Interview with designer, Eugene Lin

Say Eugene Lin and think understated confidence, luxury garments, and design that goes beyond single-season must-haves. Singapore-born Eugene went straight from the Singaporean army to London’s Central Saint Martins to get his BA in Fashion Design Womenswear, and he worked with fashion houses such as Preen and Vivienne Westwood before starting his own label in 2009.

For Eugene Lin’s latest collection, ‘The Vanishing Twin’, he was inspired by the rare condition, fetus in fetu, in which a malformed parasitic twin is found in the body of its partner. It was while exhibiting this collection that I had the pleasure of meeting Eugene – a kind and humorous man who’s serious about fashion. We stayed in touch after meeting in London and he agreed to answer some of my questions concerning himself, his label, and his view on fashion.

Net-a-Nanna. What is the Eugene Lin woman like? Do you have a muse you think of when designing?

Eugene Lin. The Eugene Lin woman so far is a patrician aged 35 – 45, and has included film and art directors, barristers and doctors. Women with high-flying careers and the financial means to enjoy the luxury afforded by the brand – the luxury  of the carefully crafted clothes themselves and more importantly the luxury of understated confidence that the Eugene Lin brand carries. My women shun the conspicuous consumption of logos and the frivolity of fads, choosing garments which complement their careers and personalities rather than allowing the latest catwalk or magazine-dictated must-have rule their wardrobes and thus their lives. They appreciate the meticulous attention to cut, fit, and intelligent details and for my loyal fans, the distinctive stories which inspire and translate through each collection. The Eugene Lin woman is intelligent, self-confident and assured, and her clothes are no less a match. Real designer clothes for real women.

I do not have a muse when I am designing; the Eugene Lin woman grows with each collection. I keep in mind that I am designing for WOMEN, not GIRLS although the line has been well received by a younger demographic as well, leading do a broadening of price points and fabrics for SS11. I am also mindful never to insult my customer’s intelligence by putting out insipid clothes which are basic blocks cut in over-priced fabrics. My women are too smart to fall for shift dresses with metal studs in leather patches masquerading as designer wear, and that’s why they pick my label over the rest.

N-a-N. In your collection, ‘The Vanishing Twin’, I especially like the Cassandra Dress and the Charyle Jacket – they’re both so well cut! Can you tell us more about those two pieces?

E.L. Thank you for your kind comments on the 2 pieces. I was a trained and working pattern cutter before I launched my own label in 2009, hence the cut and the fit of each garment is of paramount importance to me. I cannot stress enough how many new and existing designers out there value price and look over fit and construction. When you are working at an international designer level, you are dealing with high price points and you cannot afford to have badly fitted garments because the customer is very fashion informed and has the means to buy another label with a better fit. I personally cut all the patterns in my collection myself, and so nobody knows each piece inside out, back to front, better than I do.

The Charyle Jacket

The Cassandra Dress is actually a longer version of this season’s hot seller, the Crystal Dress. The neckline is inspired by the idea of twisted muscle tissue of the medical theme The Vanishing Twin Syndrome, as were the colours. The mink was taken from the colour of brain tissue, while the bitter chocolate was from coagulated blood. Morbid, I know, but even without these revelations they are killer dresses. The Charyle Jacket was inspired by the idea of a jacket ‘cannibalising’ or being a hybrid with a waistcoat, hence the sleeves, shoulder and collar of a jacket but the centre of a waistcoat. The hem was also cut longer than a typical waistcoat, but retaining the pointed features of one – a play between the features and proportions of a jacket/waistcoat again. The deep navy fabric and black lining was taken from one of the ultrasound scans I came across while researching the medical phenomenon, which was blue and black too. 

The Cassandra Dress (picture from Eugene Lin's SS11 lookbook)

N-a-N. You graduated from Central Saint Martins. How did the school influence your abilities as a designer?

E.L. I did the BA Womenswear course, followed by a post-grad in Innovative Pattern Cutting and I have to clarify that this is very different from the MA course which has launched so many other great designers. A lot of students who finish CSM complain that they aren’t taught much or anything at all and there is a certain truth in that: you are NOT spoon-fed like other fashion colleges but that makes only 2 types of graduates: go-getters or quitters. At the end of the day you get out of it as much as you put in and yes the BA course is run with way too much emphasis on illustration and little technical requirements and absolutely zero business skills, but it also opened my mind to see things differently and to be inspired by the unusual in order to create the unseen. Case in point: the macabre theme from my SS11 collection would not have been possible if I had not attended CSM. The post-graduate pattern cutting course gave me the skills to execute these designs, a vital skill a lot of designers lack as they either rely on 3^rd party pattern cutters or just make poorly constructed versions of their paper drawings. I enjoy the construction process tremendously as I sometimes discover something more beautiful than my original sketch when I start to drape and work in 3D on a dummy. Because CSM has such a high international profile, it also has a lot of internal politics and it was difficult at first but it was also a training ground for the real industry which is also very much a political minefield.

N-a-N. You grew up in Singapore and are now based in London. How do the two cities influence your design?

E.L. First and foremost I’d like to state that my clothes are not geographically bound to any single city, as I’ve had feedback from buyers and press all claiming that it is very ‘New York’, ‘Paris’, ‘Milan’, etc. If anything, the line is very Euro-centric in an understated, elegant way. I am proud of my heritage as a Singaporean, but having lived between 2 cities, both halfway around the world from each other now for so long, I have come to accept my identity as a transnational, and I feel my work reflects that.

Singapore influenced me in the sense that office/work wear is a big part of the clothing economy there, and I found almost all of what was available really bland and sometimes vapid. At the same time I find that there is not very much designer ready-to-wear in the current European scene which has the mileage that women want – particularly in a recession. As I previously mentioned, my clients so far have been patricians – Barristers, film and art directors etc, women with high-ranking jobs who don’t want to change between the office and the office-after party, or want something understated that compliments their personalities and positions, rather than letting it wear them as a painfully contrived display of wealth.  To that I suppose my early years have made me look at functional clothing as something to be improved and designed more beautifully. I also borrow various work wear details and subvert them like the Christina Dress in my new SS11 collection where a shirt has been twisted into a dress, so really for me it works both ways. As many people have pointed out, Singapore is a very clean city and I suppose part of that has transferred itself into my work: pure lines, pure colours, almost severe.

London is where I have lived for the last 7 years; I trained here and learnt everything from scratch: how to cut fabric to facing the brutal realities of the industry. I do not think my clothes particularly fit the trend of London designers in the last decade or so where the focus tends to be on spectacular showpieces or avant-garde £2000+ cocktail dresses for 20 year old fashionistas, but the determination and success of other young designers here really encourages me to push on because we have the benefit of being in one of the 4 fashion capitals, and it is the prime capital for breaking into the industry as emerging talent. The composition and order of my collections, however, is unmistakably London in terms of colour-block stories and silhouette structures. The emphasis on pushing boundaries is also a London trait – being avant-garde does not have to mean making a dress out of chocolate or having a dress transform at the push of a button, spectacular as they are on the catwalk. For me, I push the boundaries technically with my clothes, whether it is splicing the fabric, working out intricate knots which open and close as fastenings or deconstructing a trouser so its waistband appears to fall off the front while still fastened. To that, London has contributed to the progressive nature of my work.

Sketches from the SS11 collection: courtesy of Eugene Lin

N-a-N. What do you think it takes for today’s aspiring designers to become successful?

E.L. The industry has changed tremendously in the last decade. Gone are the days when good talent and craftsmanship were the calling cards, today anyone with a rich Daddy or who sings or models or been on some reality TV show can be a ‘designer’. Hell, even talentless farm girls who hire the right PR company can become ‘successful’, if by success one defines it as one’s profile and media coverage in the industry. I believe the word ‘designer’ ranks next to the word ‘fashion’ in terms of seriously abused terms. You can do everything right, work your guts out, spend all your money, but an ex-Spice Girl and sister of someone famous is going to get more press and sales than you simply because the economics of the industry has changed from one where the garment comes first to one where perception and image comes first. I’d say that for today’s aspiring designers, you need talent, business acumen, good contacts and determination like a steel wall to get through. It’s very much being in the right place at the right time.

N-a-N. If you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing?

E.L. I would be practicing law.

N-a-N. And finally, I already look forward to seeing your AW11 collection. What have your thoughts on that collection been so far?

E.L. Haha! It’s a secret. Sssshhh….I always play the theme of my next collection close to my heart, usually my studio staff don’t even have an idea till we’re halfway through! But as always, the key Eugene Lin trademarks will be there: intelligent cut and design.

To see Eugene Lin’s collections and read more about him, visit his website: Eugene-Lin.com.