Sunny Singapore is set to make its mark on what the world will be wearing next year, courtesy of this year's fashion festival.

The little red dot - or more precisely, the hot little red dot - proved a creative influence last week for Japan-born designer Izumi Ogino, the name behind Milan-based label Anteprima. She was here for this year's Singapore Fashion Festival.

Ogino, founder and creative director of Anteprima, showed her fall-winter 2008 collection here, but told Urban that she is already thinking about how she will be dressing her customers in spring 2009 - a whole year away.

And for that, she was glad to be basking in Singapore's tropical heat and not bundled up for cooler weather in Milan, Hong Kong or Tokyo, the three cities where she mainly works.

'This weather is helpful for inspiring my spring-summer 2009 collection,' said Ogino. 'It is easy to be immersed in designing spring clothes with this heat.'

Although spring 2009 may seem a long time away, Ogino has to wrap up her designs for that collection by May this year in order for the samples to be ready for fashion week in September.

Also in the works for Anteprima in the coming year is a new cosmetics line and a hosiery collection.

The fact that Singapore could see her FW08 collection, in its first showing since Milan's fashion week in February, was the result of much negotiating on Anteprima's part.

Ogino and her husband spend only 200 days a year together.

'After Milan, magazines were requesting samples for their shoots. So bringing the entire collection to Singapore was not easy because we could have upset some people,' Ogino explained.

Still the team managed to bring about 80 per cent of the collection to Singapore, including the season's key looks.

The petite designer with fuss-free short hair looks not a day over 40 even though she is in her 50s.

But when asked about her secret to looking youthful, Ogino simply laughs, says thank you and declares she has no fixed beauty regime.

Then she politely changes the topic to her frequent shuttling between Asia and Europe to meet her teams based there.

'Thirty days a year I spend in a plane,' she says in mock horror in her lilting Japanese-accented English.

Which begs the question how she gets to spend time with her husband, Masaaki Ozumi, chairman of Fenix Group, a Hong Kong-based company known for manufacturing knitwear. Fenix also owns and operates City Super, a chain of lifestyle and gourmet supermarkets in Hong Kong.

Sidefame, the retail subsidiary of Fenix, owns and operates Anteprima.

'Maybe that is the best way to have a long marriage,' she muses on their 20 years together. 'When we do meet, we are fresh and we miss each other.'

Mr Ogino, who is based in Hong Kong and was in Singapore with his wife, says: 'We kept a record and realised we are together almost 200 days a year. When we travel, we make sure we are together in the same country.'

But it is her frequent travelling that has made her the designer she is, says Ogino. She moved to Milan 15 years ago and began showing Anteprima there 10 years ago.

'My lifestyle is very unusual and through that, I've become very international.

'My collections are Japanese but not Japanese, Italian but not Italian,' she says of the contemporary aesthetic of Anteprima designs.

Indeed, the Anteprima show last Saturday night showcased the international appeal of Ogino's designs.

Her minimalist knits, swing jackets and loose drop-waist dresses are the stuff Japanese women's closets are made off.

Then backstage after the show, an American model said of the full-length cozy knit sweater she wore: 'It's just the kind of thing I would love to snuggle into in the New York winter.'

This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times on Apr 10, 2008.