Stitching a Dream

Her name is synonymous with chic, elegance, and fashion. A look around her tastefully designed lifestyle boutique, ESTA, in Scotts Shopping Centre reveals a highly refined taste in design and presentation and it is no wonder she is a well-recognised name in both the international and local fashion scene.

She is none other that Esther Tay, Creative Director of Estabelle Fashions, an internationally recognised artistic talent, an ITE alumnus and winner of the Rotary - ITE Alumni Achievement in Arts Award.

Creative and entrepreneurial, Esther, a graduate of Baharuddin Vocational Institute, a former ITE institute, started Estabelle Fashions a few years after graduating with an NTC-3 in Dressmaking. "When I first started out at ITE, I was actually more inclined to advertising and the arts than in fashion and dress making. It was only later that I accepted that I was to answer to a different calling," she said.

The skills she picked up in ITE gave her the discipline to foundation she needed. Her break came in 1978 when Tangs offered to put her clothes on their racks. The rest was history.

Her talent and ability to translate abstract forms, colours and shapes into unique, wearable creations was a constant challenge to this petite, but absolutely charming woman.

She said: "Many things can inspire a collection. They come to me everywhere: from the market, the sea, old buildings; anything, anything that comes with colour and texture. As long as I can remember, I have always wanted things to be something else, another colour, another shape. I then begin to translate these inspirations and desires into clothes."

Her successful fusion of the East and West in her collections has caught the eye of many a fashion critic in New York, Paris and London. Yet, despite her success, Esther does not rest on her laurels. She travels overseas to fashion shows, textile fairs and reads ferociously to remain best in class.