Diamonds are not just a girl’s best friend – they can be a man’s too. As home-grown jeweller Lee Hwa Jewellery’s first celebrity ambassador, Singaporean actor Desmond Tan hopes the partnership will encourage more men to “be brave and express themselves, as life is too short”. In the campaign’s promotional pictures, the 37-year-old is draped in a suite of diamond accessories.
He says the earrings, necklace, bracelet and ring – part of Lee Hwa’s Destinee Espoir collection – are not just for women. “These pieces can be worn by guys and girls – just get the right size,” Tan tells The Straits Times in a Zoom interview. Seen as one of the most stylish local male celebrities, the Mediacorp artiste reveals he owns clothing and jewellery designed for women, believing “there is not much of a boundary between genders” in fashion.
As a child, he often used his mum’s jewellery to accessorise his outfits. Now, as the first Singaporean actor to have been invited to attend fashion weeks in Paris and Milan in 2023 and 2024, his conviction that fashion is genderless has only grown stronger. Ratajkowski repurposes engagement ring into ‘divorce rings’ “During my fashion week tours, I got to understand that the whole idea of design isn’t centred on gender,” says Tan.
“How you look doesn’t just come from the outside, but comes two ways – what you feel inside and what you put effort into expressing.” Yet, the strongest fashion principle he follows c.
