GraceMeiNg

Orchard Road is always a busy place on a Saturday morning. As Singapore’s prime shopping district, it’s a magnet for tourists, working adults, and youths alike. As a street, its identity is vividly asserted through its imposing shopping malls with the chrome brand names and giant screens mounted on their facades, and its images in travel and lifestyle articles even in the New York Times cement it even further as one of the country’s national icons. To shop here is to be at the pinnacle of fashion, luxury, and social prosperity.

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Yet once every two months, a strange throng of youngsters cut through the crowd. They do not seek to pose, perform, or even stay for very long. All they want to do is walk.

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This is Harajuku Fashion Walk Singapore - an urban invasion through some of Singapore’s most iconic and indeed cultural places. These wildly-dressed walkers parade down Orchard Road, fill up the public seating area of Singapore Management University, colonize the grounds of the Singapore Art Museum, and take group pictures in front of the Merlion, Singapore’s national animal. They disrupt the everyday, reject the acceptable - they make their own street.

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You can browse a basic HFWSG photomap in the embedded preview below. But to experience the full project, download the original file and open it in Google Earth. (If the .kmz file doesn't load fully, try the lower quality version.)

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To guide your tour, do refer to The Critic's Guide to HFWSG below.