The X Secret Party : X Top Model Search 2012 Preview

Kuala Lumpur, 16th December 2011.

When I first received the invitation via facebook, I was truly intrigued by the photo of yellow carpet going straight through a cut-out slit of a high security fencing to what looked like a creepy “X-file” complexes. There’s even a No Trespassing Warning on the fence with a very clear message: Violators will be shot; Survivors will be shot again! LOL! I presumed all the guests will be shot to death by straight shots of Martini, Vodka, Tequila or Brandy. If you are not dead yet, they would probably drown you in beer and maybe if you are very lucky, in a giant bowl of fine Champagne! Talk about happy ending – pun intended! They might even throw in a Burlesque girl just for kicks…..

After braving KL’s Friday night jam, I finally arrived at Kompleks Kenanga Wholesale City – the location of the X Secret Party. I have never even step foot here, let alone driving pass this part of town. And my first attempt really back-fired when I missed the right turn after DBP and went straight into Friday’s night traffic crawl along Jalan  Hang Tuah. It took me 30 minutes just to make a U-turn to return to Jalan Kenanga. Phew!

And when I arrived to Kenanga Wholesale City, once again I was lost and have to seek the help of the information counter to find the location of the party. It was on 14 floor and you would have to go through something like 12B in order to reach the place. It was truly an X-perience just to find the forbidden X entrance! But it was all worth it. At the reception I was greeted by so many beautiful angels as if I was queuing to be admitted into heaven! Heaven on earth as they say…..

I was truly surprised that Kenanga Wholesale City has such a huge hall with multiple side-levels for holding large scale event like the X Secret Party or any other large scale fashion event in the future. Hopefully they could live up to their billing as a true competitor to Thailand’s Platinum Fashion Mall. But one thing is for sure – their fashion event hall is really impressive.

As expected, KL famous traffic jam reared it’s ugly face and the event has to be delayed for well over one hour. By then some guests have already been shot to death by Vodka, Martini, or some other people…. Some were drowned by beer of many brand names. But have no fear. They truly volunteered to be shot and to be drowned!

It was an event to be remembered and to be cherish for life…..so I thought! Alas….. it was not to be….. When the event started proper and when we, the photographers and the bloggers tried to climb up to what looked like a photography platform, we were rudely shooed away by an overzealous technician or maybe supervisor of the video-man! What was his problem? He feared that the weight of the photographers would shake the whole platform or maybe crashed the platform with his video-man on it! What an idiot! Even if his high tech video camera does not have anti-shake video feature, the slight vibration of the standing photographers would cause minimal shake to the platform once all of us have settled in. If he is so scared of getting wobbly video, didn’t it occur to him that he should be the one to specify his requirement to the organizer in the first place when he was awarded the job? Instead of constructing a wooden platform, maybe he should specify a concrete platform with maybe gold-trimmed hand-railings? Maybe a dumbwaiter might help him to get up the platform too! He should be banished to the Siberian Tundra ASAP! Something the organizer should think about in the future.

Sorry for the blind ramblings…. but I just have to give him a piece of my mind after spending 2 days processing my photographs taken at this event.

Finally I have to congratulate the organizer for putting up such a fine party and to sizzle up the night life in Kuala Lumpur. It was truly memorable for all the right reasons and some not so right but overall, it was an event to die for in Kuala Lumpur. Hopefully it will grow to become a permanent event in KL where everyone can look forward to year after year!

Thank you, Kenji for the invite.