LUXURY products made to last a long time and artisanal goods worth collecting are not quite what most people would expect when buying goods to support a cause. But a handful of social enterprises have emerged in the past two years aiming to highlight that Singapore's growing cottage industry is capable of producing more than the usual fare of cheap bookmarks and cute handicrafts.
Many of such businesses pride themselves on their intricate craftsmanship and the hard-to-find quality of their products and target the upper spectrum of an increasingly enlightened consumer crowd who do not simply want to spend money to do good, but to look good as well.
"The ambition is that such products will eventually stand side-by-side with mainstream products, and be bought on the basis of their intrinsic quality, and not because of their social aims," observes Jared Tham, 33, who works with such businesses as a manager of the Lien Centre for Social Innovation.
According to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, which runs the Comcare Enterprise Fund to assist budding social enterprises, there are approximately 170 such set-ups in Singapore currently. Teo Mee Hong, executive director of the Social Enterprise Association (SEA) estimates that about 30 of these produce gifts for individual consumers and corporations.
One such outfit is Fair & Square Artisan Gallery, which works with impoverished communities across South-east Asia to produce fairtrade homewares and lifestyle goods. Its managing director, Andria Hutchins, feels let down each time she sees social enterprises allowing themselves to be overshadowed by their causes.
"When you read the marketing material for some, it's all about the good they are doing without looking at the product or service they are asking people to buy," she says. "If you rely on that to sell a product, you are really playing the charity game, it's not good business. If consumers buy your product out of pity, they will only do it once."
She adds: "First and foremost, you need to have a top quality product that is well designed for the tastes of your market."
Kuik Shiao Yin, co-founder of Food for Thought, a social enterprise cafe which has set aside a retail corner for such goods, says the shift towards a more upmarket output is a natural reaction to a trend that is not working.
"If you create goods or services that are of lesser quality or not in demand and ask people to pay a high price for it in the name of charity, you are just not going to get customers," she says.
She notices that more mature social enterprise industries overseas have begun to adopt the best practices of businesses to build credibility with their donors.
Audrey See, owner of cheongsam boutique, The Girl's Kaksh, with a handmade cheongsam.
This is perhaps an issue with growing pertinence in Singapore, as "you never know when you will see yet another piece of news of charity funds being inappropriately used", says Audrey See, owner of cheongsam boutique The Girl's Kaksh.
If a charity wants to go into business, "it should go into business clearly", adds Ms Kuik.
However, she cautions that this requires a paradigm shift that many may not be prepared for, particularly social enterprises "that still have a charity mindset in the way they run, for example, by not making the best cost-efficient decisions for labour or production".
She elaborates: "This means they can no longer rely on the old model of getting money for free, so to speak. Rather, they must now give a tangible, desirable good or service in exchange for money."
Shelley Siu (right) with one of her seamstress, Madam Hah, in her early 60s, at her home. Shelley started The Singapore Shawl in 2004, selling hand-sewn shawls and scarves embellished with Swarovski crystals.
But this is not without its challenges. Along with high-end products come higher costs, says Shelley Siu, founder of The Singapore Shawl, which many fresh young entrepreneurs may need help with.
For a social enterprise to establish itself, Ms Siu believes, it has to be seen consistently, rather than as "flea market operators" with an ad-hoc presence. This is where subsidies on retail spaces in malls, airport terminals and convention centres can be a big boost.
"Beneath the glitz and glamour of beautiful products, packaging and big stores is the stark reality of rising costs such as high rentals, staffing shortages and security risks in an increasingly volatile world," she adds.
Pom pom Rose on Joaquim Jacquard woven yinyang shawl.
Since championing social causes takes resources from the business, social enterprises usually take a longer time than regular businesses to gestate to a sustainable level - all the more so if they are producing high-end goods.
Says SEA's Ms Teo: "It would require more of entrepreneurs to make social enterprise viable, so only excellent entrepreneurs should take the challenge."
Besides the profit motive, social entrepreneurs should also identify intangible motivations to keep them going, adds The Girl's Kaksh's Ms See, such as being able to pick up more specialised craft skills by training beside the disadvantaged groups they work with or social skills in interacting with customers.
Reflecting from her own experience, she quipped: "And even if you weren't business-minded to begin with, you are forced to be when you see the dwindling numbers in your bank accounts."
Local shawls with global ties
THE term "social enterprise" should not be used simply as a marketing tool.That's the principle Shelley Siu has stuck to from Day One of operations at The Singapore Shawl.
"We have to move on from attracting customers because you are a social entrepreneur, with the product coming in as an after-thought," said Ms Siu, the brand's founder.
"At The Singapore Shawl, customers are first attracted to our shawls. That we are a social enterprise comes after, as a pleasant surprise."
Her shawls, often adorned with orchid motifs and prints of other local flora and fauna, retail for between $13 for a square bandanna to more than $1,500 for a custom-designed, hand-embellished crystal shawl.
Artwork of the late homegrown artist Liu Kang and Chinese painter Wu Guanzhong has also appeared on her shawls and ties as part of a collaboration with the National Heritage Board.
The 12 seamstresses in Ms Siu's team are mostly retired or retrenched elderly women, single mothers and divorcees. Ms Siu has also partnered with the Breast Cancer Foundation to offer jobs to cancer survivors as well as to help raise funds for them. "Whenever possible, I invite my seamstresses along to present the shawls to the guests-of-honour at events. This gives them a glowing sense of ownership and helps us to tell the authentic Singapore Shawl story."
What first emerged as a small retail counter in Tangs Orchard in 2004 is now a business with a global reach. Ms Siu counts foreign dignitaries and local politicians among her customers.
Once, staff from the Japanese embassy even tracked her down personally, she recalled, as they wanted The Singapore Shawl to set up a private shop on the hotel floor where former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and his wife were staying.
Besides permanent retail counters at Changi Airport, the Conrad Centennial and Goodwood Park hotels and the Botanic Gardens, The Singapore Shawl's creations have also been featured at international conventions and trade shows in Asia, Europe and the US.
According to Ms Siu, 30 per cent of proceeds they make from any conference will be donated to the conference organiser's charity of choice.
" 'Better than to the landlord' is our take, which is why up to today we don't have our own retail shop, and yet are able to support the non-profits," adds Ms Siu.
Last year, one of their products, a bamboo shawls with hand-embellished crystals fetched $44,600 at a Standard Chartered Bank charity event. Proceeds went to helping the prevention of blindness of women and children in 20 developing countries.
Designs of the shawls are kept classic to promote their versatile use. "We shall continue to educate our customers about the ills of 'fast fashion'. One shawl can serve different function and styles, cutting down on wastage and spending," she explains. She is currently on the lookout for partners she can work with to churn out tasteful items from damaged shawls.
"Sustainability is certainly a big consideration for all new social enterprises if they themselves want to be sustained."
No compromise on price
TARGETTING the high-end crowd also means less time spent explaining to customers and more time working on the crafts.
Anna Tsang, 51, started Mother And Child Project in March 2006, giving jobs to 10 mothers. She taught these women who have low education, minimal family support and children below the age of seven how to sew or make handicraftwork.
That is founder Anna Tsang's take on the business strategy behind the Mother and Child Project.
It was much to her relief then, that the offer came along for her to run a pop-up store in Milennia Walk from July this year till next February.
"Since moving here, we've attracted lots of executives working in the area and well-off tourists. They tend to be better educated so we don't have to explain the concept of ethical buying and green living to them," she says.
Customers have even commended her products for being reasonably priced - a change from the skepticism that she used to encounter at the craft fairs where she sold her wares.
"Many like that the products are made in Singapore and represent the local culture," Ms Tsang (above right) adds, referring to her best-selling products: Napkin holders, keychains and doorstoppers fashioned after Singapore's iconic samsui woman. Prices range from $5 for a keychain to $500 for a reversible jacket made from a discarded antique silk kimono.
Most of her goods are made from fabrics donated through Something Old Something New, the second-hand clothes store that Ms Tsang also runs. Her seamstresses, referred to her by various family service centres, are mostly mothers from low-income families who prefer to work from home to avoid the high cost of childcare.
Starting out with unskilled seamstresses meant that many of her early creations were deemed too poorly made for the upmarket consumer and had to be sold off at a lower price.
It took two years of persistence and constant re-training by Ms Tsang, who was trained at The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, before production quality matched up to her targeted price levels. The latter was something she was not willing to compromise on so as to provide her mothers with a substantial income.
These days, Ms Tsang finds a loyal following among the expat community here. She sets up stands at fairs "only if it's rent-free" and stages fashion shows in hotels and country clubs around island as "products look very different when worn".
So quickly has business picked up that Ms Tsang plans to set up a workshop at Highpoint Social Enterprise Park in Geylang later this month where she can centralise training for new mothers.
She hopes to have at least 35 mothers on board soon, up from the 22 that she works with currently and the five that she originally had when she first started. At least 60 mothers have passed through the project since she first started in 2006.
Also in the pipeline is a tie-up with other civic-minded set-ups, such as furniture store Piece of Mine and Choo Yilin Artisan Jewellery, which emphasises sustainable luxury.
She says: "Collaboration is the way forward for social enterprises to support each other and grow together. But I prefer to work with people who have a creative edge to their products."
Cheongsams with an Indian twist
FED up with buying pretty dresses only to see someone walking down the street wearing the exact same thing, Audrey See decided to get crafty.
Handmade dress from The Girl's kaksh.
The 27-year-old gave up her day job as a branding and public relations adviser in a private school four years ago to start The Girl's Kaksh, a boutique cheongsam store. Kaksh is the Hindi word for room. Introduced to Indian culture by friends, Bollywood shows and frequent wanders around Little India, Ms See enjoys infusing Indian design elements in her cheongsam creations.
"I've always liked things that are handmade, colourful, ethnic and embroidered and Indian aesthetics contain all these elements," she said.
Yet she was adamant on keeping her pieces timeless. "I wanted to make dresses that are suitable for regular wear and that will not quickly not go out of fashion, dresses that people can pass down to their daughters," said Ms See.
Her designs are brought to life by local seamstresses, mostly women from low-income families. When she first started, most of her dresses were made by underprivileged girls in India, but she switched to a local workforce in 2009 when the volume of dresses she was making increased.
The dresses can be ordered off her online store, thegirlskaksh.com, or at the ad-hoc stalls she sets up at markets such as the monthly Market of Artists And Designers at the Red Dot Museum and the Pop and Talent Hub market at Vivocity. Her hand-made accessories, such as hair bows and brooches crafted out of measuring tape, have a permanent retail corner at a shop called Friends on Haji Lane.
For those who prefer to try before they buy, "fitting parties" for small groups can be arranged. Ms See will bring her collection of dresses to customers' homes for the ultimate private shopping experience.
Prices for her dresses range from $100 for a ready-made cheongsam in limited pieces to $200 for custom-made items.
"Many of us want to buy and also give, but there weren't many ways to do so in the past," says Ms See, who attributes the popularity of social enterprises like hers to society's growing social consciousness, increasing affluence and a bigger appetite for individualism.
"People are beginning to see the value of paying more than $150 a dress that does not belong to the 'Orchard Road brands'," she said.
While her rates are not pricey as far as custom-made cheongsams go, Ms See still gets a handful of browsers who baulk at the price. "They think it should be cheaper if it's hand-made," she said. Referring to the recently concluded Hermes exhibition at Paragon, where members of the public got to see the careful craftsmanship that goes into each of the brand's products, however, she is hopeful that greater appreciation will come with more public education.
She adds: "Many just aren't aware of the amount of work and hours we put into a dress."
