A Collection For The Tropical Monsoon

The second collection of The Straits Finery.

The word ‘MUSIM’ means season in Malay. The whole collection is inspired by the most immediate element of our environment; that is the weather. We only have two seasons out here in the tropics: hot and dry or hot and wet – either way, it’s generally hot.

This collection mood is inspired by the tropical monsoon; a dramatic character as she brings with her gusts of wind, sweeping up everything in its path and brings down torrential rain that hits you like a wall of water. The storm that comes down in the early evening is without mercy and tries to bring everything to a halt – obstructing views of the land beyond with thunderclaps that strike terror in every human, cat and dog. However, with all her madness, the storms leave behind a cooler and gentler side of the tropics. Landscapes are riddled with droplets on the leaves, puddles reflecting the sun peeking through the clouds and the earth is cooled and petrichor emanates through the air.

There truly is a silver lining to every cloud around these parts.

We took great interest in the method of granulation, which involves melting silver and gold in extreme heat. The intensity of this heat results in the metal balling up into spheres. This process of transformation under intense pressure to create something even more beautiful encapsulates the feeling of a tropical monsoon storm.

What began as a very organic method and inspiration, soon became a technical endeavour involving trigonometry, spherical measurements and experiments in both the strength and fragility of solder.

Here is a snippet of the design process for Musim: