Last year, in celebration of Prestige’s 20th anniversary in September, we launched the Mask for Good campaign. It was a series of three
silent online auctions to raise funds for Caregivers Alliance Limited (CAL), a professional non-profit organisation dedicated to meeting the needs of caregivers of persons with mental health issues in Singapore.
At Prestige, we felt the duty to support one of the most overlooked and neglected groups in our community, especially in such trying times. Caregivers of mental illness patients have the difficult and exhausting job of tending to loved ones suffering from a wide range of disorders, including dementia and depression, which are often stigmatised and misunderstood. These silent heroes need the education, training, emotional and peer support, as well as affirmation that CAL seeks to provide.
For our first edition in August, Paris-based Singaporean fashion designer Andrew Gn created a unique, couture-quality piece that was entirely hand-cut, assembled and hand-embroidered by his atelier’s petites mains. Evoking the idea of purification after the plague, the silk organza and tulle creation is angelically white and intricate at the same time, just like the interior of a Baroque church, says Gn.
In September/October, we auctioned 20 individually handmade and themed masks by Singapore-based French fashion designer Nicolas Laville that pay homage to our diverse landscape, cultures and icons. Inspired by the city he’s called home for the past six years, the founder of NL Couture dreamt up a unique design for each mask, personally sourced for exquisite fabrics and embellishments, hand-sewed the masks, and even wrote a lovely note to accompany each piece.
The third and final edition of the charity campaign in December was a collection of 10 “War Paint” masks by locally born international label Dzojchen. Made with fabrics used in founder Chelsea Scott-Blackhall’s menswear line, each mask is unique in its pattern and colour, and comes with a chunky necklace chain attached to the ear loops.
We successfully sold all 31 masks, raising a total of S$10,450.28. The money will go towards Caregivers Alliance’s fundraising campaign #YOLO2020, which aims to raise more awareness for mental wellness. The Tote Board will be topping up our donation with another 40 per cent, so CAL will receive a further $4,180.11.
Prestige and CAL are deeply grateful to the three designers for enthusiastically contributing to this campaign. We send our sincere thanks to the bidders for their participation and the winners for their generosity. The successful bidders are: Adelyn Low; Anthonia Hui; Carmen Ow; Celeste Basapa; Christopher Chua; Erlina Katuari; Frances Low; Genevieve Peggy Jeffs; Jane Heng; June Goh-Rin; Karen Choy; Lotus Soh; Nancy Ong; Pauline Chan; Serene Sorensen; Shabnam Arashan; and Vivien Teo.
Also, we’d like to congratulate the top bidders across the three auctions: Pauline Chan ($3,000 for Andrew Gn’s single-edition mask); Lotus Soh ($1,200 for Nicolas Laville’s Majestic Butterflies); and Carmen Ow ($1,000 for Dzojchen’s Mask #3).
This story was published in the March 2021 issue of Prestige Singapore.
