In this painting, a two-hundred-year gap between two generationally distinctive styles of portraiture is bridged thanks to the work of four different artists, including an unknown American painter, presumably associated with the "Boston School," back in the 19th century.

Any visual records of the social and cultural conventions of clothing of any specific era become relevant for fashion studies. Over the years, we've relied on all kinds of imagery to understand how people used to wear, consume and express themselves through fashion in the past.

The goal was to make a painting that could reflect the new, the old, and the relationship between them.

Originally titled "Portrait of a Young Man with Brown Hair", the artwork was first purchased years ago by a private collector through an auction house in the US before I acquired it at the beginning of my residency with Vogue Singapore in late December 2020.

The portrait was subsequently placed under the scrutiny of Sharon Tang, director of 5Degree East and a well-known veteran in the restoration of oil on canvas paintings in South East Asia.

Once restored, a dog's nose, ears and tongue were applied over the subjects face with the help of Singaporean contemporary painter Shen Jiaqi, in the likeness of the popular Snapchat "Dog Filter."

"Is it a painting about clothes? Old clothes or new clothes?" That was the first answer to the question "What is a fashion painting?", the creative brief I assigned to myself for Vogue Singapore's March "Creativity" issue.