In Vogue

You’re one of the co-founders of Upstairs Garments, a store with the largest selection of archive and runway fashion pieces—tell us about how you got into fashion!
It’s a bit of a long story, but I got into fashion because of the Nike x Off-White collaboration that dropped when I was in secondary school. The shoes that caught my eye back then were the vulcanised Converse because they were translucent and people were wearing them with different coloured socks so the colour peeks through. I slowly dug deeper and ventured more in to Off-White, then I found Supreme and got super into the streetwear scene back then, but I was a broke boy lah, I couldn’t afford it.

Eventually, I found Undercover. I was captivated by all of Jun Takahashi’s graphic tees, and then I found out that they did more than just graphic tees.. That’s how I got into watching their runway shows and got into high fashion.

I had a friend who was really into Balenciaga, Vetements, and Saint Laurent, and that rubbed off on me. I wanted to connect streetwear with high fashion, which led me to Burberry’s nova checks—I love the history behind how London hooligans used to wear them to pubs and fights. That’s how I fell in love with Burberry and European high fashion. These days, I’m more into Hedi Slimane’s work with brands like Saint Laurent, Celine, and Dior Homme.

Wow, what a journey! You mentioned Jun Takahashi was the catalyst to you turning away from streetwear towards high fashion, but what was it about high fashion that made you stick with it as opposed to streetwear?
I’d say it’s the real culture and history, especially in European fashion. For example, the Dior show that stands out most to me is the one where the show closed with a look featuring wings, referencing 1960s to 70s Dior. That sent me down a rabbit hole of references, and I became fascinated by how interconnected everything is in Parisian fashion.

That’s what pulled me away from streetwear. I started learning about post-WWII fashion—how Christian Dior shaped the scene, the rivalry between Cristóbal Balenciaga and Hubert de Givenchy, and how Yves Saint Laurent succeeded Dior. I went through a Riccardo Tisci phase when he was at Givenchy and later Burberry, and eventually got into Hedi Slimane, who led both Dior Homme and Saint Laurent before moving to Celine.

Very interesting! How did you then go from being just a lover and appreciator of high fashion to actually collecting and selling archival pieces with Upstairs Garments?
Before Upstairs Garments started, Vegas, one of its co-founders, and I were running a die-cast shop—basically we were reselling Hot Wheels. We went all in and did this for about a year.

Eventually, we realised we had a bigger passion for clothes, and plus, we really needed to purge our wardrobes anyway (laughs). That’s when the idea came about: we wanted to build a space where people in Singapore could hang out, talk about high fashion, and help grow the scene here. We actually started out with a focus on Japanese labels since all four co-founders share that love.

It’s so nice to see the community that you guys have built! And not just that, we love how educational Upstairs’ Instagram is. Whose idea was that?
I’d say all of us. We started this wanting to be a different kind of archive store. A lot of archive pages just show off the garments, how they wear it, and that’s their content lah. But for us, we feel that in Singapore, we really want to educate people—that clothes aren’t just fabric you wear. There’s history and culture that influence the way we dress, especially with all these runway pieces.

It’s also fun for us to do the research and do all the write-ups. The main goal isn’t just to sell clothes, we also want to build a community in Singapore where people truly care about fashion. Where people feel bold enough to wear something with a historical and cultural meaning. That’s why we focus a lot on the educational content. We just want people to be more informed—that there’s more to your clothes than it just being a simple tee or workwear jacket.

Well, thank you for educating us all! On the topic of fashion in Singapore, what are your thoughts on and hopes for the local fashion scene?
Let’s zoom out and talk about Singapore society as a whole. I think we’re a very globalised nation. We pick up on and follow trends from all over the world, but when it comes to buying decisions, I feel like there isn’t much critical thinking involved.

For example, there was the whole Labubu craze—which honestly, I don’t really get lah. Just because a celebrity wore it, suddenly everyone went crazy. In our fashion scene, it’s kind of the same with the opium aesthetic trend now. It’s probably influenced by TikTok. And yeah, it’s fine to want to fit in and wear what you like, but there’s a lot more to fashion than just wearing what’s trendy. If you like the full-black, opium-core look, go for it! But just know that there are so many other brands out there to explore. If you dig deeper or save up a bit more, you’ll find brands with real history and cultural meaning behind them rather than fast fashion brands.

Compared to other cities, we still have some catching up to do. KL has a more diverse scene, while Bangkok has arguably the best fashion scene in Southeast Asia, and even Jakarta is doing better in some ways. So it’s really a mystery—why are we, despite being more affluent, still so limited and linear in how we dress? And I guess that’s exactly what we’re trying to challenge at Upstairs.