Style meets social impact at Barehands

The Singapore label, which opened its second store at Takashimaya Shopping Centre, works with refugees and artisans in need for its clothes and accessories

- Carmen Sin

Local fashion brand Barehands bears all the hallmarks of millennial cool.

Its new store at Takashimaya Shopping Centre is decorated with quirky wood furnishings and a statement mustard wall. Inventory is heavy on tasteful linens like a pair of tencel pants in peacock teal cheerful prints and tactile handbags, woven and beaded.

Scan the QR codes on the fabric care labels of its clothes, though, and one finds the story of each object's maker.

A breezy blue dress, for instance, can be traced to Zahra X, an Afghan refugee and mother of two. She is part of the refugee tailoring community in Malaysia that sews around 95 per cent of Barehands' apparel. A collection of woven pochettes, Barehands' hot new product, is the work of leather artisans in war-torn Myanmar.

Providing livelihood to such marginalised communities is at the core of the six-year-old business, say founders Chanel Go and Germaine Lye.

They are speaking to The Straits Times a week after opening their second outpost at Takashimaya on Nov 14, two years after the launch of their first store at Funan mall.

Barehands started online in 2019.

The latest expansion is a mark of the brand's growing pull.

Says Ms Lye, 35: "Our revenue has definitely tripled and our emailing database has also tripled since then."

The new store's ready-made model, where small batches of goods are sold off the rack, is also a departure from the brand's usual made-to-order mode and another vote of confidence in their solid customer base, she adds.

A do-it-yourself corner in the store still allows for made-to-order purchases if customers prefer.