ON SKIN, BONES, CLOTH

FEATURING EIGHTSLATE | SAVINA CHAI 

WWW.EIGHTSLATE.CO | WWW.SAVINACHAI.COM

INSTAGRAM.COM/SAVINACHAIYJ/

With irk in all her demeanour, posture and behaviour, Savina grumbles on the saturated nature of fashion at large—mass produced, unexciting and directionless. Wearing a flutter tube and a white straw fedora adorned with a simple black ribbon, Savina would be very hard to miss on the train. Obsessing over structure, form, silhouette and fabric, her very own label, Eight Slate is an extension of her own fashion taste—nearly an ego that anyone should be proud to have.

Scrolling through her Instagram page, it is hard to reach beyond the facade of the fashion industry by merely focusing on the glamorous side—pretty (or handsome) models, a well-placed finger, or a harmless, contrasting colour amongst the placidity of things. Not surprisingly, Savina’s days are structured—every awake hour of hers is busily filled with tailors, designs, marketing, emails, personal time and whatnot.

Yet, Savina is constantly never without laughter, humour and smiles. Working in time-intensive jobs since she was fourteen, working endlessly is a lifestyle choice that she views as a mere prerequisite to success. Just about reaching the first year mark in running Eight Slate, she constantly wonders if she is ready to face failure if it ever happens. Between the expansion of her business and chasing her paper qualifications, the conflict within her is endless. Yet amongst all these various forms of pressure and realities, her designs regularly present themselves as stellar, cutting edge and most importantly, attractively comfortable to wear.

Decline? Hardly so, the local fashion industry is full of areas of experimentation and entrepreneurship; Savina implicitly knows every other day of slumber for her means an extra day for her competitor. Working in fashion has pushed her beyond personal boundaries to being in charge of finances to design and marketing. Even when she claims she has merely grown skeptical, her love for design and fashion to accentuate our being shines through every one of her designs.

For Savina, this is her business—a curation of women’s wear to save the trouble of endless nights of outfit frustration with a few clicks of a mouse.

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