COLIN McDowell never had any training in fashion design.

But that did not stop him from becoming one of the most authoritative - and feared - fashion critics in the industry.

As senior fashion writer at The Sunday Times in Britain, he has been compared to American Idol's Simon Cowell for his acid-tongued comments on the fashion world.

However, the Englishman, who was in town two weeks ago for the Singapore Fashion Festival (SFF), had nothing but praise for the island republic.

A regular guest visitor to the festival and the annual Singapore Fashion Week, McDowell, who coyly refuses to reveal his age, says Singapore is a 'natural fashion hub' in Asia.

The well-groomed man, who was never seen in anything but a suit, possesses the quietly authoritative air of a Professor Dumbledore but looks like a leaner version of Colonel Sanders.

On Singapore, he pronounces: 'It has always looked West whereas other Asian capitals that I shan't name have looked inwards.'

To McDowell, Singaporean label alldressedup, for example, is 'very international and on-the-button' while Raoul, another local enterprise, exudes the same attitude as Spanish high-street label Zara.

Both fashion labels showed at this year's SFF, which ended on April 6.

That is high praise coming from a man who famously wrote in 2000 of a Givenchy fashion show: 'What a thin little show.'

A year later, the luxury French label's head designer, the bad boy of British fashion Alexander McQueen, left the fashion house saying his creativity was being constrained.

Besides 'being paid to fly around the world to see what's going on in fashion', McDowell is chairman of the Costume Society of Great Britain and the author of 16 books on fashion history. This includes the 1987 publication McDowell's Directory Of Twentieth Century Fashion that has come to be recognised as the bible among industry insiders.

How did a literature major at Durham University in Britain become this highly revered fashion doyen?

He was introduced to the fashion world in the 1980s by his then-girlfriend, a designer in Rome. Upon returning to London, he started writing about Italian fashion freelance.

The bachelor is not one to keep track of dates.

Pry him for details and the soft- spoken man brushes you aside politely but firmly: 'Oh I really can't remember. It was so long ago.'

He might not have formally studied fashion, but the man is an ardent proponent of fashion education. After all, he has dedicated the past 30 years to learning about the fashion world - from attending exhibitions to reading widely.

'I think I can say I have a lot of experience. It's never enough but when is it ever,' he says.

Which is why he was 'very shocked' at the attitude of an unnamed academic from a local design school whom he met here.

Recounting the encounter, McDowell says: 'I asked if his students would be attending the In Conversation session I was going to have with Kevin Carrigan the next day and he laughed and said, 'Oh but it's in Lasalle'.'

In Conversation is a popular dialogue session run by McDowell and sees the fashion critic getting up close and personal with international designers in front of a live audience.

He conducted two sessions at Lasalle College of the Arts with SFF participants including Carrigan, creative director of ck Calvin Klein.

Discouraging students to attend the dialogue just because it was held in a rival school is not education, McDowell says.

'Education is not about competition. It's about the interplay of ideas and everything, including fashion, starts with that.'

Trust the fashion critic to give a lecture about fashion education. The visiting professor at London Institute, which comprises all of central London's art schools including the famed Central St Martins, says: 'The people whom you educate are to be more important than the institution itself.'

But the man is still enamoured of Singapore and thinks the fashion future is bright here.

He muses: 'I would love to do a course here when I can. Singapore is racing forward and I want to be part of it. I think I can, at risk of sounding a tad arrogant, help in my small way.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Apr 14, 2008.