Singapore Stories 2021 finalist Jon Max Goh intends to challenge the common perception of old clothes being unattractive through his efforts to upcycle and revamp old materials to make a stunning wearable masterpiece
Earlier in April this year, Singaporean fashion designer Jon Max Goh of Livingwear entered the zero waste design competition Mottainai: Old Clothes, New Life with the simple goal to change people’s opinion of old and worn out clothes as being visually unappealing by taking scraps and materials from old clothes and upcycling them into a new and stylish piece of clothing that anyone would pay for.
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The sustainable fashion design competition—that was organised by Uniqlo Singapore in collaboration with DesignSingapore Council—proudly announced its five winners and their designs where Goh’s upcycled design was featured, along with Ginlee Studio’s Gin Lee, international costume designer Leonard Augustine Choo, London College of Fashion graduate Rebekah Elza Ong Lin, and co-founders of Studio Dam Debby Yu and Matthjis Rikken.
Challenged to design and produce sustainable wearable fashion pieces from old pre-loved Uniqlo products with the mission to reduce our impact on the environment, these designers expertly put their own signature styles and personalities into their creatively rehashed pieces—with Goh offering a bold homage to the beloved MA-1 Flight Jacket that has been embraced and tinkered by fashion over the decades.
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Named the Lapis MA-1, the upcycled jacket reuses six Uniqlo pants and this fashion-forward show piece was created with the intention of capturing people’s attention through the combination of theatricality and function in its exaggerated proportions of histrionically long sleeves, excessive ruching and blown-up hardware.
“Its form responds to contemporary fashion, appealing to the viewer as a silhouette that could be seen gracing the runways and editorials of today. At the same time, there is a hint of grotesque humour in its monstrous beauty of exaggerated proportions—harkening to a distorted view of a new world,” says Goh.
The piece also responds to the pandemic-stricken world we live in today with its post-apocalyptic and fighter allusions such as the earthy colour scheme of the jacket, the kueh lapis reference, and the fighter jacket composition—which symbolises a shield, an armour, and a mirror against an
unknown global horizon where we are continuing to rally against pervasive issues like climate change, political unrest and biological warfare.
