We speak to designer and brand owner Rachel Lim about Western-centric fashion, e-commerce and why the Southeast Asian market is worth paying attention to
Fashion is all about embracing the new. But as an industry, it has been remarkably slow at moving away from the old-fashioned idea that creativity and innovation are largely Western-based. For too long the four fashion capitals—New York, Paris, Milan and London—have dominated the discourse, promoting designers who show their collections in one of these cities, and who market their wares to the largely Caucasian population that lives in them.
The rise of China has changed that. As Chinese fashion lovers are increasingly helping designer brands stay afloat, the centre of gravity has shifted towards Shanghai, and even Hong Kong. However, many in the industry have been slow to cotton onto the vast waiting market that is Southeast Asia.
According to data provided by BMI Research, spending on clothing and footwear this year in eight of the ten biggest Southeast Asian markets totalled more than US$52 billion in 2018 and will surpass US$68 billion in just five years. The rapidly growing middle class population is arguably the biggest factor—the number of adults in Southeast Asia with between US$16 and US$100 to spend a day is expected to reach 400 million by 2020, up from 190 million in 2012.
The second consideration is internet access. A Google report revealed that an estimated 130 million people in the region now have smartphones—many of whom have never previously owned a PC, making mobile-ownership their first potential foray into internet shopping. Altogether, 600 million people in Southeast Asia will have some form of internet access by 2025. To put this number into perspective, it’s nearly twice the size of the entire US population.
Southeast Asians are also among the most prolific device users. Filipinos send more texts than any other nation on earth and Jakarta, Indonesia has been named the world’s most active city on Twitter. And as a report by Bain & Company indicates, this is fast translating into online sales, with 24 percent of all clothing and footwear in Southeast Asia already purchased online.
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Rachel Lim—whose brand Love, Bonito has become a runaway success in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia—has long realised what so many international fashion brands have failed to see.
Her brand began as live-journal page designed to cater to modern Asian woman who she thought were being ignored by designers, magazines and marketing teams. Lim wanted to create clothes that were designed for their needs specifically, in terms of physique, proportions, skin tone, climate, and more, none of which were being addressed by either mass market or designer brands