-year history. Her collection, titled “Love and Friendship”, was inspired by the hornbill, a bird commonly found in the southern part of Thailand and regarded as a symbol of friendship. She incorporated patterns inspired by the hornbill in her menswear collection, offering smooth shapes, defined cuts and strong structure, fashioned after unisex cuts popular in the 1990s, and materials such as woven fabrics and leather to gave her androgynous pieces a masculine edge.
Soravit has now joined the design team for Raoul’s menswear and has been working on the 2013 Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections. The Spring/Summer collection will be available in the US by the middle of this year. She’s also involved in a new project for Raoul, to be revealed at a later date.
Asked about future plans, Soravit smiles and says her dream is still to become a leading fashion designer in Thailand. Upon completion of her internship, she plans to travel to other countries to gain more experience working in the fashion industry while learning more about the fashion histories of each region.
