The king of viral fashion would like a word.

Some designers take years to establish themselves. Some don&rsquo;t even come close to. And then there&rsquo;s Kel Wen (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/kel__wen/">@kel__wen</a>) who only took a year to launch his fashion label into prominence.&nbsp;
Founded in 2018, Behati has become an integral part of modern-day pop culture after photos of Kel Wen&rsquo;s oversized Baju Melayu started making the rounds in cyberspace.&nbsp;
His revisionist Malay traditional costume had invited cheers as well as jeers from netizens but more importantly, it charted a course, an exciting one at that, for Behati.

What prompted you to focus on traditional wear?
Honestly, I never thought I&rsquo;d focus on designing traditional wear. But I studied more about the culture after the Baju Melayu went viral and I found out that there&rsquo;s so much I had yet to discover.&nbsp;I was taught to look outward for inspiration instead of focusing on stuff that&rsquo;s already around me and I think that&rsquo;s the case for other designers too.
I feel like it shouldn&rsquo;t be so limited in that way. There aren&rsquo;t many designers out there who really innovate our traditional wear so I feel like it is my job to create something new.
&nbsp;
What do you make of the claims of cultural appropriation that have been made?
A lot of Malaysians have misunderstood the real meaning of cultural appropriation. It&rsquo;s honestly a social media trend. We live in a multiracial country, as one, so what&rsquo;s wrong with taking inspiration from each other&rsquo;s culture when we basically grow up living together?
We are not taking elements from the Japanese culture, you know?&nbsp;People judge me because I&rsquo;m a Chinese person who&rsquo;s designing Malay clothes. But come on. I have been wearing traditional clothes for Raya since I was younger. It&rsquo;s part of my growing up. It&rsquo;s my life.

It&rsquo;s safe to say that Behati is now the Internet&rsquo;s favourite love-to-hate brand. Is all publicity good publicity?
All publicity is good publicity for the brand but not necessarily for the product. All the viral stuff is good for Behati in a sense that everyone knows about Behati.&nbsp;Whether it&rsquo;s a bad criticism or a good one, it is good for branding.
But there are some cases where it backfires like when I launch a product and it doesn&rsquo;t sell even though it has gone viral. So it depends.
&nbsp;
Behati has also caught the attention of many big-time celebrities. What&rsquo;s the creative process like?
It is a collaborative effort with the artiste and the stylist because everything is custom-made but I always try to infuse the elements of tradition into all of my pieces.
A lot of stylists in Malaysia tend to send designers designs by international brands and ask them to just tailor them. I personally reject the stylists who send me those kinds of requests. I would never do that. I&rsquo;d always try to change things up.

On that note, what&rsquo;s your take on the concept of originality?
As a designer, you have to know what your purpose is. I found my purpose in traditional wear and I always go back to our history, to my own roots. I feel like that is a very clear direction.&nbsp;
Whatever it is that people throw at me, say they want a Victorian dress, I&rsquo;d inject the elements of Malaysian tradition into it. That&rsquo;s what makes Behati Behati. As people say, nothing is original anymore but there&rsquo;s always something new, and mixing cultures is a way to create.
&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s the most memorable fashion-related pop culture moment to you?
It&rsquo;ll have to be Rihanna wearing that &ldquo;omelette&rdquo; dress by Guo Pei to the Met Gala in 2015. That&rsquo;s the best Met Gala moment in history. It&rsquo;s traditional, it&rsquo;s oversized, it&rsquo;s on brand. I would say that that&rsquo;s the only viral dress that matters. Nothing can top that at least for now.&nbsp;
Until today, people are still talking about it. You always go back to that dress no matter what she wears to the following Met Galas. It&rsquo;s that impactful. That&rsquo;s what I hope to achieve as a designer.

Photography &amp; Words:&nbsp;Nikita Nawawi Styling:&nbsp;Amelia Tan

Interview: Kel Wen on the meteoric rise of Behati, going viral and cultural appropriation

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