KUALA LUMPUR: Acclaimed fashion designer Melinda Looi worked extra hard to come up with Anugerah Juara Lagu 38 (AJL38) runner-up Aina Abdul's spectacular costume.
She was so dedicated to her task that she even sacrificed her Chinese New Year holiday to ensure that Aina's "tree of life" costume was picture perfect.
Looi, the designer behind Aina's "big dress" costumes in the last two seasons of AJL, said in an Instagram video yesterday that she readily accepted Aina's request to design her AJL38 costume after the Seremban-born singer-songwriter qualified for the annual music awards show in late December.
"Aina's management approached me with the request in early February, and I was given a month to come up with a winning design. Aina's plan was to have a tree of life, and my team and I had to come up with something magical that would make her look like a tree fairy," she said.
The designer and her 12-member creative team spent 350 hours designing Aina's "human tree" outfit with latex, Japanese glass beads, metal parts, strings, ropes, Swarovski stones, taffeta leaves and even real tree branches.
"The costume's base was made up of jersey strips that were dyed to resemble various shades of brown, like the roots of a tree."
Netizens gave Looi the thumbs up for her bold and imaginative design that once again landed Aina in the top three of AJL.
"You are amazing Melinda. That outfit was simply out of this world," said a netizen identified only as Kay.
Aina won third prize in AJL38 for her song Jangan Mati Rasa Itu as well as Best Vocals.
Her performance conjured an image of a forest in autumn where she was a tree fairy who danced between red-leaved trees, and delivered a message of staying true to oneself.