Local singer Joanna Dong on her music, being a people-pleaser and her journey in life

It’s a fixed battle for me to reconcile how I gown and look on stage with what I personally take pleasure in shopping for and sporting. For the primary decade of my profession, I used to be very aware of assembly typical shopper expectations {that a} feminine jazz singer needs to be wearing a sublime robe, regardless of the truth that my private preferences are very various. I like every thing from black, austere items by labels reminiscent of Yohji Yamamoto and Max Tan to avant-garde kinds reminiscent of Comme Des Garçons and Maison Margiela, girly ruffles like Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard, or over-the-top prints by Richard Quinn.

My maternal grandmother was a tailor, so I actually recognize good patternmaking. The frequent denominator in my type preferences is that I like daring, uncommon, structural items that break the feminine silhouette. After I was at Sing! China, we have been all requested to convey a wide range of our personal outfit choices for the producers to select from. They selected a blue short-sleeved day gown from COS, regardless that I had introduced many items I’d think about extra “fashionable”. The producers suggested: “your music is already not mainstream so it’s essential look extra approachable, in any other case audiences will discover it exhausting to attach with you”. That technique clearly labored properly for me throughout the contest. However once I returned to Singapore, I made a decision that I had earned myself no less than some negotiating energy to decorate in a means that felt nearer to who I’m when doing company engagements.

Nevertheless, my private live shows are positively the place my type preferences come via extra on stage. I used to be thrilled that for my You Should Consider In Spring live performance earlier this 12 months, my stylist Josiah Chua and I have been capable of showcase items from Noir Kei Ninomiya, Tomo Koizumi, and Richard Quinn from our private collections.