Ace Of Base

Without them, model layla ong might have never walked for gucci; the cult label youths in balaclava might not look as cool; and, well, some of the stuff you see in this magazine might never have materialised. Keng yang shuen gets 10 usually unseen forces (all women, by the way) who deserve the award for best supporting role in our fashion industry today to step into the spotlight.

THE MODEL BOOKER PUTTING SG ON THE GLOBAL MAP: BONITA MA

WHAT SHE DOES: What do some of Singapore’s most-in-demand models-ofthe-moment like Fiona Fussi, Aimee Cheng-Bradshaw and the Alessandro Michele-approved Layla Ong – our multi-time cover girl with this month’s marking her third in two years – have in common? They’re all represented here by Basic Models Management, the agency started by Ma and her husband in 2012 (out of the HDB home of Ma’s mother, to boot). That would make the 34-year-old Ma – who also bears the title of head booker – their industry mum, so to speak (yeah, her surname couldn’t be more apt).

A typical day for her involves meeting models hourly from the minute she steps into the office (now located in an industrial building in the MacPherson area) to discuss their progress and even content for their social media channels. Come 4pm, she switches over to EU time when the agencies in Europe start work and she has to coordinate placements and bookings for her models who are based there. Things only get more intense during the Fashion Week season when she’s “practially on call at all hours”, toggling multiple time zones to tend to all of her models’ needs.

“They should be able to ring at 2am here because they know that I’ll be there to assist them,” she says matter-of-factly. Take for instance how she had to go into emergency mode in February and rebook flights for models Ong and up-and-comer Kaci Beh so that they could return home earlier from Milan Fashion Week as the Covid-19 pandemic encroached on the Italian city.