Tina Tan-Leo

Fashion stalwarts
Recognised: Tina Tan-Leo (centre) receiving her 'Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World' award in Sydney last month. With her were Marilynne Paspaley, honorary co-chair/executive director of Paspaley Pearls Pty Ltd (left) and Cheryl Womack, president/CEO and chair of the 'Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World'

Business Times Singapore, June 11, 2004
IF the fashion industry in Asia is booming now, it is partly because of gutsy entrepreneurs who made their mark in its nascent stage and are still leaders in the game. CAT ONG speaks to three women who are changing the face of fashion in Asia.

TINA TAN-LEO
'YOU can never hope to convince anyone that you have either been working hard or working smart, by your simply telling them so.'
So says Tina Tan-Leo, president and chief executive officer of The Link Boutique Pte Ltd, the woman responsible for bringing Vera Wang, Roberto Cavalli, Etro and Miss Sixty - among other leading European brands - to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. To the local fashion queen who is regularly featured in Asia's best-dressed lists, getting your just rewards is when 'the results of your work are such that others must talk about it and tell you so'.
She is referring to her winning the 'Leading Women Entrepreneur of the World' award in Sydney last month. As the second Singaporean after Jannie Tay of The Hour Glass group to cinch this eight-year-old award, Mrs Tan-Leo joined 20 other women from around the world who hold this title. They include Pamela Ferreira who created Bermuda's largest MarketPlace Ltd supermarket and rent-a-motorcycle chain, Yoko Iwamiya who invented the latest Choetsu-Shi decorative 'super paper' from Japan that looks and feels like paper and yet is flame-resistant, water and crease-proof, and the UK's Janette Faherty whose TNG company achieves an annual turnover of 16.25 million by creating government-funded skills programmes.
Past celebrity recipients of the award include Anita Roddick of The Body Shop, Donna Karan and Sonia Rykiel.
Mrs Tan-Leo told BT that she was voted one of the world's leading female entrepreneurs for opening the first Gianni Versace boutique in the world, outside of Milan, in 1979, and for incorporating the 'total image' lifestyle concept into her Link Group in the '90s - ahead of the competition - with an event-planning, interior styling, and project management arm.
One of the company's coups has been to beat interior giant Hirsch-Bednar Associates of The Fullerton Hotel fame to dress up the high-profile No 1 Ladyhill luxury apartments.
But it is her latest project management division that has seen her, of late, not only creating resort wear under the Link label to sell through top hotels in Paris, the French Riveria and South Pacific, but also acting as an agent to internationalise Asian talents such as Biyan - dubbed the Armani of Indonesia - as well as the first winner of the Mercedes-Benz Asian Fashion Award, Sven Tan.

An outfit from Biyan, The Link Boutique
Now that The Link has successfully extended its range of services, the retail concept with its wide offerings for wardrobe to hearth and home and for almost very occasion is also about to venture into Kuala Lumpur with an inaugural 6,000 sq ft store in the posh new Avenue K luxury shopping centre in three months' time.
If listening to the model-slim marketeer excitedly telling it all today should make her 25 years forging her own way in the fashion industry sound easy, Mrs Tan-Leo is quick to point out that it was anything but.
This is because she reckons that entrepreneurs like herself, unlike executives from corporate companies, all have to start out from 'nothing' when they are 'chasing dreams'.
This is because 'nobody can know what your dream is except you so nothing can be provided for'.
This is so even for the 44-year-old mother of three boys who can be said to have been to the manor born. On her father's side, she is the granddaughter of Tan Lark Sye, a founder of Singapore who built among other landmarks, Nanyang University, while on her mother's side, she is the niece of the late President Ong Teng Cheong.
Hence her property developer father Tan Eng Sing ploughed some of the family funds into her first 600 sq ft Versace boutique, while her artist mother Lillian persuaded her high-society friends to favour the then-unknown Versace.
Still, everything - from the luxe labels to her new lifestyle store concept which provides personalised service with staff trained to be like hostesses - was experimental and could only be taught by 'my own example'.
It means, she says, that she has 'personally done everything from accounting to delivery and this award is the first one to recognise my sheer hard work', which is what makes it the most gratifying.

Staying ahead: Malaysia's Pat Liew (above) will launch her latest WH concept store in S'pore soon
PAT LIEW
IF BritishIndia is considered the Malaysian equivalent of the Banana Republic label from the US, then it can be said that Pat Liew, its creator, has come up with the new Gap of Asia in her latest WH concept store.
Now that she has been experimenting with its first two stores in Kuala Lumpur for almost a year, she says she is ready to roll it out to the rest of the world, starting with Singapore first.
She told BT that a new WH store would open in Orchard Road before Christmas this year, though she could not disclose its exact location as details are still being finalised.
According to the 53-year-old award-winning Malaysian designer and retailer, WH is not just an acronym for warehouse; it also stands for who, what, when, where and why - all questions that informed shoppers tend to ask themselves when they buy something.
Now that BritishIndia is 10 years old and serving a more sophisticated, executive crowd, WH - with its cheaper price points starting at $60, democratic basic styles and new 'everyone is beautiful' tag line - is Ms Liew's bid to serve the same on their days off as well as reach that hard-to-pin-down younger crowd.
But serving the savvy shopper is something that the former Metrojaya department store merchandiser has done, since venturing out with her own BritishIndia label in 1994. Its current turnover is more than US$60 million with 60 stores in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
With her every step becoming textbook case studies of lifestyle retailing in Asia, it is no wonder that publishers of everything from educational texts to the Reader's Digest (last year) are wont to print tomes on Ms Liew's story with the unique brand of colonial chic that she has been perpetrating for the last decade.
This has become the case indeed after it was unexpectedly birthed during a sudden downward spiral in Liew's till-then high-flying career a 'life-time' ago, as she puts it.
After five years of studying in London and selling jeans on Carnaby Street in the 1980s, Ms Liew had returned home to KL to an illustrious 15-year career with Metrojaya, bringing Esprit to Malaysia as well as developing the precursors to today's cult jeans such as Seven and Paper, Cloth and Denim in Cape Cod and Freego and eventually creating the fateful EastIndia Company concept line in 1993.
When an unexpected change of management suddenly threatened to take it the way of Zara in offering cheap trends quick, which Ms Liew bucked, she said it was a 'do or die' situation.
In order to stay alive after quitting Metrojaya, she found herself creating her own BritishIndia by 1994. 'Clothes should never stand for a particular season but represent the spirit of the times.' and 'She wears fashion, fashion doesn't wear her' were mantras she chose to fashion her apparel - an adaptation of the British style attuned to Asia.
By hiring a Queen Elizabeth impersonator from the UK for her BritishIndia launch parties in Asia, among many other clever marketing ploys, she eventually became the reigning maharani of cool safari chic in her signature cottons and linens.
Today, her latest 23,000 sq ft BritishIndia store in the Bandar Utama shopping centre of KL can boast its own Indian bazaar replete with spices and knick knacks including travel mosquito nets of her own invention, while on the second floor is Ms Liew's number two WH store, offering perfect denim minis.
But whether it's the perfect white shirt under WH or a colonial-style sun-dress under BritishIndia that she is selling, Ms Liew says that her distinct DNA of quality with comfort and the little details that count as well as variety that always includes ease of wear and care are all always there.
'One thing I've learnt about this business is that whether I am selling the ultimate T-shirt that everyone's always looking for with WH, or an Indian tunic in this season's hot pink at BritishIndia, it's not just clothes but the power of your ideas that you are promoting,'' she adds.
After one year of experimenting with WH in Malaysia, she is sure that her new one-for-all product and concept along the lines of the iconic Gap brand, is now 'good enough' for the Singapore market.
CHANITA PREECHAWITAYAKUL
Be yourself. So says the creator of the first Thai designer label to be featured recently in Italian Vogue and is currently sold in top shops around the world including Belle Boutique in the Hyatt Hotel.
In fact, according to Chanita Preechawitayakul behind the Senada label now also sold in Ko Samui in London, Fred Segal's in New York and Seibu in Tokyo, it is the secret to her international success.
This is because 12 years ago, when she created her label named after her now 12-year-old daughter Sirinada - meaning good girl in Sanskrit - she was only a young mother trying to pass her baby daughter's nap times with something useful to do with her hands.
The 40-something mother of two who is married to a Bangkok architect says that it was only shortly after her second daughter Janapa was born six years ago that she first got to go to Tokyo under a government-sponsored scheme to learn about Japanese-style department store merchandising and quality manufacturing.
By then, the young entrepreneur - who says she still keeps the hand-embroidered pajamas that she wore at 12 and her wedding gown which took her four months to sew - had run out of wardrobe space to store any more of her own handiwork.
As a result she had begun to supply Central Department Store in Bangkok with all the excess and thus had inadvertently created a commercial label along the lines of the cohorts of her era, Greyhound, Fly Now and Soda.
Today, while they are all household names in Thailand, she is the only one with a sizeable export market especially now that she has an Italian agent which has led to about two dozen important stores in Europe and Asia stocking her brand this year.
In a recent interview, she told BT that basing her business in Bangkok which is so far removed from the fashion world meant that she could only have come to her achievements through circumstance rather than ambition.
In fact, she reports that it was only after she had opened her flea-market style eclectic closet of a signature shop in Gaysorn Plaza in 2002 that she garnered more stores, including Belle, placing orders to stock her brand.
Ms Preechawitayakul believes that it has all added to give her creations its distinct bohemian spirit. According to Belle's fashion buyer Alfrayda Ayob, many of her customers take to the line's exclusively-printed and luxuriously soft Thai cotton and silk fabrics, funky but feminine look and relaxed fit. She adds that many even mistake it for a Japanese brand until they read the label.
However, sales have been slow because Ms Ayob says that Singaporean shoppers either think that they can buy it at a cheaper price on holiday in Bangkok or simply cannot conceive of forking out European designer prices for Thai style. Fortunately for Ms Preechawitayakul, her Japanese and European sales are fast growing because in these markets her style is considered trendy but original, while her Thai customers who know that the Senada Sense and Gold export labels stocked at the likes of Belle are unavailable in Thailand make the effort to buy it overseas when they can. Ms Ayob admits that her company is banking on its exclusivity and uniqueness, when the word gets out, to sell the Senada line in Singapore.
As Ms Preechawitayakul concludes: 'Thai people are free spirits and fusion freaks. We are not Malay, Chinese or Indian - though we have all this in our blood - but we are Thai. Because of this lack of restrictions and borders in my country, as fashion designers, we are lucky to be most free to be ourselves.'

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Making the link with style

By Lionel Seah

The Straits Times, 2002-09-18

HOMEGROWN fashion retailer Tina Tan-Leo has long been synonymous with Gianni Versace, the most glitzy and flashy Italian fashion label around.

Even though she returned the label recently to the principal after a business partnership lasting 23 years, there is no bitterness in her voice.

'Of course I'm sad because I still think it is one of the best labels in the world,' she says.

On speculation of friction between her and Versace head honcho and bottled blonde, Donatella, she points out that the Versaces are 'family friends'.

'It was an amicable split and I just want to focus my energies now on developing The Link.'

The Italian principal has since appointed listed Singapore retailer C.K. Tang's speciality fashion arm, Gamut Trading, as the local franchise for Versace since Sept 1. Gamut has represented the label in Malaysia for the past 14 years.

Once the cash cow in the Link stable, Versace used to sell more than $12 million a year during the early 1990s, about half of The Link Group's annual revenues.

After clarifying the loss of the Versace franchise, Singapore's best-known style arbiter has another issue to get off her chest.

And it is about Singapore-born, Malaysian-based fashion entrepreneur Farah Khan, who sold The Link boutique to her 20 years ago.

Mrs Tan-Leo, who still drips glamour at the age of 42, says: 'I did buy her boutique, which was then called Link The Designer Salon. But the only label I continued stocking after I took over was Genny. Her other labels like Jean Muir, Krizia and Bruce Oldfield were just not my cup of tea.'

In 1982, her paper merchant and property developer father, Mr Tan Eng Sing, bought over the boutique in Mandarin Hotel from Mrs Khan, a family friend, for an undisclosed sum.

Mrs Khan then moved to Malaysia, where she now runs the successful Aseana boutique in KLCC and its Singapore branch from Kuala Lumpur.

If she feels the need to set the record straight, Mrs Tan-Leo has reason to - if not to celebrate her 20 years in the business, then at the very least to quell catty talk that her Link empire today was given to her on a silver platter.

'Even back then, I had plans to grow the business into a free-standing lifestyle store that sells both men and women's fashion labels,' she says.

And how the business has grown.

Starting with Gianni Versace in 1979 - the first outside Italy - then The Link three years later, the Link Group now comprises The Link, The Link Bridal, The Link Men, The Link Home and Italian label Etro and Etro Home.

While she declines to reveal annual turnover, she says fashion remains her core business, contributing 80 per cent to annual sales.

The remainder comes from her homeware and lifestyle business, which includes interiors styling services and home decoration projects for developers like Capital Development and SC Global.

WORKING ALMOST 24/7

AS THE grand-daughter of rubber tycoon Tan Lark Sye, who set up Nanyang University, and the niece of the late President Ong Teng Cheong, Mrs Tan-Leo is aware that she had a headstart with financial backing.

But the well-dressed socialite, who has a degree in graphic design from a Florentine college, also stresses: 'I work damn hard for the business. Almost 24/7.

'And I am very hands on and am on top of trends and styles since I travel at least three times a month on work-related trips.'

Her latest move is to shift some of her existing Link boutiques in Palais Renaissance to the Mandarin Hotel.

Set to open in the first week of October, the new Link store will have more than 40 mens and womenswear labels under one roof. These will include Stella McCartney and King of Cling Azzedine Alaia, whom she will host next March for Singapore Fashion Festival.

The two-storey, 3,800-sq ft boutique will occupy the space vacated by Etro. Etro has since relocated to Level 2 at Palais where The Link Men is now.

The existing 5,000-sq ft Link women's boutique on the third floor at Palais will now showcase only bridalwear, formal wear for men and women, and Oriental Wardrobe, which she started 1 1/2 years ago.

Explaining her decision to move stores around like musical chairs, she says: 'Shopping patterns have changed. Men and women shop together and they want greater variety and creative retail environments.

'I believe it's time to move out The Link to the street where it's more visible. And with seven windows, the potential for fabulous display is wonderful.'

Her new shop's decor, she promises, will be a departure from the standard interiors of big-name boutiques.

'The basic idea is to create something a little funky and eclectic. Something which reflects a little of my personality - stylish and versatile.'

Aside from the clothing labels and accessories, the fittings, furniture and even paintings in the boutique are also for sale through special orders.

She declines to comment on renovation costs but jokes that 'the architect is free', referring to her Hongkong architect-cum-property developer husband Lionel Leo. He designed her store as well as all her other stores.

They met in Hongkong 10 years ago and now have three sons, aged between six and eight. All are studying at the United World College.

The Leos live at Ardmore Park. And contrary to popular belief that her daily routine consists of facials, massages and no-limit shopping sprees, she is quick to correct such misconceptions.

'I'm an ordinary working Mum. I work and then I come back at night to help my children with their homework. On weekends, we just go to the park or go watch movies.

'Even my beauty regime has to be quick fixes because I don't have the time. No expensive treatments every week. I just use Clinique eye products and some Clarins.'

GROWTH PLANS

SHE is now focusing her energies on building and expanding her business. These include doubling the size of the bridal section to almost 1,200 sq ft from its current 600-sq ft.

She hopes to grow the current annual growth rate of 10 per cent each year for this business to 30 per cent within the next three years.

In addition, she plans to stock more Asian designers.

'I feel that Asian designers sometimes don't get the recognition they deserve. I would like The Link to be a platform for them to be represented in a stylish environment,' she says.

Come November, her boutiques will stock Indonesian designers Biyan and Ronald Gaghana, Korean Ji Won Park and even Singapore newcomer Sven Tan.

'Asian designers' styles are different. Their followings are different too. We have identified a market that is still untapped. It will open up a wider clientele for us,' she adds.

'It's also my way of giving something back to the industry.'

Coming from someone else, all such plans may sound more spiel than good business. But she has enough fashion nous to smell out designers on the cusp of an international breakthrough.

And she has the track record to prove it.

In the early 1980s, she stocked Prada at her boutique long before the fashion crowd went ra-ra over the black knapsacks in parachute material.

She also stocked Donna Karan, after the American designer left Anne Klein to start her own label. Then there were French labels like Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler, which eventually led her to stock menswear.

'I'm fortunate to have come from a good family but silver spoons can tarnish too,' she says candidly.

'You can't sit around and wait for your inheritance. You must be driven by hunger and passion.'

Judging from her ever-slim figure, which she attributes to 'good genes', it looks like the glamour queen will stay hungry for some time.
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20 YEARS OF THE LINK

1979: Launched Gianni Versace in Singapore at the Mandarin Hotel, the first GV boutique outside of Italy.

1982: Opened The Link women's store at Mandarin Hotel, stocking labels like Genny, Donna Karan and Callaghan.

1983: Started The Link Men at the Hilton Singapore, selling labels like Verri, Claude Montana, Barbas and Cesare Paciotti.

1987: Moved Gianni Versace store from Mandarin Hotel to Wisma Atria.

1989: Celebrated 10th anniversary of Gianni Versace in Singapore with a charity gala dinner at Goodwood Park Hotel.

1990: Opened Gianni Versace store at Palais Renaissance after closing the Wisma Atria outlet.

1992: Opened The Link, Versus and Verri 5,000-sq ft flagship boutique at Palais Renaissance.

1993: Opened The Link, Versus and a second Gianni Versace boutique at Ngee Ann City.

1994: Opened the world's first Gianni Versace home store called Gianni Versace Home Signature at the Mandarin Hotel.

1995: Started The Link Home boutique in Ngee Ann City, offering wedding and corporate gift registries and other services.

1996: Relocated The Link Men boutique to Suntec City. Also opened Italian label Etro's largest flagship store in Asia at the Mandarin Hotel. It stocked lines for women, men, children, accessories and homeware.

1997: Launched The Link's 5,000-sq ft new concept store at Palais Renaissance. Opened 8,000-sq ft Gianni Versace flagship store in Palais Renaissance, the largest in Asia. The megastore stocked clothes for women, men and children, as well as fragrances and fine jewellery. Also introduced Atelier Versace and Versace cosmetics here.

Staged one of Singapore's grandest charity galas and fashion extravaganzas for the late Gianni Versace at the finale for Fashion Connections (now known as Singapore Fashion Week).

1998: Launched in-house label, The Link, for women. Collection included contemporary classics, evening wear, handbags, shoes and shawls, and was sold in Singapore and the region.

1999: Started Vera Wang Bridal Salon exclusively at The Link. Launched The Perfect Wedding, a complete range of bridal services. Started The Oriental Wardrobe, which focused on cheongsam and kua tailoring, as well as a small selection of Asian designers.

2000: Launched the interior styling service by The Link Home, working with prominent property developers, including SC Global and City Development. Service included global procurement of furnishings and art.

October 2002: The Link celebrates its 20 years in the business with the opening of The Link concept store for women and men at the Mandarin Hotel Shopping Arcade. Launches the new Asian Wardrobe at The Link at Palais Renaissance with designers such as Biyan, Ronald V. Gaghana and Barney Cheng.

Source: BT, 2004 | ST article (2002)