From Spare Rooms to the Catwalk: Meet the Designers Quietly Reshaping Singapore's Fashion Scene

Walk down Alibi Bar's laneway in Tiong Bahru on a Saturday afternoon, and you'll find Jasmine Koh hunched over a cutting table in a 400-square-foot studio, sketching designs inspired by the neighbourhood's art deco shophouses. Five years ago, she was working in corporate banking. Today, she's one of a growing cohort of fashion designers operating from Singapore's creative heartlands, building a scene that industry observers say generates an estimated $380 million annually for the city-state's creative economy.

"The turning point was realising I didn't need a fancy showroom in Orchard Road to make this work," Koh explains. Her brand, now stocked in three independent boutiques, epitomises a broader shift. Unlike the designer houses that dominated Singapore's fashion narrative two decades ago, a new wave is emerging—designers who operate from converted shophouses in Joo Chiat, maker collectives in Block 8 Eu Tong Sen Street, and pop-up spaces across the Arts and Heritage precinct in Gillman Barracks.

This grassroots movement was inadvertently catalysed by the pandemic. When physical retail spaces shuttered, designers who had been bootstrapping from home discovered they could sustain themselves through Instagram and small-batch drops. The shift proved permanent. Data from the National Arts Council shows that since 2023, registrations for fashion-related creative enterprises have grown 23 per cent annually—a rate outpacing traditional retail.

What distinguishes this cohort isn't just their operating model. Many are deliberately mining Singapore's multicultural heritage, colonial architecture, and immigrant narratives for design inspiration. Rashid Osman, a textile designer working from a compact studio in Kampong Glam, sources vintage batik techniques from his grandmother's practice, reimagining them for contemporary garments. "There's a hunger to make fashion that feels honest to where we come from," he says. His pieces retail between $120 and $280, positioning him outside the luxury market yet within reach of his core audience: young professionals and design-conscious consumers seeking alternatives to fast fashion.

Yet challenges persist. Rental pressures in creative spaces like The Projector and Gillman Barracks continue climbing. Many designers balance their creative practice with freelance styling or teaching positions—supplementary income that subsidises their passion projects. The Singapore Fashion Council, relaunched in 2024, has begun addressing infrastructure gaps through mentorship programmes and subsidised studio access.

What unites these makers is a conviction that authentic creative industries are built by people, not institutions. As Koh surveys her modest Tiong Bahru studio, now humming with the energy of a growing team, she reflects: "We're not trying to compete with Milan or Paris. We're building something that belongs here."

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