How Singapore fashion and beauty brands are making their mark in a crowded industry

White-label sourcing refers to selling products manufactured by one company which are then packaged and sold by other companies under various brand names.

With brands finding their own niche, an increasingly vibrant local fashion and beauty scene is starting to win over savvy local consumers who are typically spoilt for choice.

Lawyer Gloria James, 58, regularly wears pieces from Singapore designers such as SabrinaGoh, which she favours for their comfort and versatility, especially while travelling.

While she owns luxury accessories from global labels, she shops for Singapore brands for clothing and gifts, citing designers such as Pedro, K/Woods and local jewellery label Risis as examples.

When travelling for work, gifting Singapore food products – from TWG tea to Irvin’s salted egg chips – are “a must”.

“Local gifts are very much appreciated,” she said. “So why buy international brands?”

Still, fashion, accessories and beauty brand founders say support for local brands is not automatic, but conditional on value, particularly in a market like Singapore’s, where shoppers are highly familiar with global offerings and can access international products with a click.

Starting a fashion business in Singapore is also challenging for the usual reasons: the small domestic market and perennial pressures of high rental and labour costs.

Still, while Singapore may not have the long-standing fashion or beauty heritage of markets such as South Korea, France or Italy, experts said efforts to build a stronger “Made in SG” or “Designed in SG” brand identity are already underway.

The challenge for Singapore’s fashion and beauty brands, they said, lies in whether homegrown labels can compete on design and value, navigate structural constraints at home and build brands resilient enough to grow in a crowded global industry.

ARE WE REALLY SUPPORTING LOCAL?

Ask someone what Singapore is known for, and fashion or beauty is unlikely to be their first answer.

Associate Professor Lau Kong Cheen, head of the marketing programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), said the performance of local brands varies significantly by product category.

While Singaporean companies such as Singapore Airlines, bakery chain BreadTalk and banking giant DBS have built strong reputations in services, food and finance, fashion and beauty have not traditionally been areas where local brands made a comparable impact on the economy.

He pointed to a 2024 YouGov survey which found that the top 10 fashion brands among consumers in Singapore were all international, with names such as Uniqlo, Nike and Decathlon ranking among the most popular.

Drawing on consulting work he previously conducted for a Singapore fashion brand benchmarked against American labels and European luxury houses, Assoc Prof Lau said consumer associations differed sharply by country of origin.

When asked about European brands, respondents frequently cited artisanship, craftsmanship, heritage and luxury. By contrast, perceptions of Singapore brands tended to skew towards being “old-fashioned” or “something my mother uses”.

The preconceived notion of global brands as safe, recognisable choices is in part why they continue to dominate even as Singaporeans say they want to “support local”, said Dr Samer Elhajjar, senior lecturer in marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School.

“The core issue isn’t a lack of patriotism, but a deeply ingrained consumer pragmatism. Singaporeans are global citizens by default. They have grown up with the world’s best brands at our doorstep and fingertip,” he said.

As a result, local brands often have to overcome what Dr Elhajjar described as an “unconscious bias”, where being local is sometimes equated with being less polished.

Ms Ting-Ting Zhang, chief executive officer of the Singapore Fashion Council, said that Singapore’s fashion and beauty ecosystem operates in a high-cost, low-scale environment that makes it hard for brands to become robust “home market champions”.

Foreign brands that come to Singapore, by contrast, are aided by more robust manufacturing, larger distribution networks and deeper pockets when it comes to marketing, manpower and rentals, making it hard for local brands to compete, she said.

“While there is growing interest in local brands, several founders and the Singapore Fashion Council have observed that Singaporeans often take a label more seriously only after seeing it in overseas stores, which creates a paradox where international validation is needed before local prestige follows,” said Ms Zhang.

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