Singapore's China story: From suits to services, a new chapter begins

Decades before Singapore and China formally established ties in 1990, Ms Dorothy Seet's family was already doing business there.

- Yew Lun Tian Senior Correspondent

Her father-in-law, a migrant from Fujian province, had built a fortune in the 1950s as the sole agent for Chinese suiting fabrics in Southeast Asia at a time when China's centrally planned economy barred factories from exporting goods directly.

In 1985, spurred by the reform and opening-up drive ushered in by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the Singapore family set up a garment factory on Beijing’s outskirts.

Their Shunmei suits tapped into pent-up demand after the Cultural Revolution, when most Chinese had been confined to boxy blue and grey uniforms. Over the next decade, their suits sold like hot cakes.

For young men arriving in Beijing to start their careers, a Shunmei suit was a marker of respectability, worn during life's biggest moments - from weddings to trips abroad. Many sought salary advances to afford one suit, desperate not to be dismissed as country bumpkins.

Customers raved about the imported wool: comfortable yet structured, unlike the floppy, scratchy local cloth.

The Asian cutting fit remarkably well, with sleeves ending neatly at the wrists instead of drowning the wearer, as European imports often did. Hidden pockets for pens and train tickets added practicality.

Japanese technicians kept the quality consistent, and Smart Garments, Ms Seet's company, became the first clothing company in China to adopt the ISO 9001 quality management standard, setting an industry benchmark.

But by the mid-1990s, competition from local brands eroded its lead. By 2019, with e-commerce reshaping the retail landscape, her family sold the business.

"The retail environment had changed tremendously, especially since Jack Ma started the Alibaba e-commerce platform," Ms Seet told The Straits Times.