BAZAAR's Top 100 Iconic Moments From 2010 To 2019 Part 1

1. Asian women represent

Former BAZAAR cover girls, Gemma Chan and Awkwafina’s rise herald not just an overdue racial representation of Asians in Hollywood, but also Asian women in particular. Chan and Awkwafina’s characters in 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians instantly stole the gaze of Tinseltown. On the small screen, Indian actress Priyanka Chopra’s character in Quantico became the toast of American television at the height of the serial’s popularity in 2015.

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Asian women represent

2. Rainbow Connection

LGBTQ representation on the small screen has increased in the past 10 years, peaking in 2018 with the release of Queer Eye and Pose, which feature gay men and trans people, on American streaming giant Netflix. The two are among the most in-demand shows, and have made instant celebrity advocates of Jonathan Van Ness and Billy Porter

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2. Rainbow Connection

3. Crazy Rich Asians

Not since The Joy Luck Club in 1993 has a major Hollywood film featured an all-Asian cast in a contemporary setting. Based on Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel of the same name, 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians cast a spotlight on our tiny red dot. It’s the highest‑earning romantic comedy in a decade, having grossed around US$238 million worldwide, and made global stars out of Henry Golding and Constance Wu.

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3. Crazy Rich Asians

4. App Fab – Tag, You're It

It started as a simple visual diary in 2010, but Instagram has since evolved into a photo- and video-sharing platform where we get our news, engage with friends, watch TV and shop.

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4. App Fab – Tag, You're It

5. App Fab – Modern Romance

Finding the one can’t get any easier with dating apps such as Tinder (in 2012) and Bumble (in 2014). With the former, you need only remember that left is bad, right is good. And with the latter, women are in control, being the first to initiate a conversation.

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5. App Fab – Modern Romance

6. App Fab – Stream This

Netflix brought convenience and self-sustainability to 120 million users worldwide with original TV shows and films ranging from indie to box-office hits.

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6. App Fab – Stream This

8. Wakanda Forever

This decade isn’t just the golden age of superhero movies. It also saw the first Black Marvel superhero take to the big screen in Black Panther, which featured a predominantly black cast. It won not one, but three awards at the 2019 Oscars, paving the way for increased diversity and minority representation in films.

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8. Wakanda Forever

9. The Empress' New Clothes

Who could forget when fashion’s baddest gal with the BDE, Riri, made her grand entrance in a majestic yellow Guo Pei couture creation? Dubbed The Omelette, the most talked-about dress that year catapulted the Asian couturier into the global spotlight.

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9. The Empress' New Clothes

10. Fashionable Dresses – Jennifer Lawrence Falling In Dior Couture

American actress Jennifer Lawrence looked resplendent in one of Raf Simons’ early couture creations for Dior at the 2013 Oscars, but it wasn’t the dress that got everyone talking. It was the tumble she took in it while on her way up the stage to receive her Best Actress award for Silver Linings Playbook—a moment that turned into a meme.

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10. Fashionable Dresses – Jennifer Lawrence Falling In Dior Couture

11. Fashionable Dresses – Everything's Okurrr

At barely 30, award-winning American rapper-turned-actress-turned-unlikely-linguist Cardi B is already a fashion supernova. She stole the show at Paris Fashion Week 2019 when she made her entrance in a floral ensemble by British fashion designer Richard Quinn that covered every inch of her body. A video of her in that dress, taken in front of the Eiffel Tower, has garnered 10 million views to date.

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11. Fashionable Dresses – Everything's Okurrr

12. Fashionable Dresses – Jenny's Still Got It

American pop star Jennifer Lopez made waves when she closed the Versace show at Milan Fashion Week spring/summer 2020 in an updated version of the iconic jungle-print dress she wore to the Grammys in 2000. Yes, that silk chiffon Versace number with the plunging neckline down to there. Needless to say, the international style icon broke the Internet again.

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12. Fashionable Dresses – Jenny's Still Got It

13. Philippines' Crowning Glories

There must be something in the water in the Philippines, for in a span of just three short years, two Miss Philippines have taken home the title of Miss Universe. Pia Wurtzbach won the competition in 2015, becoming the first Asian to do so in eight years, after which Catriona Gray took the crown again in 2018.

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13. Philippines' Crowning Glories

14. Stranger Things

A delightful blend of sci-fi, horror and comedy, Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things paid homage to the ’80s and evoked intense nostalgia for the era when it debuted in 2016. We love that British actress and BAZAAR cover girl Millie Bobby Brown makes even her character Eleven’s nosebleeds look chic.

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14. Stranger Things

15. Game of Thrones

Arguably the best TV series of the decade, HBO’s Game of Thrones, which premiered in 2011, gained a fanatical following that saw 19.3 million viewers tune in to its final episode. The fantasy drama series, famed for its medieval realism, blockbuster budgets (US$100 million for the sixth season), and grand settings in Malta, Croatia, Iceland and Ireland, plus oodles of nudity, violence and gore, is well deserving of its 160 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations.

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15. Game of Thrones

16. The Crown

Opening the hallowed doors to the British monarchy, Netflix took on a behemoth of a subject matter in 2016. Casting brilliant actresses Claire Foy and Vanessa Kirby in key roles, the series takes an in-depth look into the lives of the British royals, deftly balancing fact and fiction, weaving reel-life narratives into real-life history. Now into its third season, its mix of riveting politics and liaisons in the bedroom have led to Emmy and Golden Globe nods for the series.

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16. The Crown

17. The Lion City Roars – Local Pride

Singaporean faces went global this decade with Nadia Rahmat becoming the face of Marc Jacobs’ Spring/Summer 2015 campaign; national swimmer and BAZAAR cover boy Joseph Schooling scoring our first gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics; and Layla Ong, Jean Yong and Diya Prabhakar headlining Gucci, Balmain and Oscar de la Renta’s runways respectively.

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17. The Lion City Roars – Local Pride

7. #Metoo and #Timesup Movements

Raising more than US$22 million for the defence of the survivors of sexual assault and harassment, the movements that shook Hollywood and fashion to the ground gained traction in 2017 with the widespread sexual abuse allegations against American film producer and Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein. As women started to feel empowered to speak out, so too have the men who have experienced the same form of abuse.

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7. #Metoo and #Timesup Movements

18. The Lion City Roars – Local Institutions, Global Icons

Two developments designed by architect Moshe Safdie in the last decade got everyone talking: Integrated resort Marina Bay Sands, which forever changed our skyline when it opened in 2010, and 2019’s Jewel Changi Airport, a nature-themed shopping and lifestyle destination in the airport.

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18. The Lion City Roars – Local Institutions, Global Icons

19. The Lion City Roars – Paris in Dempsey Hill

The spotlight was on us when the late Karl Lagerfeld chose Singapore to launch Chanel’s cruise 2013/2014 collection, bringing all the glamour of Rue Cambon and a sea of international stars with him. He sent us all into a tizzy with a collection dedicated to our little red dot, presenting looks that echoed our rich colonial heritage.

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19. The Lion City Roars – Paris in Dempsey Hill

21. Going Gaga Over Meat

Lady Gaga has never been one for subtlety, be it in fashion, music, opinion or lifestyle. She shocked at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards by appearing in a dress made of raw flank, aptly dubbed Meat Dress. It proved more than an attention-grabbing outfit though: It was a statement against the US military’s then “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals.

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21. Going Gaga Over Meat

23. Royal Births

The 2010s were celebratory times for the British monarchy, what with the fairy-tale weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry, and the royal births of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis of Cambridge in 2013, 2015 and 2018 respectively, and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor in 2019.

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23. Royal Births

24. Beyoncé Gets Visual

In a game-changing move, Queen Bey released her Grammy-winning, eponymous fifth studio album in 2013—not in physical stores but in the digital realm, on iTunes, eschewing the traditional album format for a visual album where all songs had corresponding videos. The videos, which the American music legend had total creative control over, touched on love, relationships and even feminism. And who can forget the catchy “Drunk in Love”?

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24. Beyoncé Gets Visual

25. Tech Talk – Super Samsung

In the last 10 years, we went from contending with clamshells to prodding our touchscreens. With Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold, rolled out in 2019, we finally have the best of both worlds: A foldable touchscreen.

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25. Tech Talk – Super Samsung

26. Tech Talk – Huawei

Unveiled in September this year, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro completely transformed the industry’s standard of mobile phone photography with a 40 megapixel filming camera, an 8 megapixel Leica telephoto lens and a 3D depth-sensing camera.

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26. Tech Talk – Huawei

27. Tech Talk – Gotta Catch 'Em All

Sparking a global frenzy when it was released in 2016, Pokémon Go saw users take to the streets in droves to catch digital monsters. With over a billion downloads, the mobile app, one of the first to use augmented reality in gaming, grossed US$3 billion in global revenue to date.

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27. Tech Talk – Gotta Catch 'Em All

28. Tech Talk – YOOX Net-a-Porter

Heralding a new era in e-commerce, the YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, founded in 2015, revolutionised the way we consume luxury fashion.

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28. Tech Talk – YOOX Net-a-Porter

29. Tech Talk – Signed, Sealed, Deliveroo

Created by Will Shu and Greg Orlowski in 2013, Deliveroo, valued at over US$2.5 billion, addresses our most primal need: Hunger. The food delivery mobile app brings us whatever we’re craving, be it from the best restaurants or the most faraway hawker stalls.

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29. Tech Talk – Signed, Sealed, Deliveroo

30. Yas Queen

We don’t know what the royal protocol is for cheering a monarch on at a fashion show, but in the summer of 2019, that was all we wanted to do: Praise HM Queen Elizabeth II for swapping the throne for the front row at London Fashion Week. The queen’s appearance at Britain’s latest fashion wunderkind Richard Quinn’s autumn/winter 2019 show was the most talked-about event that fashion season.

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30. Yas Queen

20. The Lion City Roars – The 2018 Trump-Kim Summit

Our city state hosted the first meeting between American President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea, where they discussed security issues, cross-border relations and the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

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20. The Lion City Roars – The 2018 Trump-Kim Summit

22. Downton Abbey

Captivating the world with the trials and tribulations of the privileged Crawley family since its premier in 2011, this award-winning period drama made an instant fashion icon of its leading lady, Michelle Dockery. After the TV series ended in 2015, it made its way to the big screen in 2019 for a global audience that couldn’t get enough of British aristocracy.

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22. Downton Abbey