It looked like the entire island was on a fashion high. You name it and you saw it! Mercedes Benz presented the Singapore Fashion Festival for the second time in association with the Singapore Tourism Board. The event had L'Oreal as the official hair and beauty sponsor, DBS, Meritus Mandarin as the official host sponsor, Evian as official water, Ngee Ann City as official venue and the 'The Strait Times Life' as official newspaper. The month-long event kick-started with the Chanel Spring-Summer 2004 show and was followed by events like Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Awards, Sari to Sarong Exhibition (a focus on the traditional exchange between India and Indonesia), designer label shows, conversation with Christopher Dylan Bailey (music composer), My Favourite Dress Exhibition and the Redken trends show.

The biggest names in fashion business made their presence felt through the numerous stores and malls. The month-long exercise did not begin and end with sales; it was also an educative experience. My Favourite Dress exhibition (held for the first time in Asia) at the Wisma Atria showcased favourites from leading designers with the reason why they chose that outfit over their other creations. And Voila! One got to see the favourites of designers like John Galliano, Anthony Price, Kenzo, James Galanos, Issey Miyake, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Alexander McQueen and Carolina Herrera. Carolina Herrera showcased a dress she designed for Jackie Onassis, one stylish woman she loved to dress. Anthony Price had a different opinion on his choice, "As a designer, I judge purely by its structure and resulting impression rather than social status of the wearer. Indeed the social status of the wearer should be elevated by the dress, not the dress elevated by the wearer.''

But, the grand finale of the festival was Welsh-born designer Julien Macdonald's Autumn-Winter 2004/05 show held at the Tent @ Orchard in Civic Plaza, Ngee Ann City. Julien is known to cater to the glittering celeb fashionistas. His clothes make celebrities out of its wearers and take them to the front pages of haute (read hot) dailies and tabloids. In fact, Karl Lagarfeld, the supreme of Chanel chose Julien Macdonald to design the label's knitwear collection even before he was out of college. Lagerfeld also gave him the rare privilege to share a curtain call with him. A Givenchy man, Julien Macdonald gave up on his effervescent signature style to create a collection for his first line for the label. The Mcdonald show opened with elegant models (a Julien trademark) walking the ramp. Flamboyance met femininity - focus on frills, mix 'n' match of different fabrics, furs worn with glittering French diamonds and crystals from jeweller Mauboussin. The show presented the archetypal Julien Macdonald woman, someone he describes as "a woman who absolutely loves clothes. Loves to look glamorous, very sexy, is in tune with her feminine side and who looks after her body a hundred per cent. But most of all, the Julien Macdonald woman is a woman who wants to go out and have a lot of fun.'' His creations showed his love for glitter and fluid fabrics and together they looked spectacular on the runway.

Quote of the day: Noted fashion writer and critic, Colin McDowell described the show as one with high-octane glamour! Another star attraction at Julien's show was the Georgio Armani Mercedes - a much lusted-after item during the fashion week.