Will Singapore become Asia’s next style capital?

That was the question at The Tent at Ngee Ann City, where the seventh Singapore Fashion Festival was held from March 23 to April 1 — exactly the same time Philippine Fashion Week was staged in Manila.

Signs of a burgeoning fashion consciousness are all over Orchard Road, where, despite 30-degree temperatures, young people are experimenting with layering, bubble shapes, and the skinny leggings that were all the rage last year and still show no signs of going away. According to SFF organizers, shopping fuels this increasingly stylish city: S$3 out of every $10 spent by tourists is spent on fashion.

A long queue of youngsters dressed to the nines waited patiently to get inside the 600-seat tent, which was filled to capacity for most of the shows except for the one on Sunday night, when Singaporeans are conscientious about waking up early for the following work day.

The Singapore Tourism Board flew in fashion media from all over the region to cover the event. Accompanied by my very knowledgeable STB guide Wee Toon Hee, I was able to catch the first three days. Even if no fashion designer from this tiny city-state has as yet broken through to the global mainstream, from the look of things, the next big Asian designer could very well be Singaporean.

A prime example of the breakthrough Asian designer is Vivienne Tam, who opened the festival Friday night with a polished collection that showed the newbies how it’s done. In the front row to lend his support was shoe maestro Jimmy Choo, while Japanese supermodel Ai Tominaga strutted the catwalk.

Born in China, raised in Hong Kong and now based in New York, Tam stayed true to her "East meets West" aesthetic, with her signature Buddha prints and beaded dragons snaking around tent dresses. Sober black and white cheongsams eventually gave way to jewel tones and the season’s popular metallics, with geometric cutouts swinging from the hems of A-line shifts. Toon Hee informed me that Tam’s square motif is typical of Chinese windows or architecture.

As a woman sensitive to the female form, Tam issued loose, forgiving shapes, going for striking rather than sexy. Even the metallic platform Mary Janes looked more forgiving than the usual torturous stiletto.

With her interesting plays on texture and focus on cerebral rather than sexy clothes, Vivienne Tam is the Miuccia Prada of Asia.

In direct contrast the next day was River Island, a high-street brand from the UK known for its casual wear. Here, the look was young, fun, and lean, with Pop Art-print tops over cutoff leggings, super-skinny jeans and stiletto ankle booties. While the ladies sported a tough, rock-chick vibe, the men looked rather silly with their Flock of Seagulls hair, pointed shoes and scarves wound around their necks over long-sleeved button-downs.

Fashionistas finally got a taste of Singaporean talent at the Nokia L’Amour Young Designer show, where the winning designer and four runners-up showed their capsule collections, accessorized with Nokia’s fashionable L’Amour phones, of course.

My personal favorite was Harry Halim by Harry Halim, one of the few who had a cohesive vision and the courage to innovate. Working with a monochromatic palette, Halim mixed pieces in cornflower with electric blue and indigo, usually accented by long fringes. His Blue Period was refreshing in a safe sea of black and white.

Ueno by Hiroko Ueno had a very wearable, sporty edge, though I preferred the originality of her mustard and gray pieces to her generic white dresses. A ruffled one-shoulder looked exactly like what Cameron Diaz wore to this year’s Golden Globes, while the kimono dresses reminded me of Madonna’s designs for H&M (though I suppose Ueno has more of a right to the kimono than Madge).

It was hard to place exactly what ABYZZ by Desmond Yang was all about. First he had colored stripes a la Sonia Rykiel, then he had studded belts and hip chains for girls. The most memorable outfits were a purple striped puffed-sleeve dress cinched by a wide belt, and a canary-yellow strapless dress that popped on the black model wearing it.

Vicky Tay must have a sense of irony, because the least neutral color in her label, Burgundy, is midnight blue. Tay’s easy basics included trapeze tops, stovepipes, and sundresses with bows at the back. A pewter bubble dress with jeweled hem and low back would be perfect for tropical evenings.

Nokia’s deserving winner was Chan Jing Rong, a young woman who designs menswear. How’s that for a neat twist? Chan’s concept of male dressing is simple: layer a jacket over a white printed T-shirt and up the coolness factor with built-in straps or a skinny gray tie. Wear with black pants and Tiger sneaks. This is exactly what women want men to look like: hip, poetic and brooding, with a whiff of "bad boy" courtesy of the S&M straps.

My third day was the glitziest. Wardrobe by Tangs was inspired by Hollywood glamour, from the Quentin Tarantino voiceover to the Dolce Vita film clips to the black and white noir clothes, including a suited "gangster" puffing on a cigar. I liked the ’50s-retro Grace Kelly numbers, as well as the cinematic red, black and silver eveningwear — a classic femme fatale in red stilettos opened her white trench to reveal a sexy black dress underneath.

Island Shop is a popular resort label in Singapore, and it’s easy to see why. Inspired by Brazil, the joyful show incorporated breakdancing capoeira artists on the runway, literally pushing the models to the sidelines, while Rio’s Carnaval spawned eye-popping metallic bikinis and Cavalli-esque coverups. If the show had been held in the evening instead of the afternoon, it could have turned into an all-night dance party.

My last show was by Lu Kun, a Shanghai designer I almost wrote off after seeing his forgettable black and white ready-to-wear. Then he shocked everyone by sending out a model in skintight red velvet, with a nude bustier that made it look as if her breasts were hanging out. Vampy couture dresses followed in purple and gold lamé, ending with Lu Kun himself skipping down the runway fluttering a fan.

The drama of my last day proved that in Singapore, it was a good week for fashion.