SERVING LOOKS

These Asia’s Most Influential honourees are in the business of making people look good and feel good, creating successful brands that are recognised beyond their borders

SINGAPORE

Less a trendspotter than a tastemaker, entrepreneur Cynthia Chua seems to possess an unerring instinct for creating successful

concepts. Chua’s Spa Esprit Group currently owns 15 brands, ten of which are F&B outlets; these include Tiong Bahru Bakery, Common Man Coffee Roasters and Tippling Club. And yet the group is still very much known for its presence in beauty and wellness, where it got its start. The initial success of Spa Esprit in 1996 provided Chua with the impetus to create the waxing chain Strip, eyebrow grooming salon Browhaus, retailer Beauty Emporium, and luxury intimate care brand Two Lips, which opened its first physical store in late 2021. Today, Spa Esprit Group brands are in more than 70 outlets throughout Asia, including Manila, Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

TAIWAN

Founded in 1978, Shiatzy Chen has grown over the past four decades from a knitwear label into Taiwan’s most established luxury fashion house, with locations all over Asia and a boutique on the chic Avenue Montaigne in Paris. Through it all, Tsai-hsia Wang Chen has remained the label’s creative force, and both the creator and the brand are the de facto representatives for Taiwan fashion. Then, as now, Wang Chen’s eye for impeccable tailoring and attention to craftsmanship lies at the foundation of Shiatzy Chen, bringing her signature style—a marriage of traditional Chinese influences with modern western sensibilities that she calls “neo-chinese chic”—to the world’s most famed runways, including at Paris Fashion Week.

HONG KONG

It’s not easy to land on a description for Federico Tan—tastemaker, fashion insider, marketing whiz, entrepreneur, cultural connector—or all of the above. The founder of marketing and communications agency The Advisory Council has worked with galleries and artists to launch exhibits and collaborate on projects, and with musicians like Pharrell Williams and Ciara. But it was in fashion that he got his start—he helped launch Diesel in China, as the brand’s head of marketing in Asia, before striking out on his own—and here he remains, working with leading brands that include Miu Miu, Loewe, Gucci, Adidas and Sacai . Tan has also been actively involved with Belowground at the Landmark Atrium in Hong Kong, a space that serves as a bridge to connect luxury retail with contemporary culture.

PHILIPPINES

Ben Chan opened the first Bench store in 1987 as nothing more than a T-shirt shop in a mall, but today it is an international flagship brand under the retail juggernaut that is Chan’s family business Suyen Corporation, of which he is chairman and CEO. Chan parlayed the success of Bench into ventures that have expanded the company’s footprint into other segments, such as the women’s clothing line Kashieca, and streetwear brand Human, and into foreign markets, along with businesses in the beauty and food industries. Bench continues to enjoy an important presence in fashion in the Philippines: not only is it still the country’s largest homegrown clothing brand, it also sponsors the internationally acclaimed Bench Ternocon, a convention that throws the spotlight on the terno, the Philippine national dress, and aims to repopularise the traditional outfit with bold new designs.