Humans Of SG Fashion: Mooks Hanifiah On The Value Of Making Mistakes
In this series of features from our August edition, 10 local industry insiders from across disciplines share their observations of and aspirations for style on this little red dot. Here, veteran creative director Mooks Hanifiah speaks to us on his observations of the general fashion and design landscape today.
Mooks Hanifiah is the Singapore-born brand consultant and creative director who’s called London home for over two decades and, in that time, worked on campaigns for the likes of Prada and Louis Vuitton.
Singapore creative director Mooks Hanifiah is big on work that is emotive and authentic. Here, a campaign he worked on for German label Zalando, featuring the model Halima Aden. Credit: Mooks Hanifiah
Singapore creative director Mooks Hanifiah is big on work that is emotive and authentic. Here, a campaign he worked on for German label Zalando, featuring the model Halima Aden.
Known for his emotive, energetic images, Mooks recently left the powerhouse luxury ad firm Wednesday Agency Group to start Studio Mooks, offering design, art direction, strategic positioning and mentoring for emerging names in fashion, lifestyle and hospitality.
"Let's put it this way: London, as progressive as it might seem from an outsider's point of view, the inner workings are still very British, which is to say, typically traditional, very safe, very tried and tested; there is in methods and systems. So there is a lot of structure that you adhere to, but then at the same time. creatives in London tend to have this attitude of 'okay, this is the brief, this is the structure, let's go out of it, let's try something new and play around with it.' So there is that balance.
I come back to Singapore every year and I have many friends who work in various creative industries here. I find that it has changed a lot over the years, but on the whole, Singapore seems to be a place where risk-taking is not a big value. I find that very frustrating because the whole point of people wanting to work with me is because I take them to an uncomfortable position.
In Singapore, there is a big emphasis on safe and tested methods – to a greater extent than London, I would say. The line of thinking is in general:' Okay we like this (other campaign/project/design), let's make it a little bit better because it has worked before.'
There is safety in what has worked before. So let's do this again but tweak it – because some marketing director who's not a creative, who's looking at an Excel sheet and looking at numbers, feels more confident that the numbers and goals can be achieved."
"There's only one question is – which is why not? Every young creative should be asking that. Don't stop. Why not take your chances? You've probably always had a gut feeling about something or even if you're unsure, ask why not? That is the essence of wanting to make mistakes and explore. If you don't try, you won't know."
A version of this article first appeared in the August 2021 The Great SG Fashion Book edition of FEMALE