Finding Inspiration with Max Tan of MAX.TAN
Max at MAX.TAN’s showroom.
Local fashion designer, Max Tan, has been a frontrunner many times since his entry into the notoriously competitive business of fashion. He graduated at the top of his class from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts; his eponymous label, MAX.TAN, was the first Asia-based brand invited to showcase at Modefabriek, a fashion trade event in Amsterdam; and a quick Google search will reveal just how often he’s been lauded as one of the hottest names to look out for in fashion.
Max showcased his first collection at the Singapore Fashion Week in 2007, where he was also the second runner-up in the Singapore Fashion Designers Contest. He founded his namesake label with the recognition he received, and continues to nurture the next generation of young talents as a part-time lecturer at his alma mater.
One of the most exceptional moments in Max’s career — legendary model, Carmen Dell’Orefice, strutted down the finale of his Spring/Summer 2015 show at Digital Fashion Week Singapore 2014, donning a billowy fuchsia coat he had designed for her. Video courtesy of Digital Fashion Week.
Now, with more than a decade under his belt as the creative soul behind MAX.TAN, there’s no denying how riveting Max’s work has been in Singapore’s design scene. He’s also become a distinctive face at Boutiques — bringing with him a stark visual display of monochromatic minimalism, which belies the raging rebellious streak in MAX.TAN. From genderless designs to surprising silhouettes, innovative cuts and drapes, and the manipulation of sartorial norms, every MAX.TAN piece is an unexpected outcome of the sombre inspirations that usually ground them.
“Cloistered” was MAX.TAN’s Fall/Winter 2016 collection. Stoic yet fluid, it showcased Max’s experimental style, with military and religious uniforms as inspiration. Military jackets were deconstructed, while delicate fabrics like tulle were made less feminine with complex draping. Photography courtesy of May Lin Le Goff.
Titled “Continental Drift”, the label’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection was a departure from Max’s signature monochromatic palette. It presented a vivid showcase of baggy silhouettes inspired by tectonic movement and its imagined effects on the world. Photography courtesy of C+C&CO.
The label’s upcoming Spring/Summer 2021 Women’s Ready-To-Wear collection doesn’t veer off course. It draws from and thoroughly inspects the art of calligraphy, with unstructured constructions informed by the sweeping movement of brushstrokes and traditional Southeast Asian dress. Below, we dive deeper into the creative process behind this awaited collection — the result of an afternoon spent at MAX.TAN’s showroom where we poured over fascinating sketchbooks, sneaked peeks at prototypes, and spoke to Max himself about inspiration and building his latest collection.
Max, how did MAX.TAN’s Spring/Summer 2021 come about?
Max: The collection started with inspiration from Nanyang Style artist — Lim Tze Peng. While exploring linework and calligraphy strokes, the intensive research I was doing brought me towards a deeper examination of elements that can define a Nanyang Style in fashion.
A page from Max’s sketchbook showing a selection of artworks by three artists: (from top to bottom) Lim Tze Peng, Lan Zheng Hui, and Sun Xun. His design notes on other pages muse the chaos of Lim’s brushstrokes, while summarising his works as “anti” for their delivery of a “modern outcome” using a “traditional medium”.
Separately, Max explores incorporating the structure of basic strokes in Chinese characters into the construction of a garment, and ponders the potential for distortion that it presents.
A focus on calligraphy and brush techniques undergirds MAX.TAN’s new collection. Here, Max explores the anatomy of ink blots, writing “The ombre effects on close examination look like layers of the same pigment stacked up to create dimension and depth of feel. Can I stick fabrics to create a sense of ink bleed?”
Mimicking the movement of brushstrokes was also central to Max’s designs. He considers various ways to translate a “smudged downward motion from right to left, like Chinese calligraphy” into his garments on this page.
I believe in a process of application rather than replication when it comes to drawing inspiration for my designs. In my primary research, for instance, I barely include any fashion pictures because when you take reference from these, the references become really obvious. I would rather have my own creative process inform the end result. In fact, I find that developing and growing the original inspiration is often more exciting than the inspiration itself.
Max also played around with defacing techniques, which is linked to his calligraphic inspirations by an emperor’s practice of marring such works with his own markings. Max’s design notes read: “Can defacing be a kind of external/overlay structure worn over garments?”. This method is represented here through the pasting of tape over design sketches.
However, Max tells us he found “pasting over too literal”, so he tried cutting pieces of his sketches with a penknife instead. This cutting out and flipping back action became a focal point of the new collection. “It’s almost like a calligraphy stroke effect,” he says. “But rather than a direct translation, it’s an example of an outcome informed by the primary inspiration and context”.
For Spring/Summer 2021, my process led me to tailoring and draping garments like flowing calligraphy strokes, while being informed by Southeast Asian garment archetypes. If I were to follow my initial inspiration strictly, the result might have been just a calligraphy print story — a literal translation.
The prototype of a “wrap style jumpsuit” from the new collection.
The original design sketch of the “wrap style jumpsuit”. Max’s incorporation of a wrap structure from traditional Southeast Asian attire is evident in the design of the bodice.
Where else have you found inspiration for your designs?
Max: As I look back at my past 10 years of collections, there are some recurring themes and design elements that I keep revisiting. These include deconstruction and reconstruction, Asian garment archetypes, and draping. While the inspiration changes each season, the design language does not. For example, most of my pieces include the wrap style closures commonly found in traditional Southeast Asian attires and costumes, as well as excess fabrics, which allows wearers to transform and ‘reshape’ the clothing form in relation to their body.
What is something you find unexpected in your sources of inspiration?
Max: Being interested in cuts of cultural and heritage garments is something that I did not set out to do when I started MAX.TAN ten years ago. However, translating — not in a literal manner — and reflecting this part of the world where I am based out of continues to fascinate me even till today.
Black and white images of traditional garments from a diversity of Southeast Asian cultures can be found in Max’s sketchbook. He is drawn to the unstructured and transformable nature of such clothing, which is often wrapped and fastened around the bodice in geometric patterns.
Garments in the new collection take from this simplicity and seamlessness. They challenge the western ideology of assembling fabric in a set configuration by using a minimal number of pattern pieces, letting fabric fall and movement take centrestage.
Creative slumps can be a real struggle for designers. What advice do you have for tackling a lack of inspiration?
Max: Have fun and play! I love draping and exploring the technical aspects of garment making. The process of playing without any parameters opens up a lot of possibilities. Personally, I like making things as new and exciting as possible when I’m designing. I find the process less enjoyable if I were to revisit ideas, which is also why I don’t keep my old sketchbooks from previous collections in the studio. They are stored away at my mum's place instead. Even when I do revisit ideas, I try not to look at the past references or creative processes.
Discover more designs from MAX.TAN:
Crescent Harem Pants
Softly sculpted from cotton spandex blend, this easy harem pants features a crescent-shaped seam and is capable of stretching nearly two sizes up.
Cloistered Dress
A reimagination of the classic trench coat. Wear it as a billowy outerwear or button it up for a one-piece ensemble.
Poet’s Gown
An effortlessly breezy dress fabricated from soft ash cupro fabric. Gathered sleeve cuffs with loops and buttons allows you to wear them both up and down.
By SERENE GOH of Public Culture, an editorial experience studio that believes in connection over communication. This feature was photographed by Christopher Wong for Boutique Fairs Singapore.