(Photo courtesy Bernard Foong)
ORLANDO | Orlando fashion designer Bernard Foong is working his way through the rounds of the Style Icon 2025 competition, a collaboration between the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Flaunt magazine, Charlotte Tilbury and David Furnish.
“As a humanitarian person, I need to do something to help promote to get the word out, so people are aware that we still need funding to get a cure for this deadly virus,” Foong shares.
The winner of the competition will win $20,000 an exclusive spotlight spread in Flaunt magazine and a trip to Milan for the 2026 Versace Fashion Week. People can vote online through the website and Facebook to cast votes for their favorites. One vote a day is free, and people have the option to purchase extra votes that will directly benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The competition takes place from now until the beginning of December.
The Elton John AIDS Foundation is a leader in the global response to HIV. Since 1992, the Foundation has raised more than $650 million to support over 3,100 projects in 102 countries, working to increase access to healthcare, combat LGBTQ+ stigma and end the AIDS epidemic.
“I feel that giving back to the community is one way of helping fashion grow in Florida, because Florida seems to be somehow lacking behind in the fashion arena, and I hope to be able to at least lift it up several levels higher to be able to compete with the international fashion world,” Foong remarks.
Foong was born and raised in Malaysia where he got his start in fashion as a child at 9-years-old. He moved to London for his education and received a master’s in fashion studies at the Royal College of Art. Later in life Foong was awarded a scholarship from the University of Hawaii to complete his second master’s degree in theater costuming.
“For me, fashion is like an art form where it’s on a living person, it’s not static like hanging on the wall. It’s like a breathing and walking piece of art,” Foong shares.
Foong specializes in designing creative romantic pieces with a contemporary twist. He has spent his life learning and practicing fashion and spent decades internationally working for fashion houses in Malaysia and London. Foong has also taught fashion at universities around the world at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin. He also helped to establish a fashion design program at Temasek Polytechnic college in Singapore.
When Foong moved to Hawaii, he met his husband and they both eventually retired and moved to Orlando to live out their golden years in style. Since moving to Orlando, Foong and his husband have become heavily involved in the performing arts scene often attending shows at the Dr. Phillips Center, Orlando Ballet, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orlando Opera.
“Thanks to my beloved husband, who is always there to encourage me, he says don’t worry, the world will take care of itself, just do what you are best doing and let the world take care of itself,” Foong says.
Foong has been at the forefront of incorporating fashion into the Orlando Museum of Art, where some of his fashion pieces are slowly being put out on display.
“I’m trying to use this social platform to lift up the standard of fashion, because if you look at the international museums, they all include fashion as in their repertory, and it’s a very important part of art,” Foong remarks.
If he wins the competition, Foong wishes to donate some of the winnings to supporting novice fashion designers and help educate them on the pitfalls of the fashion industry. The other portion will go towards furthering his education with new AI technology and how it works in fashion.
“I feel that a lot of young people especially when they just come out of college, they tend to have this grand vision of being a great designer, but the steps to becoming a great designer, there are lots of pitfalls in the middle and you have to be aware of the of what you’re dealing with,” Foong shares.
To see more of Bernard Foong’s work and to vote, visit StyleIcon.org.
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