Rizal Ahyar: Fashion Show Producer

Transcript

“I've always been in entertainment since I was very, very young. Since my kindergarten, I used to do TV programmes. My first ever official job. I remember, on a very strange Sunday morning, somebody spotted me. I was at my grandmother's place and my uncle's neighbour who was in the – it was called RTS at that time – Radio Television Singapore, sort of spotted me and asked me to audition for something. And when I went I found out, I had a small role on a radio Sunday Wara. I was the voice of a kid in some drama. And then after that, I started doing a TV commercial for a cough mixture for an Indonesian brand. And then after that, I started doing regular children's radio and TV shows. So those were my… I mean, they were not regular, but at one point we were going on and off. So that was that.

At the same time, I took up music lessons all the way. Somehow, during my secondary school days, I also did part-time work, like – I can't remember the brand but – imagine something like Casio. They used to have all these pre-synthesiser days. They used to have all these mini keyboards that they would sell. And I would be working part-time performing on them at shopping malls on the weekends, just for extra income, you know?

I never really sort of planned to get into this. When I was about to leave school, one of the things that happened was last minute, I got exempted from NS (National Service). And when that happened, everything kind of changed while I was trying to sort of... I was hanging around, I was offered this job by my previous company, and when they offered the job, it sounded very interesting. I mean, I already got to know people through my late teenage years. I mean, some of these people were already in the fashion industry. And they were players. And I mean, we got to know them socially. So I actually, during that period, I was offered to do the job to join one of the show, events... That company was specifically a fashion show events company. And I thought, wow, that sounded exciting. And since I thought I didn't have to go to National Service, I made a very brave decision to give it a try. I mean, even if I didn't like it, I can still continue to further my studies, because most of my schoolmates and my college mates were in NS. So I thought, you know, do it for fun. But when I started doing it, I got sort of hooked on to it. And it was, I mean, the first few months, things got very successful. And eventually, before I knew it, I was with a company for eight and a half years. Only after that I sort of ventured on my own.

That very first big company that I joined was called Runway Productions. Actually one of my bosses was Dick Lee, he and another partner Alan Koh. Alan Koh was also during that period, when I joined them, he was the president of SODA, the fashion designers' association. So that was how the connection was and I started doing all kinds of things for them. I mean, I was doing very well, I was very excited, and it was completely an unexpected challenge and change in my life, but I thought it was something that I could do. So that's how I caught on to it. And of course, along the way, I mean, you try to learn things and so on.

I'm one of those people that didn't necessarily go for the mass, you know, things that were mainstream, I mean, like, things that were a little bit quirky always kind of appealed to me, because I grew up in an entertainment industry. It was always about performing in front of the crowds, making sure that you look good, you know, I mean, it's all about being there, being at the moment, and fashion always has its place somewhere. So, I mean, that was always something that even when you don't think about it, it's there. You know, but of course, when you study it and you acknowledge it, you discover more.

Specifically about fashion, to really fully understand it, I think you need to enjoy it and appreciate it. And I think when you enjoy fashion as well, it's not just about what you see in magazine pages and so on, I think also that you need to appreciate the history of it all, you know, and I mean, I think it's also to do with my educational background. I mean, I appreciate the situation of the world, the current affairs, the history, you know, and in many, many ways, all these things are connected. So, actually, if you sort of step back, there are many things that you can connect the dots and the situation of the world affects the style of the fashion, the economics of the world, you know, pop culture. I mean, there are so many factors that always change and fashion is a way of showing these moments and the situation, the extravagance, the antagonism, I mean, whatever it may be, you know, it is all connected. It is a reflection of the people and the times. And I think that to understand it and to appreciate it is fairly important and then of course to live it. So it was one of the things that I enjoyed always.

As I grew up in my teenage years, it was the ‘80s. It was also the start of the MTV generation. That itself created a platform for you to to have your eyes open up together with the music, you know, you're suddenly brought into this whole dimension of how music can correlate with fashion and how, you know, in the ‘80s there were many tracks from the punk rock to the new wave to the alternatives to the post-disco. Suddenly there was from let's say, even the ‘70s disco, this became so many other options. I mean, it was interesting how things had just expanded. I mean, through the music also you discover the fashion, like I said, music videos, of course you look at magazines, you look at... I mean, in my younger days, I wasn't so sure about Singapore fashion, it was more about what I see around the world. And of course from the fashion capitals lah. As I got into the industry of course I discovered more and more about Singaporean fashion, Asian fashion, and so on.”