KUALA LUMPUR, August 24 — The Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week 2022 (KLFW) has made few headlines over the week with the most recent one being an unlit cigarette stunt on the runway by a local celebrity.

Singer Noh Salleh was filmed in a clip that circulated across social media where he was seen casually walking down the runway, fashioning his new collaboration with another local streetwear brand while holding an unlit cigarette.

The 20-second clip which surfaced on TikTok has been viewed over a million times and has garnered negative response from local social media users since its circulation.

In a statement to Malay Mail, the local streetwear designer, SuperSunday who collaborated with Noh’s brand, Hikari Riders, has clarified that the unlit cigarette stunt was part of their show.

According to the statement, the cigarette was added as part of the outfit by their designer, and they denied the stunt being a symbol of protest.

The clip had prompted response from the Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah who took to social media yesterday to talk about the stunt and urged celebrities to become good role models.

SuperSunday added that their look represented the current young generation, and this was their way of presenting the street culture.

“The vibe for the brand is indeed a bit serious, even when you look at the make-up, it’s a bit serious.

“And maybe Noh was also a bit nervous at that time because it’s his first walk and his first fashion show, so maybe there was a glitch. But everything is still within the scope of our target show.

“The rebellious spirit is in the brand, and it is in the street culture itself,” SuperSunday wrote in the statement.

This is not the first time an unlit cigarette was brought up on the runway by SuperSunday as they had pulled off a similar stunt at the KLFW in 2018 through local model, Skeletonkii.

Skeletonkii who recently reshared his 2018 runway photo on his Instagram said that adding on the cigarette during the walk was spontaneous.

“As you can see in the picture I posted, the outfit that I wore for SuperSunday back in 2018 was a raincoat.

“Bob (the designer) and I had spontaneously decided to have a cigarette to go along with it.

“It was never a sign of protest, it’s just a part of the outfit itself,” he told Malay Mail.

@budieychannel

Noh Hujan buat penampilan di Show Super Sunday di KLFW2022. Ala ala bad bois gitu.

original sound - onefaridzuan

Previously, the event this year made headlines following a protest by top Malaysian model Alicia Amin who was protesting about the backdated payments to models by organisers.

Commenting on the protest, KLFW’s founder, Andrew Tan said that everyone had the “freedom of expressing themselves” and reiterated that he will personally oversee all aspects of KLFW’s finances.