FASHION DESIGNER
SU PEI, 39
Following a brief stint as a political analyst for the Ministry of Defence, Su Pei moved to London to pursue fashion design. In the last 14 years, she has worked as a fashion designer for premium-luxury brands in Spain, Hong Kong and China, and also set up Su by Hand, a sustainable womenswear label that produces its clothing in small batches and uses natural dyes obtained from flowers and vegetables. She's pictured here wearing a cotton dress from her label.
“I've always been an avid sketcher and, as a child, was obsessed with sketching clothing on models. Now, fashion design – the lines on paper, 3-D draping and fabric manipulation – is my medium of expression.
“I didn’t think I could live with the notion of ‘what if...’ or regrets, so I decided to just try,” she explains.
And she sure hasn’t looked back, particularly since she loves how her label allows her to connect with new people, from seamstresses and independent drafters to small production houses, local and international creatives (such as photographers and models), and retailers.
“This is especially important for our foundation as a slow fashion label. It is a joy to collaborate with authentic creatives who are all artists in their own right and bring new interpretations.”
That said, things aren’t always a bed of roses:
Su Pei still faces challenges like managing the gap between a good product and getting it out there to the right customers at the right price point. She also concedes that her need for perfection results in endless delays as things are “never good enough”.
“But spending more time on something doesn’t always make it better! I overcome this by making myself accountable to others – tying myself up with external retailers and collaborating with other creatives on projects and deliverables with clear timelines.”
I LOVE ASYMMETRY, THINGS THAT ARE RAW, TEXTURED AND 'IMPERFECT'.
Jean was studying Japanese studies and fashion design in Japan when she decided to pick up pottery as a hobby, but it wasn’t until two years after she had moved back to Singapore that she decided to become a full-time ceramicist.
She was actually encouraged by her boss from her previous job.
“He heard that I had done a couple of showcases and told me, ‘Give yourself a couple of years to try, and if it doesn’t work out, you can always come back. If you just take unpaid leave [to pursue this], you will feel like you have a ‘back door’ and won’t give your best’.”
Her design sense is “experiential, experimental and functional”, as one can see below, and often inspired by her personal experiences. While she gives away a lot of her creations, she also takes on work commissions and participates in exhibitions – plans are in the pipeline for a solo show as well.
As creative director of Ves.studio, she produces pieces under the studio's name and teaches pottery – including planning a curriculum focused on building a strong foundation for the craft.
“To me, making ceramics is a lot more science than art, and I do everything from scratch. I mix clays and create my own recipes for glazes so that they’re unique. The process of getting something that’s just mine was what drew me in,” she explains.
Pottery has also provided her with several life lessons. “It has changed my outlook on life. Because the piece can fail at any stage, I am now a lot more tolerant of accepting failure. It has changed how I feel about the things. I no longer push myself too hard.”
I HAD TO GO INTO IT FULL-TIME SO I COULD UNDERSTAND WHAT IT’S ABOUT.