Thomas Tan
The gala on Sunday night saw one of Malaysia’s most renowned fashion designers Keith Kee celebrated his 10th anniversary with a tribute fashion show cum cocktail party at the Renaissance Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
The star-studded event, themed Passion was an exclusive intive-only to the crème de la crème of the fashion, beauty and entertainment industry that gathered over 600 guests.
On that night, Keith Kee said: “I am delighted with the amazing reception tonight. 10 is a big number! It has been a journey full of ups and downs but at the end of the day, when I see the person wearing my Keith Kee Couture outfit smiling happily and standing proudly, I know that I have done my job well and it is all worth it.”
“In order for one to succeed in anything and achieve something, I strongly believe that passion plays an important role. It is a strong feeling of love towards something, and I know that if I didn’t have a passion for fashion designing and couture, Keith Kee Couture would not have turned 10 years old today.”
Hugs, kisses and congratulatory messages poured in for Keith Kee’s momentous milestone.
In wishing Keith Kee and Keith Kee Couture happy 10th anniversary, supermodel Amber Chia, who got married last year thanked Keith Kee for designing her wedding gown.
“I wish you even more success in your new avatar. My best wishes and continued success to you”
Among the glitterati of stars who showed up to celebrate the designer were international model and Mister Switzerland 2008 finalist Arnaud Quarre DeChampvigy; Hong Kong artiste Eddie Law; notable industry hotshots Gillian Hung, Winnie Loo and Lewre Lew; beauty queens Levy Li, Nadine Ann Thomas, Carrie Lee, Nadia Heng (Miss Malaysia World 2010), Soo Wincci (Miss World Malaysia 2008), catwalk guru Benjamin Toong; celebrities Cassandra Patrick (Miss Malaysia Universe 2009), Stefanie Chua, Suki Low (winner of One in a Million singing contest 2006) and not
forgetting Belinda Chee and Chris Tong who jointly emceed the show
In line with the 10th anniversary celebration, the fashion gala saw Keith Kee’s exquisite designs being presented in ten different concepts.
Over 40 models took to the catwalk on the 70 feet long runway showcasing over a hundred different brand new designs from cocktail dresses, cheongsams, the ‘recycle’ collection, chiffon and lace pieces, the ‘transformation’ collection, fashion gowns, earth tone pieces, the batik collection, avant-garde designs, to the men suit collection.
Amongst the highlights of the show was the ‘recycle’ collection which drew inspiration from environmental and going green initiatives as Keith Kee created those colourful chiffon dresses by using recycle fabrics.
“Over the past ten years, I have collected all the cut away materials from the many dresses I have designed and now, these fabrics can finally be put to good use in my brand new ‘recycle’ collection.”
There was also sale of limited edition of Keith Kee Couture’s 10th Anniversary handkerchief, made from the cut-away materials, to the guests at RM50 each with all proceeds going to World Food Programme.
“I feel extremely grateful to be lucky enough to have achieved all that I have today and that is why I strongly believe in giving back to the community and by donating to the United Nations World Food Programme, I can do my part to assist with their efforts to curb the issue of world hunger,” explained Keith Kee.
On the batik collection showcased, Keith Kee said: “I started off designing wedding gowns and then couture gowns but now I wanted to do much more, creating my own signature batik clothes. I have started exploring the traditional art of batik which is a challenging area for me as I spent quite sometime in Kelantan to master the art of making batik cloths.
“I want to change the way batik is used and incorporate these traditional clothes into dresses with modern designs or even batik cheongsam, which I will be working on next as I am honoured to be chosen to cloth all the finalists of Miss Chinese Cosmos International Pageant 2011, during the finals in Hong Kong, in October this year.
“Now that I’ve had a very meaningful and fruitful 10 years, I want to make sure that the next ten years and so on, will be even more exciting.”
On his expansion plan, Keith said: “A second line couture available to the mass–market and ready-to-wear fashions to show up in departmental stores next year at affordable price ranging from RM199 to below RM1,200 a piece.”
Among the top models strutting their stuff were supermodel Amber Chia, Tengku Azura, Tinie, Kelly Jagan (Ford Supermodel Malaysia 2009 winner), Isaac Ong (Malaysia Top Male Model 2010-2011) and Sim Hui (X Top Model Search Malaysia 2011).
Even Ashton Wong, son of Amber Chia, took on the runway, carried by his mum, for a special appearance, being the youngest model that evening at ten months and ten days old.
Beauty queen turned singer Soo Wincci and Korean singer Lee An who is based in Singapore marveled the audience with their lively repertoire of songs that kept the party atmosphere going.
The evening showcase included solo violinist Dennis Lau who electrified his listeners with his electric violin while Malaysia’s No.1 and world’s no. 9 Beatbox Battle World Championships 2009 beatboxer Shawn Lee thrilled the audience with some of his best produced special beatbox sounds.
The glitzy evening ended with the audience truly blown away when Benjamin Toong took over the runway in a man suit with a ten feet long tail.
Penang-born Keith Kee, 35, studied for one and a half years at the Hagihara Academy of Fashion and Merchandising in Penang and started his couture fashion from humble beginnings in Penang in 2001. Today, a decade later, he has become an established name in the Malaysian bridal and couture fashion industry.
Keith Kee will be introducing his brand new batik cheongsam collection at the Miss Chinese Cosmos International 2011 finals in Hong Kong in October this year and will be making his debut appearance at the Islamic Fashion Festival 2011 at the end of the year.
One of Keith Kee’s creations was recently crowned “Dress of the Year” at the Mercedes-Benz Stylo Fashion Awards 2011.
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