KUALA LUMPUR, 10 August 2018 - AirAsia, the truly Asean airline celebrates ten Asean designers at the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week (KLFW) 2018 today.

The fledgling designers, whose career in the fashion industry took off after their participation in AirAsia Runway Ready Designer Search (AARRDS) competition, showcased over 30 looks from their fashion labels. The labels include KAVA (Brunei), KONG (Cambodia), Shella Merina Personal Designs (Indonesia), Billy L’amour de Ma Vie (Laos), phyn Studio (Malaysia), Glam Mabel (Myanmar), Paraluman by Bea Samson (Philippines), SILVU (Singapore), Arataweekend (Thailand) and Tu Bong (Vietnam).

The highlight of the show was Tran Thi Tu’s ‘The Women of Illusion’, in which she debuted 16 looks from her label, Tu Bong. Hailed from Hanoi, Vietnam, Tran Thi Tu was the grand prize winner of AARRDS 2017. She has since successfully made her way into Vietnam’s fashion industry and was featured in Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam as well as various fashion programmes on national television. Her success continues as her upcoming Ready-to-Wear capsule collection is set to be sold on fashionvalet.com.

AirAsia Deputy Group CEO Digital, Transformation and Corporate Services Aireen Omar said, “Asean is not just a region with many breathtaking destinations, it is also blessed with abundant talent. Over the past three years, AirAsia Runway Ready Designer Search has become a platform for Asean talent to catapult their careers in the region’s fashion industry. The competition has also opened doors for them to turn their dreams into reality and enabled them to learn valuable insights not just in e-commerce but also how to apply digital marketing from our fashion industry partners. We hope their success will continue to inspire young talent in the region to spread their wings and fly further.”

AARRDS continued in Malaysia this year where the top 5 finalists; Kelly Lee Kah Shin from Equator College Penang, Lau Zhong Xun from Raffles College, Tan Win Shean from Esmod Kuala Lumpur, Daphne Lim Wen Sin from SML Fashion Academy and Kristopher Toon from Saito University College each presented three fashion forward looks from their collection.

The AirAsia Runway Ready Designer Search Grand Finale 2018 ended with a bang. Daphne Lim Wen Shin from from SML Fashion Academy was announced as the Grand Prize winner, taking home 150,000 AirAsia BIG Points; RM25,000 fund to produce a capsule collection to be sold on fashionvalet.com, a fashion spread in AirAsia’s inflight magazine, Travel360; Huawei all-new Nova 3 smartphone, mentorship from KLFW team, and a confirmed slot to showcase their full collection at KLFW 2019.

The second place went to Lau Zhong Xun from Raffles College and the third place went to Tan Win Shean from Esmod Kuala Lumpur. Both won a contract to design a collection for the brand Infinence and a Huawei all-new Nova 3 smartphone.

Founder of KL Fashion Week Andrew Tan said, “One of our most committed partners is none other than AirAsia. Their support has truly let the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week fly. For the past four years, the AirAsia team has worked tirelessly to send us to many different locations which I believe is a huge part of the reason that Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week has been able to strengthen its brand in many different countries in Asean.”

The aspiring designers went through extensive rounds of judging and were selected based on their design creativity, originality and consistency of their collection, adherence to the Asean theme, practicality as well as stage presentation potential.

The panel of judges includes AirAsia Deputy Group CEO Digital, Transformation and Corporate Services Aireen Omar, Founder of KLFW Andrew Tan, FashionValet Head of Marketing Nadia Alisya, Established fashion designer Fizi Woo, Editor of Female Magazine Yang Mei Ling, Managing Director of Hai-O Group and Founder of Designer Brand Infinence Tan Keng Kang, Celebrity Stylist Min Luna, and Malaysia’s Top Model Tinie.

AirAsia is once again KLFW 2018 exclusive Preferred Travel Partner. The other main sponsors of AARRDS 2018 include AirAsia BIG Loyalty, FashionValet, Infinence, Travel360 Magazine, Huawei and KL Fashion Week.