trash
talk (2025)

Night Market Fashion (NMF), an ironically quiet subculture long dismissed as “tacky” by fashion elites, is now emerging as a vibrant counter-narrative to traditional fashion hierarchies in Southeast Asia. Given that it was never even considered in the conversation for fashion up until more influential individuals adopted the look, this growing phenomenon hints at a more profound, rising discussion on subculture, appropriation, and authenticity.

Trash Talk is a subversive magazine that collates the project’s research—anthropological analyses, documentation, in-depth interviews—into a garish, digestible publication for young adult Singaporean readers. The narration is set as if the publication came from an entirely different universe, one where NMF is the dominant culture that embraces all.

While the publication provides an informative inside look at NMF, the narration challenges readers to re-evaluate the rules they may have internalised growing up, rules that have seeped into how they view fashion and culture. This message is also reflected in the format itself: the notoriously exclusive nature of fashion editorials is, in turn, used to spotlight NMF, being put front and centre in a space they would normally be shunned from.

Accompanying the publication is a picnic mat, because if subcultural activities make up the NMF Spirit, the picnic mat is a vessel where it resides. The mat contains guiding prompts to make the first encouraging step into the NMF (pocket) universe. In true NMF fashion, the readers are not restricted to following the guide step-by-step and are encouraged to make NMF their own.

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