Fashion Crossings: Fish Out Of The Water

by Anas Roshad

Jumping in fashion has always been a dream of one young Nicole. She remembered specifically when she started to pick up the pencil and sketch and draw and let out all the curiosity of a child to something she sees beautiful. She observe the people around her and witnessed the colourful bright patterned designs of garments. She gradually fell in liking with fashion. As the attention grew even more towards the day, she started exploring on the how-to fashion, up till she can get her hands to sew her own piece.

Nicole’s biggest inspiration is one thing, it’s EVERYTHING. Indirectly, when she pays attention to something hard enough, she can make a sketch out of it. Ultimately, she admires the big name of Yohji Yamamoto and hopeful to be called a fashionpreneur someday in the future. Her ideas came out of nowhere and pretty much all the basic stuff around her. She gets excited with shapes, sizes and color.

According to Nicole, as she’s not much of a morning person, she prefers listening to music to kick-start her day. Her essentials includes earrings, caps and watch. She believes that one particular comfortable piece of clothing can contribute so much of the wearer’s confidence. As a lot of her design passed through the sewing machine, Nicole noticed that she does not fall into one single category as she style her pieces in a few playful looks, adding cute little details here and there, and as a consumer herself, she felt by doing so, it makes fashion, sustainable. One piece to rock two to three looks is a big win for a customer.

Her label KOI TCC or Koi, The Common Carp was referring to the decorative fish Carp, which was also quite famous in Japan and as of Chinese beliefs, it brings luck to whoever rears it. Nicole has always been intrigued of the background and aquaculture of the water beauty, her brother picks out the name for her. On that note, her future plans include expanding the brand and focusing to drive her fashion passion onward.

“For one fashion designer to be able to set the trend, it’s possible, but quite a hard task to execute. I’m just like the fish, I follow the water, but while swimming, I got my own stream. My own tap on fashion.” Nicole Teoh of Koi TCC.

Nicole has always been a fan of drop-shoulder pieces and her signature designs combine the three elements of laid back, fun and cool. The girl admires Cassey Gun so much and hope in the future to sit and stand at the same level as her inspirational figures. It’s the drive to do something better every single day and to contribute more in fashion industry that could be an inspiration to the new generation makes her feel like, mastering the art of fashion is her biggest aspiration in life. It was never too late to start dreaming of something big, and if you think the tank wasn’t big enough, jump out!

RD Notes: Nicole Teoh Theng Yee is the wild thoughts behind the label Koi TCC, or Koi, The Common Carp. She has been actively designing with Royale Demure and a lot of her campaigns were a huge hit. You can tell it was her signature piece from the look of it, the fun little details and the screams of comfort. Follow her story at @nicoleteoh and her label at @koitcc.