By Vanessa Elmer
August 19, 2009
If Sabrina Goh intended to diagram a complex character in her Fall Winter campaign and collection, Control Freak, her success is apparent. The images from the campaign illustrate the underlying contradiction that defines the character by placing the model amidst a mess of chaos that seems to elude her. The collection and campaign poignantly depict the irony of control freaks in that they end up shackled by their own boundaries.
Sabrina Goh was born in Malaysia and now bases her business out of Singapore. After graduating from LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts-Singapore, Goh worked as an in house fashion designer for several local labels. She currently designs for her own label, ELOHIM, which stocks at The Black Market, Pixiemarket, and Not Just A Label. ELOHIM, a name for Jehovah in the Hebrew Scriptures, means God of the Creative. The name suits the bold and resolute campaign.
Her Fall Winter 0910 Collection moves forward from the Spring Summer 09 collection with new details and more feminine furbelows, while her signature bold shapes and general androgyny in overall look persist. Goh’s Ready to Wear pieces range in style from avant-garde to mod to punk to Gothic, without a dull shape or combination to be seen.
Goh often plays with symmetry and asymmetry in a way that always intrigues. The viewer often has to look closer at the details to determine the symmetry or asymmetry of the piece in question. Is it symmetrical? Sometimes just a simple detail, like a fold, breaks the symmetry, as in the “Oversize cotton vest” ($239.90).
One detail that appears tirelessly throughout the collection is the black side release buckle (interestingly creating symmetry, when buckled and breaking it, when released). Goh uses the buckle “to transform silhouettes, tighten, release, and join designs together to illustrate the characteristic of the control freak in the collection” (Goh, Press Release).
The buckles appear everywhere from sleeves to skirts to collar accessories and infuse the avant-garde edge to some of her pieces. Some pieces are not very wearable, such as the acrylic accessories top and collar accessories, but conceptual, as the artist is trying to develop a theme.
Another editorial element of the collection is the textures. “Designer mainly using matte and shine fabrication as a key to contrast and to show the extreme of its character” (Goh, Press Release). Here, the artist uses fabrication to convey the duality of the character.
Certain components of the collection are in keeping with the gothic gentility themes (i.e. vampires) fashion has been seeing different variations of throughout the past few seasons. The cape is a statement piece, implications abound.
Goh also creates a punk rock feel by pairing many of her tops with tight jersey pants, zippers running horizontally across the knees. They are a trick, though. When zippers worn closed, they appear a solid-colored pant.
The structured and flirtatious cocktail dresses with cutout shapes add a touch of mod to the collection.
The most stunning and pervasive visual aspect of the collection and the campaign remains the androgyny. The model’s hair in the womens collection photographs is made to look boyish in the front, juxtaposed by a feminine French twist derivation in the back. The designer categorizes some of her womens collection under the header mens and ironically, has the model’s hair down for those shots. The collection incorporates several loose-fitting tops and vests that essentially hide the woman’s curves.
In the collection, Control Freak, Sabrina Goh visually evokes the ambiguous nature of her character through textures, shapes, symmetry/asymmetry, and androgynous details. The clothes, while not always wearable, succeed in generating a complex, themed aesthetic. The designer cannot conceal that she is as much of a storyteller as she is a unique constructionist.
