Through social media two hours ago, “one of Singapore’s most successful exports” said good bye for now. He is shutting his Paris-based fashion house

After two career highs this year, Andrew Gn is closing his eponymous fashion house. He has just announced on his Instagram page: “After 28 years in fashion, 80+ collections and over 10,000 pieces of clothing designs all hand-drawn by my own hand, I’m bidding au revoir.” This disclosure came soon after the trade paper WWD posted an “exclusive” two hours ago in its digital edition, with the headline, “Andrew Gn Steps Back From Fashion to Focus on Art and Legacy (what that really meant was not expounded)”. The news has been spreading like the proverbial wild fire. We have been receiving links to the above shares through WhatsApp non-stop in the past couple of hours. Followers of Mr Gn on social media were shocked. Just an hour after his IG post, Mr Gn received over 120 well-wishes in the comments section. “This hit like a ton of bricks,” one wrote. But for a considerable few following his career, the end of this chapter of his lifework is not dramatically surprising. One SOTD reader sent us a text message: “You were expecting this, right?”

But an announcement just five days before Christmas and ten days before the year comes to a close is a tad unexpected. It has been a good year for Andrew Gn: high on the celebratory and encouraging in terms of brand awareness here. The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) staged a retrospect Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World in May and three weeks after the well-attended opening that Mr Gn graced, the Princess of Wales wore to the trooping of colours in London an AGN outfit that won the approval of the global press and the elation of the director of ACM Kennie Ting. Mr Gn’s dresses have been, as the ACM exhibition showed, selected by many royal women, but Princess Catherine choosing his design to wear was a feather—nonetheless—on his already well-plumed cap. Not since her mother-in-law Princess Diana wearing Benny Ong dresses in the mid-’80s has our nation rejoiced in the success of an SG-born, overseas-based fashion designer. Andrew Gn must have been so jubilant that he was speechless on social media. On IG, he accompanied photos of the Princess of Wales in the bright green dress with only the hashtag #IFeelRoyalAGN.

Mr Gn’s dresses have been picked by many royal women, but Princess Catherine choosing his design to wear was a feather—nonetheless—on his already well-plumed cap

According to what he said to WWD, a helm of 28 years at a house he founded single-handedly is lengthy enough. “It is a very long time,” Mr Gn told the paper. “I think that I’m at the really high point of my career, having done a lot and worked very hard for my company,” he continued. “So I’d like to really use this opportunity to step back, enjoy my life and see what happens.” He was careful to say that he could “afford to do this because it’s a medium-small house—but a profitable one.” Mr Gn has always said that his brand was remunerative, even when at one time he offered no accessories and bags as he later did. Although small, the profitability of his business is key and is important to the branding and to him. He added, as if for more emphasis or to drive home the point, ““It’s our choice to step back; it’s not because we’re (presumably he and his partner Erick Hörlin) not doing well.” WWD quoted Bergdorf Goodman’s senior VP of fashion Linda Fargo: “I’m still processing the call from Andrew, letting us know that he was closing his retail chapter”. She later commented on his IG post: “As much as we have to be happy for your new chapters, we will miss you and your work—you gave us utterly unique and beautiful ways of dressing and feeling our best and most glamourous. You are a star in a constellation of your own making, and we are always happy to be in your orbit.”

A product development executive told us that “actually, it’s clever of him to bow out after the exhibition. While it is not as grand as I’d like it to be, it is still a milestone in the fashion scene.” It is not clear how well attended Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World was, as ACM has not released figures (they are unlikely to), but it is believed that the retrospective did train a spotlight on an until-then fairly unknown name on our shores. Interestingly, ACM and its director Mr Tng have not responded to their star designer’s latest news. Some observers are wondering if the Singapore flag would still be flown in the world of luxury fashion. Following the exhibition, Tatler Singapore bestowed Mr Gn with the Cultural Icon Award (for “an individual that makes outstanding and enduring contributions to Singapore’s cultural scene while representing the island on a global stage”) in mid-November. Mr Gn told the magazine after accepting the accolade, “It means the world to me for winning the Cultural Icon Award because fashion comes, fashion goes, but cultures stays.”

The Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World exhibition at the Asian Civilisations Museum last May

It is likely that we may never see another Singaporean designer bringing the much-craved honour to our nation on the international stage. There was once talk that Eshamuddin Ismail of Ashley Isham might, but Mr Ismail is adrift somewhere in the UK, his creativity seemingly waning. Recently, much hope is placed on New York-based Grace Ling, but with just one show so far (at the last New York Fashion Week), her contribution to our nation’s glory is, at best, premature. And the Singapore Fashion Council’s valiant attempts to tell Singapore Stores have been mere squeaks. To be certain, Mr Gn is, to date, the most prolific designer with an international clientele that we, as a nation, can boast to have exported. That he is able to achieve what he has, without the backing of a conglomerate or even a local patron here, is remarkable and recalls the success of the early prêt-à-porter years’ European designers, some of whom inspired Mr Gn to explore fashion design as a desirable career, and a viable business. As he shared on IG, “I’ve always considered it a luxury to be able to do something that I truly love as my career. Throughout these 28 years I’m proud to have been the guardian of the ANDREW GN name, achieving international recognition with our very own resources. This was infinitely precious because it has enabled me to create exactly the way I wanted.”

In a May 2023 story that promoted the Andrew Gn retrospective, WWD mentioned “two major health scares, including a stroke last year” that the designer suffered. But there was no mention in their latest report if Mr Gn is also taking a break (“don’t call it a retirement,” he had retorted to such a suggestion) due to serious health challenges. It is understood that those who know him well are concerned of his well-being (friends are aware of his “terrific love of food”), especially after his brand was conspicuously missing from the spring/summer season of Paris Fashion Week this year. It was speculated here as early as October that Mr Gn was closing his business to spend time in Switzerland (in fact, he told WWD, he is restoring a “Georgian house in Dublin”, presumably to live in). In his three-slide, goodbye-for-now message on IG, he wrote genially, “I’d like to spend the following years continuing to build the Andrew Gn legacy, and giving back inasmuch as I can. This is not adieu, but an au revoir, the beginning of a new chapter of my life.”

Updated: 22 December, 08:35

Illustration: Just So. File photo: Chin Boh Kay for SOTD