Creative Limbo

Introduce yourself!
I’m Desiree and I’m an office worker, mostly doing administrative stuff. It’s been about two years since I started. My work is good for now. Just something to make money.

Do you have anything you like to do outside of work?
I’m trying to see if I want to go back to school to study. I did study fashion design for a while at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), but then COVID hit and put everything on pause.

Interesting! Why did you switch from fashion to a more corporate job?
I think in a way my office job is more relaxed. I don’t have to think about it so much. But I find it a little bit sad as well.

That’s really honest. What spurred your interest to go back to school?
I think just seeing my other friends get back into their own creative works, it made feel a little bit FOMO (laughs). Also I thought, why not give it another try? If it works out, it works out.

Do you have any favourite fashion designers or brands?
It’s always been changing over the years. I started off with a big focus on Belgian designers, like Antwerp Six. Recently, I saw Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel collection. I think that actually helped to renew my interest in fashion. I was feeling slightly burnt out and fatigued from it, and I got a bit too comfortable in my everyday routine. But when I saw his debut collection, I found it really interesting. I really liked it! So I thought, maybe I should get back into it.

I think it really matters for creative directors at fashion brands to switch things up from time to time. If things are always stagnant, people lose interest. Even if it’s something that you like, you can still lose interest in it.

Happy to hear that the Chanel collection got you interested again! Outside of fashion, what do you like to do in your free time?
Honestly, I feel like a lot of people do this, but I do waste a lot of my free time just listening to true crime podcasts. I could do it for hours!

So valid! We love how you’re dressed in a lot of green today! We can tell you really like green.
A little bit, yeah (laughs). If you caught me yesterday, you would’ve seen me in all blue. Sometimes I try to coordinate my pieces so that everything is the same colour, to make it easy on myself.