Malaysian-born Sisters Capture World Fashion Scene By Design

Source Bernama

MELBOURNE, Oct 2 (Bernama) -- Childhood memories of Malaysia have inspired three sisters to spin their yarns of romance and intrigue via catwalks and boutiques from Australia to Europe.

While these young designing women -- Rowena, 30, Juliana, 28, and Angela Foong, 25 -- call Australia home, and home to their burgeoning fashion venture, they pay tribute to their Asian and family roots through their East-meets-West label, "High Tea with Mrs Woo".

The whimsical title recalls a Malaysia of times past and Sunday afternoons dressing up for high tea with the many "Mrs Woos", real and imaginary, in the girls' early lives in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan and later in SS2, Petaling Jaya.

"We express our ideas like an eventful setting of delicacies, tea and conversation," Rowena says. "We create quirky designs that explore and give meaning to our feelings of cultural displacement -- to make sense of who we are."

Each garment tells a tale in which the sisters celebrate their heritage, infused with images from travel, cinema and music (aided by Asian satellite TV).

Pieces in each collection even sport their own titles -- such as "Russian spy in Shanghai", "Never-ending nighthawk", "Alice weeps" and "Mildred Pierce" -- that echo a character, movie scene or book chapter.

The result is a striking cultural bridge with a theatrical bent, blending modern and retro, bold and pensive, cheeky and sensuous.

"Fascinated with weaving memory into clothing, we explore the ability of fashion to unfold a great yarn," Rowena says.

"We explore nostalgia and romantic escape by recapturing journeys and translating tales into contemporary wearable inventions. We collect wistful moments and recreate them".

Discarded fabrics and objects are rescued and mixed with natural materials from Australia and New Zealand and as far afield as Japan and Italy.

"Using colour, texture and pattern to spin our stories, we make new fabrics by piecing together antiquated prints in unexpected material combinations."

This year marks the 20th anniversary of one significant journey for the Foong sisters, from Malaysia with their parents Fong Chee Yee and Lucy Yap to beachside Newcastle, two hours' drive north of Sydney.

From there they introduced the world to the charms of Mrs Woo and are in the thick of design, production and delivery to meet the widening appeal.

High Tea with Mrs Woo has a flagship store in Newcastle and now sells in some 20 boutiques in Australia, New Zealand and Italy.

"Even though our parents brought us to Australia so that we'd become doctors and lawyers and not seamstresses, we still ended up in the rag trade!" Rowena says.

The rag trade was perhaps an inevitable path -- from an early age back in Kuala Lumpur the sisters learned to make clothes and to make believe, "playing shop" with household items and Monopoly money.

Buying, selling, bargaining and decorating became second nature, Rowena says.

From that base, she and Juliana went on to study Graphic Design and Visual Communication, while Angela gained a double degree in Economics and Commerce.

In 2001 the trio returned to playing shop, this time for real, when they bought a second-hand clothing business from a friend while still at university.

"We thought it would be a good little part-time job or hobby," Rowena says.

"Unfortunately, the realities of running a business became very clear, very fast! We had bills to pay! It was all very daunting, yet very exciting. We thought we would give it a really good shot, do it seriously and launched our label."

That leap of faith was in 2004. The sisters' first big break was winning the 2005 Mercedes-Benz Start Up award for young designers.

This led to their debut runway show at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney and Melbourne. The snowball took off.

The fashion runways of Shanghai Fashion Week and Kongresshaus Zurich followed.

Mrs Woo designs, which incorporate craft, have been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London as well as museums, galleries and design fairs in Australia, Tokyo and Switzerland.

Television programmes and many Australian and overseas publications including Time magazine (Asia) have featured the sisters; many arts, design and community groups have sought them as guest speakers; and the University of Newcastle Chamber Choir recently won the televised Australian Battle of the Choirs dressed by Mrs Woo.

"We have been on quite an amazing ride," Rowena says. "Long hours, sleepless nights, labour-intensive work -- we didn't realise it would be this challenging!

"As luck would have it, we did inherit the hardworking-madness Chinese gene. We live to tell our tale."