The Untold Legend of Vickie Dutton

Lurking in the pages of a 1960s women’s magazine is a fashion column written by Singapore’s first Malay model, Vickie Dutton. She taught a new generation of women how to “draw glances from admiring eyes” while still dressed in “comfortable coolness” with “freedom of movement”, and her simple insertion of a zipper in the kebaya’s skirt opened up a world of possibilities for the new working women.

But despite inspiring many during a transformative era of shifting social expectations, there is little known of Vickie Dutton.

Filmmaker Larissa Ong pieces together Vickie’s life by creating a contemporary fashion spread inspired by Vickie’s work. She seeks the help of a group of designers, models and photographers who embark on piecing together Vickie’s fashion. Larissa tracks down family, unearths personal belongings and archives to reveal an extraordinary personal life leading to a tragedy that ripped Vickie away from Singapore’s fashion magazines less than 10 years after making her debut.