Art attire

T-shirts inspired by children’s drawings add fun to adult clothing, writes Nadia Badarudin

CHILDREN’S artworks are usually doodles or simple drawings of cats, flowers, trees and funny zombielike creatures. While such art may look ordinary to most adults, they mean much more to Ivan Eng Seng Guan and his wife Hany Cheng Chue Han.

For this couple, such artworks have a sense of purity and innocence, and these drawings have inspired them to form Havan Clothing, a social enterprise that works on the principle of fashion for a good cause.

I don’t like the idea of one-off charity events or occasionally donating food, clothing or other necessities to underprivileged children. The intention is good but the benefits are short-lived.

Ivan Eng Seng Guan

The designs on the T-shirts by Havan Clothing are based on artworks done by the children at the home during

Hany’s EQ lessons.

Based on her experience, Cheng says children from shelter homes normally lack self-confidence, trust in others and social interaction skills. Drawing and painting are some of the activities held to encourage the little ones to express their feelings and eventually improve their emotional wellbeing and social interaction.

The brand’s debut collection features cats followed by a nature-inspired design of flowers and trees presented in simple embroidery. A zombie design has also been turned into a cute iron-on patch.

The flowers and trees were drawn by a boy who used to draw using a ruler. There is a story behind each “masterpiece”.

“During one lesson, I asked the children to draw their calling or their passion. The boy said his calling is to plant as many trees and Havan Clothing’s first collection features cats. T-shirts by Havan Clothing are inspired by artworks done by children and each T-shirt comes in a nice packaging and makes a great gift.