‘Style is your signature. Fashion is ever changing’. Malaysian designer charts her own course
- Cassey Gan crafts distinctive pieces for her eponymous collections that look like patchwork collages, and are meant to be worn in layers
- Playful, full of colour and inspired by art, her original prints are a hit in Malaysia and Singapore, and international fashion buyers are watching her label
In a single Cassey Gan design, multiple pieces of fabric are pieced together like collages, exposed buckles and straps showing. When she presented her latest collection at London Fashion Week in February, her models showed the colourful, printed layers of Gan’s signature style – dresses layered over tops, tops over dresses, a riot of pattern and texture.
“I feel a resonance with London because it’s known for an individualistic style of dress,” says Gan. “Depending on how you layer my clothes, it can have that individualism.”
This year was the second year the Malaysian designer had presented a collection in London, the city where she learned fashion. Gan is a graduate of London College of Fashion, where she took a fashion design and technology course.
It was the start of a serendipitous career, and one she had not foreseen. Gan initially studied chemical engineering; it was only after graduating that she realised she was on the wrong path. When she got a job at a women’s magazine, she started to explore clothes.
“I was interested in crafts from a young age, working with my hands, but not necessarily fashion fashion,” she says. “During my job at the magazine, I grew curious about how clothes are made. I was flipping them inside out, to see.”
Gan’s early designs showed a startlingly assured talent. After her graduate collection attracted praise, and coverage by fashion magazine Vogue Italia, she returned to Malaysia to set up her own brand in 2013.
To this day, the 36-year-old designer works with her hands, she says. “I do a lot of making and that’s how I design. We have five people on the team and we all need to sew, including me. I’m very hands on.”
Her Kuala Lumpur studio is bright, inviting and friendly. There are paintings by family and friends decorating the walls, alongside prints of her inspirations.
Gan’s artisanal approach to her eponymous label is striking, but then again, she’s not expecting it to reach the levels of a well-oiled machine, churning out pieces to respond to trends. If anything, it’s the opposite.
“We don’t do trends because we can’t compete with brands like Zara which are so fast, and so big. So we always stick to our style. There’s a huge difference between style and fashion. Style is your signature. Fashion is ever changing.”
It is Gan’s style which is behind the label’s success in Malaysia and Singapore. Cassey Gan is known for distinctive and original prints. The dresses, tops and pants are at once structured and playful: folkish whimsy is balanced with oversized, contemporary silhouettes.
For the designer, each collection is an opportunity to experiment both with handmade craft and digital technology.
“Designing a print is my favourite part,” she says. “If I do my own print, the sky’s the limit.”
She shows me some recent doodles on a phone app called Sketches. Her prints often start life as doodles, whether drawn on paper or on a screen. Then she’ll edit her favourite shapes and patterns in Photoshop, changing the colours and layers.
The final patterns are sent to Thailand to be printed on cotton, a fabric she favours because of its breathability in the Malaysian heat. Other fabrics are sourced from Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
Gan has introduced chunky knitwear, padded fabric, and kimono jackets to her line-up to reach the European market. As well as showing in London, she presented her latest collection at Milan Fashion Week and at Paris Fashion Week. It’s six years since she started her label, and international buyers are watching its development with interest.
In the meantime, local demand for her designs is only growing; her dresses are sought out by young, professional women looking for distinctive pieces that can stand the test of time. Recently she was asked to design menswear, so she created a line of unisex T-shirts.
“When I see different people of different sizes and skin colours wearing my clothes, it makes me so happy,” Gan says. “My mission is to empower women.
“Sometimes I get texts from customers that say, ‘Today I’m wearing your dress, I feel so confident, like I could do anything’,” she says. “Well, that’s a good start.”
