Cover An 2015 mini dress inspired by Monet’s “Water Lilies”, on loan from ACM’s National Collection, as part of the “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” exhibition at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts
An 2015 mini dress inspired by Monet’s “Water Lilies”, on loan from ACM’s National Collection, as part of the “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” exhibition at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts
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Through a landmark partnership with the Peabody Essex Museum in the US, the Asian Civilisations Museum deepens its international museum network, celebrating Singaporean fashion designer Andrew Gn’s artistry as a bridge across cultures and continents
It begins, fittingly, with a reunion of worlds. In September, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, unveiled Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World—the North American debut of an exhibition originally conceived by Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM). Two years earlier, the show had drawn acclaim in Singapore for reframing fashion as a form of cultural connection, where a designer’s personal story mirrors a nation’s identity. Its arrival at PEM closes a symbolic loop between two historic port cities that share more than maritime histories—they share a belief that creativity, like trade, thrives on exchange.
For Clement Onn, director of ACM and the Peranakan Museum, this moment reflects a friendship spanning more than a decade. “Both PEM and ACM began in port cities shaped by the circulation of people, goods and ideas—and both focus on Asian export art,” he says, when we meet in Salem during the exhibition opening. Their relationship has evolved from scholarly exchanges to reciprocal loans, most recently through ACM’s Manila Galleon: From Asia to the Americas exhibition in 2023, which explored historic trade routes connecting Asia, the Americas and Europe. Now, that foundation of trust culminates in a full-scale collaboration bringing Singaporean design to one of the oldest museums in the US.
Revisiting the Andrew Gn retrospective abroad, says Onn, celebrates “another kind of cross‑cultural exchange—one that speaks to the creative possibilities born at the intersections of east and west, tradition and innovation”. Nearly 100 works—clothing, accessories, illustrations and digital media—unfold this dialogue. Eleven ensembles loaned from ACM’s National Collection stand out: a 2003 batik-patterned coat with motifs of butterflies, dragonflies and a lotus pond that pays homage to home; a 2015 mini dress inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies; and pieces once worn by the Princess of Wales and Lady Gaga. Together, they trace a visual language of craftsmanship and global connection.
In case you missed it: Singaporean designer Andrew Gn wants his fashion legacy to inspire a new generation of Asian talents
Above The “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum (Photo: Kathy Tarantola/Peabody Essex Museum)
The “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum (Photo: Kathy Tarantola/Peabody Essex Museum)
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Fashioning Identity
For Andrew Gn, this trans-Pacific staging marks both recognition and reflection. The first Singaporean designer to receive a US retrospective—timely as the nation celebrates its 60th anniversary—he calls it “deeply emotional”, a validation of a life spent bridging continents. Born in Singapore in 1964, trained in London, New York and Milan before settling in Paris, Gn built a body of work defined by a signature blend of western aesthetics, art history and Asian decorative art and design. Over nearly three decades, the House of Andrew Gn has produced more than 80 collections and 10,000 handcrafted ensembles—each a testament to the designer’s devotion to artistry and heritage.
At PEM, visitors encounter this layered identity through thematic rooms charting his creative evolution—from Meet Me in Paris, capturing his arrival in the city he calls “the epicentre of all things beautiful”, to Singapore: Global Crossroads, anchoring the exhibition in the place that shaped him. Seeing a wall of Katong shophouses opposite a panorama of Marina Bay was deeply moving. “My grandparents lived in Katong,” he shares. “Those houses will always be our roots. Modern Singapore represents progress, but both worlds coexist.” The country’s multiculturalism, he believes, prepared him for the world: “It’s a port city that absorbed and mixed cultures—and so did I.”
Above Singaporean fashion designer Andrew Gn (Photo: Anne Combaz)
Singaporean fashion designer Andrew Gn (Photo: Anne Combaz)
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Gn’s signature maximalism—his self-professed “greedy” appetite for abundance—comes alive in pieces that juxtapose east and west. At the entrance of the exhibition, a 2020 demi-couture cape adorned with griffin embroidery sets the tone, followed by a 2022 printed silk dress paired with a tweed coat trimmed with ostrich feathers, and a cameo-adorned belt. Yet, beyond opulence lies intention. Each creation, he says, “is a testament to my life experience”—a narrative of migration, hybridity and generosity. “Being true to yourself is the only way to make a work shine,” Gn expounds.
For Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo executive director and CEO, Fashioning the World embodies the museum’s founding ethos. “PEM has always been about connecting people across time and place,” she explains. “Andrew’s garments draw on centuries of artistic exchange—French lace, Chinese embroidery, Japanese screen painting, Indian block printing—all reimagined through a contemporary lens.” This cross-pollination echoes PEM’s own history as the oldest continuously operating museum in the US, established in 1799 by a group of Salem-based sea captains and merchants whose collections documented global encounters. “Both Salem and Singapore are crossroads where ideas and traditions converge,” she adds. “You see that spirit of exchange in Andrew’s designs—whether it’s a Singaporean orchid embroidered with Parisian couture techniques or silhouettes that nod to both eastern and western aesthetics.”
Read more: The next chapter for Singaporean fashion icon Andrew Gn
Above A batik-inspired ensemble, one of the 11 pieces loaned from the Asian Civilisations Museum’s National Collection (Photo: Lenne Chai/Asian Civilisations Museum)
A batik-inspired ensemble, one of the 11 pieces loaned from the Asian Civilisations Museum’s National Collection (Photo: Lenne Chai/Asian Civilisations Museum)
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Above A 2022 printed silk dress paired with a tweed coat trimmed with ostrich feathers, and a cameo-adorned belt (Photo: House of Andrew Gn)
A 2022 printed silk dress paired with a tweed coat trimmed with ostrich feathers, and a cameo-adorned belt (Photo: House of Andrew Gn)
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Above A 2021 satin silk kaftan inspired by Chinese lacquer screens (Photo: House of Andrew Gn)
A 2021 satin silk kaftan inspired by Chinese lacquer screens (Photo: House of Andrew Gn)
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Hartigan views the show as more than a fashion retrospective—it articulates PEM’s mission to connect global histories and reframe design as cultural text. The curatorial team devised an “Inspo Quest”, inviting visitors to trace motifs in Gn’s gowns to objects in PEM’s wider collections—from export porcelains to lacquerware—underscoring how creativity transcends geography. For North American audiences encountering Singaporean design for the first time, Hartigan hopes the takeaway is discovery: “They’ll be struck by its sophistication, creativity and resonance with broader global conversations.”
PEM’s director of curatorial affairs and the Nancy B Putnam curator of fashion and textiles, Petra Slinkard, who led the re-envisioning, describes the process as translating “boundless creativity and radical acceptance” into spatial experience. Adapting ACM’s 2023 presentation required both sensitivity and invention. “Our visitors needed grounding—where Singapore is, why it matters, and how it shaped Andrew’s vision,” she says. PEM’s version introduces deeper historical context and fashion-technical framing for an audience eager for detail. “But we avoided turning it into a glossary,” she adds. “The focus is on the story.”
Visually, Slinkard retained ACM’s palette of black, gold and red—echoing motifs in Gn’s designs—but opted for restraint. “We didn’t add anything unless it came from Andrew’s clothes,” she notes. Rather than scenographic excess, magnified photographs of sequins and beadwork draw viewers into the garments’ intricacy. Quotes from Gn, woven through the galleries, lend intimacy. “We wanted to balance Andrew the person and Andrew the house, presenting both aspects of the narrative,” she explains.
That dialogue extends beyond aesthetics. A 2021 satin silk kaftan inspired by Chinese lacquer screens with embroidered trim and ostrich feathers anchors the show’s meditation on hybridity. Its motif recalls luxury objects once traded through Salem’s ports and collected by PEM’s founders—creating what Slinkard calls “a conversation across centuries”. Through such pairings, the exhibition positions fashion as a vessel of cultural memory, aligning with PEM’s ambition to treat design as a lens into identity and global history.
For ACM, the partnership affirms Singapore’s growing role in shaping global discourse through art, design and heritage. It continues a legacy of exchanges with institutions from Paris—Baba Bling: Interior Signs of Wealth in Singapore at the Musée du quai Branly in 2010—to Shanghai, where The Baoli Era: Treasures from the Tang Shipwreck opened at the Shanghai Museum in 2020. Each collaboration extends the reach of Asian art beyond geography. Now, ACM is charting an ambitious course to expand its international footprint, taking the museum “to the next notch”, says Onn—building on its strength as a pan-Asian institution whose stories and collections resonate globally.
In case you missed it: Asian Civilisations Museum Becomes The First Pan-Asian Museum Of Decorative Art
Above Gn’s signature maximalism on display at the “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” exhibition (Photo: Kathy Tarantola/Peabody Essex Museum)
Gn’s signature maximalism on display at the “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” exhibition (Photo: Kathy Tarantola/Peabody Essex Museum)
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A Global Conversation
In 2025 alone, ACM’s reach spans from Beijing to Mexico City. Exploring the World of Baba Nyonya: A Peranakan Culture Exhibition on the Maritime Silk Road continues its tour across China, while Somos Pacífico. El Galeón de Acapulco-Manila opens on December 3 at Mexico’s Colegio de San Ildefonso, in partnership with the Secretariat of Culture of Mexico and the National Gallery Singapore, among other institutions. Ten artefacts from ACM’s Tang Shipwreck Collection also feature in the British Museum’s Silk Roads exhibition, positioning Southeast Asia at the heart of global exchange.
“These partnerships are not just about sending objects out,” Onn notes, “but exchanging ideas, curatorial practices and perspectives on Asia’s place in world culture.” As Fashioning the World continues its run in Salem until February 16 next year, it not only honours a singular creative force but also reaffirms a shared belief between institutions: that art, like fashion, is a conversation without borders. In the shimmer of Andrew Gn’s beaded gowns and the quiet strength of Singapore’s museum partnerships, a new kind of exchange unfolds—one grounded in understanding, curiosity and the enduring power of cultural dialogue.
As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
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