CURLY flowing tresses. Tube dress. Sensuous smoky eyes.

What happened to Singapore’s famously tomboyish Stefanie Sun?

The one who had, for the most part of her 10-year music career, sported short hair and pants? Well, fashion happened.

The photos you see here are part of a fashion shoot that the popular singer did for Chinese fashion label the Carnaby.The pictures were taken for a catalogue for the clothing line.

These outfits were also designed by Sun for its fashion line Yanzi for the Carnaby.

The singer became an accidental designer last year after the boss of the label expressed interest in doing a line together.

The clothes, targeted at the strong and modern working woman, include jackets, pants and dresses, with ruffles being a strong feature.

Theoutfits are sold in major cities in China. “Yanzi” is Sun’s Chinese name. Incidentally, she turns 32 today. (Happy birthday!)

The singer is already designing another collection for her clothing line, but admitted it hasn’t been easy. She said of her style of clothing: “I try to design things that I would wear or buy.”

“The collection is almost always black and soft, except for a few strong prints to tie it all together...I dislike unnecessary or unflattering details... and shop incessantly for inspiration,” she added.

Her designs also reflect feminism as a strength and power. However, this new womanly image may just be a phase.

Sun told The New Paper by e-mail: “I’m still a tomboy, but with longer hair. The soft and feminine pictures are part of the spring-summer look.

“I just like the freedom of breaking out of a particular mould.

“Sometimes I also do the ‘glasses and office lady look’ so that I’m less recognised in the streets.”

Despite her tomboyish mannerisms, Sun, who answered candidly in English, confessed that underneath all that, she is a “hiau (Hokkien for vain) person through and through”.

She continued: “I used to refuse to go to school when my fringe was‘wrong’.

“In other words, being a tomboy does not equal to being less vain. It’s part of the persona.”

While she is very confident in her own skin now, that wasn’t the case when she burst onto the music scene 10 years ago.

Then a Nanyang Technological University undergraduate, Sun wore a bikini worn over a T-shirt for the cover of her self-titled debut album.

What does she think of that outfit now,we asked? The singer replied with self-deprecating humour: “Can I delete this question?

“It’s like my trophy of shame – my friends like to bring it up to douse my confidence.”

Thankfully, Sun has more trophies to remind her of her successes in her decade in the music industry. She celebrated that milestone in June with an early-morning “trek” with her supporters at Mount Faber.

On her blog, she described it as “the most exciting time of her life”.

She wrote: “There were friends from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Beijing, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Fujian, Australia andof course Singapore.

“A few of them made the trip down especially for the trek today. I was truly amazed at their dedication.”

Looking back on those 10 years, she said that time flew past so quickly that she lost track of it while pursuing her career.

“It was only when some new artiste started calling me ‘Yanzi-jie’ (a term of respect in Mandarin, which literally means older sister) that I thought, ‘Yeaaah I’ve been around quite a bit, haven’t I?’”

When asked how she has changed over the 10 years, she replied: “I think I have developed a thicker hide – I am still not sure if it works against or for me.”

What hasn’t changed though, is that she’s – in her own words – “pretty much still very gorgeous inside out, plus or minus some wrinkles here and there”.

Sun said she counts winning awards and getting lots of pats onthe back as highlights of her career.

The low points are those times when she felt she lost her way – her self-esteem and identity, and “what’s normal and what’s not”.

There were also a couple of close calls.

Ten years ago, when the rookie was signing autographs in Chungli near Taipei, a man took her hostage with a gun.

The 26-year-old man had demanded NT$1million (S$56,000 then).

The gun turned out to be a prop and the man was subdued by security personnel.

Recalling that incident, she told us: “I think it probably seemed like another publicity stunt to my detractors but it sure wasn’t.

“The guy did time in remand prison and I got to be in the main pages of the newspaper!”

In 2007, Sun and her 22-member production crew were allegedly threatened by an Egyptian tour guide who demanded more money from them.

The singer was in Cairo to film a music video and wasreportedly “quite shocked”.

The group reported the incident to the Singapore embassy in Cairo and returned to Taiwan before completing the music video.

Though candid about many things, Sun was coy when we asked about her boyfriend, Dutchman Nadim VanDer Ros.

The couple were recently caught by the Chinese press watching the movie Inception at a cinema here.

Sheeven deleted our question about their relationship from the e-mail and added: “If your boss asks, you can put the blame on me.

It’s alright, I’m not afraid to be disagreeable.”

She also said she intends to release a new album soon, but did not reveal any more details.

Her last album, in 2007, was called Against The Light, and she has not signed with a recording company for the past three years.

Whenwe asked why not, she said there have been so manyreasons that she doesn’tknowwhat the real one is any more.

But in an earlier interview, Sun had said she felt she needed time to reflect where shewas and where she was going.

“There is no point in moving forward continuously without understanding what you truly want in life,” she hadsaid.

During the last three years, she said she “had a jolly good time” with herself just reading, making clothes, doing yoga, singing and cooking.

Before she ended the e-mail, the star thanked this reporter “for taking interest inmy10-year-old career”.

She added: “I hope you do a big fat coverage just for the loyal fans who have stuck around and my parents, whohave always loved agood write-up!”

This article was first published in The New Paper.