SINGAPORE, April 9 — Ask any Insta-ready millennial who Singapore’s top fashion influencers are, and they will likely rattle off names like Andrea Chong, Christabel Chua, Velda Tan and Yoyo Cao.
It is a list that is dominated by women, but it does not mean that men do not have a shot at joining their ranks. Oscar Tan, who goes by his handle @orsqr on social media, is one of a handful of male fashion influencers here. And he is steadily building a community of followers attracted to his sharp features, perfectly coiffured hair and often bold and edgy sense of style.
With 14,000 followers on Instagram, the 22-year-old’s following is currently a fraction of that of @dreachong, @bellywellyjelly and @yoyokulala. But his fans, who often leave comments or send him private messages asking him where they can buy the clothes he wears, are enthusiastic enough to convince Tan it is time for him to design and produce his own line of shoes and accessories.
He has worked with friends to design belt accessories with simple metal hoops that he says are currently popular in Korea, and is working with manufacturers in China to produce his signature boots.
Tan was recently in Hong Kong, working on refining his designs. The hope is that the sale of these items to those who appreciate his aesthetic will allow him to lead the life he truly wants: That of an artist.
He’s an introvert, really
Tan started out modelling the clothes he had at home, but now mainly collaborates with Hong Kong menswear label Demo Fashion, which lends him clothes for his shoots. He takes most of his photos in Hong Kong, and fits in as many outfits as he can at each shoot to ensure he has enough material to post for months. He acknowledges that his style is not practical in terms of affordability, but hopes his followers will be inspired by the looks he puts together by mixing and matching different styles, ranging from sharp-looking suits to shirts paired with androgynous-looking culottes,
“There shouldn’t be any discrimination,” Tan said, adding that he doesn’t differentiate between designs for men and women. “It’s (about) fabric, it’s about whatever looks good and feels good.”
Despite his boldness in presenting clothes, Tan told TODAY in an interview over tea that “in real life, I am not confident at all... of how I look and what I do”.
This is in stark contrast to the life he portrays on his social media feeds. In fact, he’s a homebody. “Actually, I don’t like to go out. I like to stay at home, I like to not meet anybody,” he said awkwardly.
And his one true love, he says, is oil painting. He has been painting since he was four years old. He started an Instagram account that focused on his paintings several years ago as a student at LasalleCollege of the Arts. But he soon realised people were responding more to photos of him than his paintings.
That was when he decided to build himself as a brand, in hopes that he will eventually be able to build a name for his paintings.
Into the mind of a dreamer
“My dream and my goal is to be a painter and stay in my room. It’s not as boring as it sounds — being in a room all day and not going out,” said Tan. “People think when you travel, you see the world, but... you can see that on your phone.
“When you go to nature, you feel a vastness... I feel I can do without that. When I look at my paintings, I create that vastness for myself. I create the spheres, the colours,” said Tan.
His paintings depict human silhouettes in front of abstract swirls or colour — slightly reminiscent of the style of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, who is his favourite painter.
Tan also works at his parents’ hair salon, teaches art and photographs weddings, to get by. But his foray into fashion is firmly in support of his dreams of becoming a full-time artist.
Tan doesn’t mind being a jack of all trades, for now.
“There are painters who dream of becoming painters. They (can be) very stubborn,” said Tan. “The thing is, one way or other, you need to find ways to earn money. Not all galleries (allow you to) do what you want. If you have your own show, who is going to come and see it, if nobody knows you? If your work doesn’t sell, how are you going to progress? How are you going to keep up with the trends?”
Tan is kept busy with his work as a photographer and influencer. He spends hours at a gym to keep in shape, working out often in the wee hours of the night. As for his Instagram shots, he spends at least hour editing every each photo. Ironically, he has not had time to paint for the last year.
As he waits for the day when he can finally return to his first love, however, Tan tries to reconcile his work with his ideals by thinking of fashion as, much like certain forms of art, the pursuit of beauty.
“I am trying to understand (what beauty means),” he said. “When you talk about art, you feel life is more cultural, more spiritual. Fashion is fast, superficial. That’s what people always say.
“But I believe beauty is in ideas. The idea of beauty, for me, is to recreate (myself). My body... is a canvas and I put on different clothes, changing my whole look. In art, a canvas takes splashes of red paint, green paint, a bit of purple paint — with those, you create a whole new composition. I believe beauty comes in all forms.” — TODAY
