Gn’s instincts have proven to be an abundant resource. Since opening his fashion house in 1996, the designer has produced more than 80 womenswear collections, each one a visual feast that marries myriad cultural references expressed through exquisite fabrics, rich colour and dramatic forms. Gn’s maximalist tendencies are balanced by masterful craftsmanship; his use of pagoda shoulders, or crystal embellishments, or elaborate embroidery does not overwhelm so much as awe.

Perhaps it is the collector in him, but Gn had the foresight to preserve every garment he has ever designed. His archive contains more than 10,000 pieces—a fragment of which will be showcased at his first major retrospective, Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World, at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in Singapore. “Singapore is my homeland. It’s only right to start from my own country,” explains the designer, who has plans to take the exhibition to the US and then France. The idea for the exhibition—originally meant to mark his brand’s 25th anniversary—came from a conversation between Gn, Kennie Ting, the director of ACM and the Peranakan Museum, and Jackie Yoong, the museums’ senior curator for fashion and textiles.

Read more: Asian Civilisations Museum celebrates Singaporean fashion designer Andrew Gn ahead of his first major retrospective

The retrospective was originally planned as the grand finale of a series of exhibitions at ACM spotlighting Asian couturiers, starting with the famous Guo Pei: Chinese Art & Couture exhibition in 2019. But the pandemic changed all that and it now coincides with the 28th anniversary of Gn’s fashion brand instead. Not that the slightly odd number matters much to Gn. “At the end of the day, this exhibition is about telling my story and my struggles as a Singaporean designer based in Paris,” he says. “I just think it’s the right moment.”

Ting agrees. “There’s still a lingering, popular misperception that Singapore has no fashion; that we have very little in the way of creative talent,” he says. “Here is a Singaporean who has made it big in the international fashion scene, and continues to be very successful—someone who has made his career on the backs of his creativity and imagination.”

Indeed, Gn is as decorated as his dresses. He is the only Singaporean fashion designer to show regularly at Paris Fashion Week. His independent fashion house, which has clients from all over the world, has weathered a global economic crisis and a pandemic. As his ACM exhibition highlights, Gn’s opulent gowns have been embraced by both Hollywood royalty, including Lady Gaga, Jessica Chastain and Mindy Kaling, as well as real‐life monarchs such as Queen Rania of Jordan. And he recently found a new generation of fans after Lily Collins wore one of his jackets on the Netflix hit series Emily in Paris.

While the Netflix buzz may be fleeting, the appreciation for his clothes is anything but. Gn has religiously followed the philosophy of “designing less, and only the best”, which is one of the many reasons customers continue to wear his designs years after they first bought them—he considers such devotion to his clothes the highest compliment.

Gn’s creations could not be further from what he dubs “one‐wear wonders”, a point which will be made clear at a gala to be held on May 25 in his honour as an opener to the exhibition and in conjunction with ACM’s 25th anniversary. Gn’s long‐time clients and friends will celebrate him while decked out in his treasured designs.

For those who are less familiar with Gn’s designs, the ACM retrospective makes for a brilliant introduction. “This special exhibition is the largest showcase of contemporary fashion at ACM,” says Yoong, who worked closely with Gn over the past three years to curate it. “I sought to introduce Andrew’s practice, style and themes through key milestones in his fashion journey, and selected works that best reflect those moments that shaped his 28‐year career.”

Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World features more than 100 designs (or “children”, as Gn affectionately terms them) divided into different sections examining his craftsmanship, his influences from art and history, and of course, his roots in Asia. “My roots are from Singapore, and I’m rooted deep in the artistic soil of Paris,” says Gn, drawing on the ecological metaphor that defines his autumn‐winter 2023 collection, for which he revisited and remixed his archival designs. “Without the roots or the soil, the tree that is the house of Andrew Gn cannot exist.”

Thriving is one thing, but what makes the tree bear the exotic fruit that Gn’s has is cross‐pollination with other cultures, sparked by his curiosity and travels. “Andrew Gn’s work speaks to the very essence of Singapore—a cosmopolitan, East‐meets‐West, cross‐cultural port city,” says Ting. “Many of his pieces have direct resonance with pieces in [ACM’s] collections. He has been variously inspired by Chinese porcelain, both imperial as well as export, Indian textiles, Indonesian batik, Turkish Iznik, and even Peranakan material culture. Traditional motifs and textile‐making techniques feature in his contemporary creations.”

Nowhere else in the exhibition is Gn’s all‐embracing approach to design more fully realised than in an embroidered coat from his pan‐Asian collection for spring‐summer 2003. “I really wanted all of Asia to be represented on that coat,” explains Gn. He mapped the continent out in fabric, assembling pieces of cut suede leather and batik textiles in silk and satin. The coat (showcased next to Gn in the photo shoot for this story) is lined with ikat fabric, which is made using an Indonesian resist‐dyeing technique.

On its façade is a masterpiece patchwork illustrating a lotus pond, elaborately appliquéd and embroidered by hand. Flitting among the flowers are butterflies, one of Gn’s signature motifs, which have fascinated him since he received an antique Chinese porcelain bowl adorned with them as a birthday gift from his mother. Another classic Andrew Gn touch that can be seen on the coat: pagoda shoulders, which Gn describes as “a cross between influences from Chinese opera and Balinese dancers”. “I won’t even call it a garment—it’s a piece of art,” he says. “It’s so finely executed. It doesn’t date. And the atelier that did the embroidery [on the coat] no longer exists.”

The coat is one of 160 exquisite designs that Gn has donated, not merely loaned, to ACM in his belief that designers freely sharing their work is a huge benefit for future fashion students. “I feel that it’s time for me to give back to my country,” says Gn, who recounts having access to a rich fashion archive as an exchange student at New York’s Parsons School of Design. Visits to the archives exposed him to various clothing construction techniques used by important couturiers, which inspired his own approach to fashion design. “I think that this learning process is so important, because you always learn from a 1959 Dior gown, or a Balenciaga double‐face cashmere coat, no matter what style you’re doing. And this is what I really intended: to educate the next generation.”

Gn, who turns 60 next year, does not harp on about his own legacy; his sights are perpetually set on the future, and he finds joy in learning about the next big thing: he is on TikTok; he has binge‐watched the fantasy series The Witcher on Netflix; and just as his collection of ceramics, books and art continues to expand, so, too, does his potential as a designer.

Towards the end of 2023, Gn will be debuting a menswear line, items of which he wears in this photo shoot. It comprises everyday garments that are comfortable, luxurious and functional—a reflection of the way he dresses. He has also collaborated with online fashion retailer Net‐a‐Porter on a bridal collection and is in talks to take his fashion exhibition to the US. It all reads like the kind of hype that surrounds an emerging designer—not one who has laboriously carved out a niche for himself over the better part of the past three decades.

“Fashion is constantly changing. That’s the game,” Gn says. “My thing is that I keep evolving, because fashion is all about what’s new. It’s a marathon: if you want to come into fashion, be prepared to give 200 per cent of yourself. You manage your talent, you hold your breath—and you run that marathon.”

“Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World” runs from May 27 to September 17 at ACM.

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