At Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week (KLFW) 2025 during its last few hours, the air was thick with anticipation. Models slip into dramatic silhouettes, stylists adjust last-minute details, and a steady hum of adrenaline courses through the room.
At the centre of it all is Kel Wen, founder and creative director of Behati, preparing for his most significant show yet. For the first time, Behati was given the closing show slot for KLFW 2025, emphasising the trust placed in him by KLFW founder Andrew Tan.
Having showcased at KLFW since 2019, Behati’s journey has grown alongside the event, and this slot symbolised years of persistence, creativity, and collaboration. “My brand really grew up with KLFW,” he says. “To be entrusted with the closing slot this year…it feels like everything came full circle.”
The early days of Kel Wen and Behati
Fashion wasn’t always the plan for Kel Wen. His first love was music, specifically piano and theatre, and only turned to fashion at a cousin’s suggestion. “I thought, okay, if I don’t succeed, at least I can still sell T-shirts,” he recalls with a laugh.
But the pivot soon revealed his calling. What shaped his eye for design wasn’t traditional runway glamour but pop culture itself. “Lady Gaga in McQueen, Rihanna in her red hair era, Beyoncé on stage – I studied celebrity culture, not fashion magazines. That was my introduction to creating a spectacle.”
Behati was born almost by chance in 2018 when a friend invited him to contribute to a Raya showcase. His debut piece – a kurung-style baju Melayu for women – marked the start of something unexpected. The following year, his oversized baju Melayu went viral on Twitter (currently known as X) during the pandemic.
By 2019, Kel Wen was invited to KLFW, marking the brand’s entry into Malaysia’s biggest fashion stage. Those early years were raw and chaotic, but formative. “We used to come backstage with pieces that weren’t even ironed yet, with barely 15 minutes to prepare before the show,” he remembers. “But that was how I learned.”
Eight years of Behati culminate at KLFW 2025
Fast forward to 2025, and Behati’s closing show at KLFW carried a weight unlike any other. This year’s collection – a blend of cultural silhouettes and modern drama – was, as Kel Wen puts it, “a dictionary of what I’ve created throughout my eight years with Behati.”
On the runway, baju kurung-inspired shapes flowed into oversized capes, traditional textiles were paired with modern silhouettes, and gender-fluid styling gave Malaysia’s heritage garments a futuristic edge. It wasn’t just a show; it was a statement of how far Behati had come.
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But bringing this vision to life came with immense challenges. With just a month to prepare, every detail from all the dramatic draping to custom eyewear demanded precision. Kel Wen credits his team and partners for the flawless execution: “My collaborators were incredible; they all went all out, and because of their skills, everything came together.”
Time constraints on the day of the show added another layer of pressure. The second half of the runway was left entirely unrehearsed, making each moment on stage one take. Yet, with the experience Kel Wen had gathered from years of showing at KLFW and from international presentations in Harbin and Vietnam, he approached the show with confidence and clarity.
“I always try to treat each show as if it could be my last,” he says, underscoring the urgency and authenticity behind every look. With meticulous planning, the expertise of his collaborators, and lessons learned from past experiences, KLFW 2025 concluded on a high note – a showcase that honoured Behati’s journey while confidently pointing to its future.
Culture as language, fashion as dialogue
If there is one thread running through all of Behati’s collections, it is Kel Wen’s focus on cultural reinterpretation. “My design language has always been about going back to our roots,” he explains. “In our history, we’ve always seen things separated: Chinese costume, Malay costume, Indian costume. But what we don’t often see is a true compilation – a blended costume of Malaysia.”
That dream, he says, is what drives him toward creating what he calls a “Baju Malaysia”, a garment that reflects the diversity of the nation. “When we merge cultural elements, it’s also a way of saying we accept each other’s identities.”
The oversized baju Melayu – Behati’s viral breakthrough – came from a deeply personal place. Traditionally fitted, the baju Melayu didn’t align with his taste for oversized jackets and sweaters. So he reimagined it, pairing it with jeans for a relaxed, modern feel. That reinterpretation sparked conversations online and drew attention to Behati’s ethos: making traditional garments relevant again.
But Kel Wen didn’t stop at intuition. He dove into research, frequenting museums and archives to understand the history behind garments like the baju kurung, cheongsam, sari, and kebaya. “So many of these costumes have been frozen in time – stuck in books and displays, not in real life. I kept asking myself: why should the story end there?”
Today, his work carries that purpose: to revive tradition by reimagining it for the present. “Even my own family didn’t wear traditional clothings for Chinese New Year, it was fine as long as it was new. That loss of connection made me want to design pieces that reconnect people with tradition in a way that feels current.”
Lessons learned, what comes next
Eight years into Behati, Kel Wen admits that the biggest lesson has been humility and collaboration. “I like working with people who create for the sake of art. When everyone is driven by passion, you get something bigger than yourself.”
He also acknowledges that growth has meant learning how to navigate sensitivity, especially when it comes to culture and identity. In the past, his reinterpretations of traditional attire or use of gender-fluid styling sometimes drew criticism online, whether for reworking heritage garments or for crossing cultural lines as a Chinese designer.
But instead of backing away, Kel Wen has learned to engage more thoughtfully. “It’s not about being less honest, but about finding a more professional and educational way to contextualise what I do,” he reflects.
For him, criticism is part of the process of transformation. If there were no pushback, he believes, it would mean the work wasn’t evolving. What anchors him through it all is the belief that Behati’s designs are not about erasing tradition but reconnecting people with it, especially those who may not have worn heritage garments otherwise.
Looking ahead, Behati is already preparing next year’s collections. As Chinese New Year and Hari Raya fall so close together, the brand plans to combine them into a single collection. Kel Wen admits it’s not the most commercially efficient approach, but it feels true to Behati’s ethos – blending cultures, traditions, and modernity into one seamless expression.
Stay tuned to Behati’s upcoming collections here and follow along Kel Wen’s journey here.
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