SHUEN CHIU The owner of Rent-A-Dress talks eternal style, feminine empowerment, and how to dress for your shape. By Amy Yasmine.
Shuen Chiu means business, and quite evidently so. “As a business person, I admire Diane von Fürstenberg for her sheer tenacity and will to do whatever she puts her mind to, all the while supporting female entrepreneurs,” she remarks. “For someone to have left the scene for years and come back and rebrand herself, and still be just as successful – that is no mean feat.” In some ways, the owner and founder of Rent-A-Dress, Malaysia’s first occasion-wear rental company, can relate. Shuen’s own tenacity and self will has earned her an expansion of business to Singapore, despite the company only being less than a year old. “This journey with Rent-A-Dress is really like having a baby, from the birth of the concept to nurturing it and seeing it grow. It’s still an infant, and there have already been both growth pains and rewards, but I’m excited to see it grow into a teenager – hopefully soon!”
A graduate in medical science, the 27-year-old entrepreneur is a classic example of beauty and brains. However, she does admit her interest in fashion was borne of the lack of creative outlets her former industry imposed. “My parents had always wanted me to go down the science route even though I always gravitated towards the creative side of studies,” she reveals. “My true ‘education’ in fashion and shopping was when I studied abroad in Australia. They didn’t have the mainstream high-street labels, but had a lot of amazing Monochromatic in Robert Rodriguez