A New Chinoiserie

Pamela: Yes, it is. We feel that as a new company, it is tough to compete against the established furniture players who are experienced and good at producing all the key furniture pieces. Scene Shang is a new entrant to the market, our products can come bite-sized for a start, we don’t need to be too aggressive. It also allows us to get our feet wet and have an understanding of the industry. In this way, we can slowly build our contacts and learn things along the way. More importantly, these pieces allow us to create our own unique selling point.

Pamela: Yes B2C, because we have an e-commerce platform. We have not actively pursued any distributors abroad yet, but we do have plans to expand overseas.

Jessica: We were planning something in China and France, but then COVID-19 came, so things slowed down.

Jessica: Yes. Scene Shang being a lifestyle brand; it is interesting to find out the perspectives of other designers and other brands on what Asian contemporary design means to them. We had collaborated with IGC (In Good Company), Wendy Chua from Forest and Whale, Larry Peh from &Larry, and also a Tattoo artist, Joseph from Visual Orgasm for Singaplural during the Singapore Design Festival.

Pamela: And in fact, just a few days ago, we launched a collaboration with Singapore fabric-print designers - Onlewo, Binary Style and Minor Miracle. We procured their fabrics to upholster our latest cane chair collections. They added quite a nice splash of colours to our offerings, and it is also quite meaningful as their prints are inspired by the local culture.

Jessica: The fabric came with their own stories, for example, we used Onlewo’s Chinatown print on one of our chairs, called the Gentlemen Cane Chair. It gave a very different look. Both our brands are aligned; we're inspired by culture. Although both our expressions are quite different, when you put the two together, it created something quite different and fresh.

Jessica: Binary Style and Minor Miracle are fashion brands that are fairly new. With them, we wanted to reach a different audience with different tastes. They are not so much inspired by history and culture as Onlewo, but they have a very nice contemporary take on print. So we thought that it would be nice to include something different.

Pamela: It can be quite global. It’s a bit like Liberty in London, it is very English in the way that it is designed but yet, it has a global appeal; things like colourway and patterns are things that people can appreciate whether or not you understand the culture. So I feel yes, it does have a global appeal.

Pamela: Yes.

Pamela: I think it is not particular to furniture, it is just difficult to run any business per se.

Jessica: The challenge for Singapore designers to start a furniture company from scratch, is really about finding the right makers, because we know that Singapore has very good technology, and we have all the access to CNC (computer numerical control) machines, very high-tech stuff. So while we might be able to do the CNC here, we can’t make our wood furniture here due to the lack of the resources, space, and also the scale. For example, our recent cane and rattan range, we can’t do it here as we don't have craft people here to help us to produce the designs. The reason we dared to start Scene Shang is because we actually left Singapore in 2013, we went to Shanghai and found a lot of production possibilities.

At that point of time, we didn’t know that we would set up Scene Shang yet, but we were just very inspired, and we wanted to do something in Shanghai. Because China is so big, there's a huge range of local workshops that you can work with from small to big scale, whereas in Singapore, the choices are quite limited. We also need to consider the production quantity; everything is very hard to scale when you are small. To overcome this challenge, we have to constantly search for new makers whom we can work and partner with in order to expand our product range and offering.

Pamela: At this point, we are working with makers who are not really your commercial factory types where they have a MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) of thousands that you need to commit to, we are in between a bespoke and completely mass production space. It is still manageable for us to cater to the local market from a production perspective, but from scalability and business perspective, the only way to do this is perhaps buffing up on our e-commerce. It is really to our advantage in this time and age to be able to leverage on e-commerce to reach a wider audience. At the same time, back to your question on distributorship, that's necessary, and there's definitely a next step that has always been on our minds; to be able to go beyond Singapore and see how we can expand into the rest of the world. But definitely, the market here is just too small.

Jessica: It depends, but we do have a strategy. We have homeware that we have produced in the hundreds to thousands before, but we have stopped doing the thousand-kind-of-quantities. Furniture pieces could be as little as a dozen. As I mentioned, because the pieces are mostly accent pieces, it is not feasible to make them in huge quantities, as there's a level of customisation to it. At this point, we're not playing the quantity game for furniture. But for homeware, you do need to produce a certain minimum quantity to be profitable and also distributable. The homeware is quite easy also to sell B2B for gifting, and they are popular as corporate gifts or for events. So there is that sort of balance in the product range for us to be able to hit different kinds of revenue streams.

Jessica: That is a very good question. They're both necessary for each other.


Pamela: Pre-Covid, definitely the physical shop. People prefer to go and try, see, and touch. But online really saved us during circuit breaker. People shifted their attention there. Even with Covid subsiding now, I feel that people are doing a lot more of their shopping online. Before, they go to the shop and just want to pay and leave, nobody really lingers around anymore. It's necessary to have both.

Jessica: You'd be surprised, there are actually these people from the most unexpected places who are buying our higher end furniture online, we really don't know how they know about us, especially if it is an overseas order. We wondered how these people found us, and why they are willing to part with quite a bit of money without seeing the actual thing; the whole transaction is completed online and we simply ship them the piece. So online is becoming really important. At the end of the day, the consumers nowadays will want both platforms. They will definitely see the website. I would not say that there's a customer who actually doesn't see the website, unless it’s very small postcards. But generally, they do go to the website to see more information or just check the prices.

Jessica: There’s a spirit of wanting to excel, but as a design community, Singapore is quite young. In general, the designers that I’ve met, we all have a positive spirit towards wanting to build and to continually be better and to design better. Generally, there is a positive attitude. We are not stuck in specific ways of doing things, there is a willingness to try new things. Singaporeans are usually quite sensible in that we will follow the rules, but we are also not so stuck in tradition in the way that we are rigid for things to be done in a certain way, as compared to more established design countries. I do see a positive energy in trying to build a voice, yet I don't think there's a specific identifiable voice. Generally, Singaporean designers have that positivity to try to create something that is meaningful.

Pamela: Is this a candid one? (laughs)

Pamela: Unforgettable…hmmm…

Jessica: No lah, of course we have! For me, the supply chain has always been a challenge. End of last year, veteran designer Nathan Yong—who is mentoring us—encouraged us to go to Indonesia or somewhere closer to look for new makers, and not to over-rely on China. So we went to Indonesia, and we actually did find a partner! They are the ones who are making our Cane Collection right now. It's always been a challenge to secure good partners for the supply chain and interestingly at that point of time, China was going through the whole lockdown, so our supply chain there was stuck, we didn't know what was going to happen because if everything in China comes to a halt, then what are we going to sell? Of course, we have other things made in Malaysia, Vietnam, but China is a crucial maker for us. So of course, there’s all these uncertainties. So we were really lucky to have the Indonesian alternative now, because if China is cut off due to Covid or a trade war, at least we have a new supplier in Indonesia that could also help to keep things going. Interestingly, China bounced back from Covid really fast and then suddenly Indonesia was affected. So there are all these challenges, and we learnt that whatever it is, we must always have a backup plan.

Pamela: It’s very encouraging to see the company grow. Up till today, we still ask each other if we were crazy to start this. Sometimes we still have our doubts. When we produce something we both like very much, we start worrying if other people will see it the same way as we do. And will people pay money for it? It is like a daily internal struggle for us.

Jessica: Some people have asked us, why do you dare to do this? It’s so niche, don’t you feel that you will be stuck in a specific style? Maybe we felt that way a little in the beginning, but as we moved on, what is really very beautiful for me is that … we have this yearly Shang Yue (赏月) event to celebrate Mid-Autumn, which we started since the first year. And the first time, we had only like 10 people, and some even left early to go home, it was really sad. We didn't publicise it well because we didn't know who would want to come. But over the years, we saw the following building up and a lot of the customers become our friends, and I genuinely look forward to seeing them every year at Shang Yue. It's a spirit of kinship and warmth. It's really very special—people feeling this ownership and wanting to be part of this Scene Shang good living. People come to our event because they really want to, and not just to be seen, like those influencer events. Those are the high points, to know that people are really buying the brand and they really feel for the brand and want to be part of it. For example, this year we didn't get to do it due to Covid, so a lot of people asked us, what's going to happen? Will there be anything this year? Which is why we decided to send a Shang Yue gift box to all our friends and customers. We hope that they will still feel that same warmth and kinship.

Pamela: I like them all. But if I have to choose, it will not be a collection, it’s just a piece. It’s still the Shang System. That's our starting point, and it epitomises the brand. And I still remember the initial excitement of this brand actually becoming real. For me, it's very close to my heart.

Jessica: That piece, she scolded me and scolded me, so I had to work very hard. (Laughs) The Shang System has a special place in my heart too, but I would say at this point in time now, my favourite collection would be the Cane Collection. For me, it signifies a progression because we were able to work with very different materials. At first, we started the Shang System with solid wood, but now we have come to be able to work with the Rattan-makers. Although rattan is a material indigenous to Indonesia, we managed to create a unique design that has a Chinese touch. I find that it is an interesting creative growth, that we are able to use the local materials and create something new, create a new silhouette.

There’s just a beauty in seeing the rattan being woven and made together just by hand, because Shang System was initially not so high-tech, but we improved it and it was made using CNC later, and with CNC, there's a certain precision to everything; but this Cane Collection brought us back to a primitive way of making, it's really just this one guy, he's like doing tai chi with the whole bending of the rattan piece. There's a certain beauty of that humaneness in creating these shapes, and not depending on the machine. That was pulling me back to the initial starting point, and the beauty there. At this point of time, it's my favourite collection, but I will have a new favourite the next time we do something new again. It always has to be better.

Jessica: Other than the Cane Collection, we have recently launched a new collection of furniture that is made out of this synthetic woven fibre. Basically, it’s a collection of outdoor furniture. Most outdoor furniture usually has fibres that look very artificial, but our maker has this proprietary material, which is actually made of HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene), so it's actually plastic, but he blends them together through a process and the result looks like a natural fibre and the effect is quite good. This can be put outdoors as it is weather-resistant, and it even comes with a warranty. I would say they are not traditional outdoor furniture; they would look good even if you use them as indoor furniture.

We launched the collection, Weatherproof, earlier this year quietly because you can’t do anything during Covid. Other than that, the standard favourites for us are wood, and rattan now, and we always like to add touches of brass to our pieces; we will even design the hardware just to have that touch. The Cane Collection and Weatherproof both featured brass details as well. The brass details are the Scene Shang touch.

Jessica: Sustainability was the motivation to create the Cane Collection and Weatherproof, as cane is a fast-growing material, which makes it sustainable, and the fibres are all recyclable. Cane—as we understand—grows along the forest. You need the forest to survive for the cane to grow, so it helps with the environment. Other than using sustainable materials, it is also about managing our processes and resources. I always feel that if there are things that people can do better, let them do it. If someone can produce a cheaper table, let them do it, because we don't want to go into a mass production of 1000 tables that we cannot sell, and they end up rotting in the warehouse, that is not sustainable. Managing processes and resources is a way to be quietly sustainable. Does that make sense?

Pamela: A lot of people think that sustainability is in using recyclable materials alone, but it is more about reducing wastage. For example, if the MOQ is 1000, and I order 1000 simply to bring the cost down, this is foolish as you are not taking into account the costs needed for the storage space, and maybe if you don't sell, they will go to waste. So we try to streamline and optimise our demand and supply. I feel that is a way of sustainability as well.

Jessica: In fact, there are a lot of new technologies these days that allow you to do customised, on-demand stuff without having to make a mould. That's the way to go forward.

Jessica: Off the top of my head, I want to design a better dining table. There are probably a lot of existing IKEA tables that work well, but I’m imagining a piece that is suited to the IKEA style and one that can be mass-produced and flat-packed. I want to design a nice round dining table that can fit into most houses properly, maybe one that is transformable into a long table. And I'm sure that IKEA has the resources to produce it at a price that can be palatable. Round tables are very Chinese as all Chinese families share their dishes, so it is best to be round as everybody can reach all the dishes.

Jessica: They're still relevant because you still need to see the things in the flesh, and meeting people is important too. It is quite different from getting acquainted online.

Pamela: We have visited quite a number, but we have not taken part yet, as in, had our own booth space. We were planning to do so this year, but then Covid happened. Fairs are quite necessary in our industry.

Pamela: It's ever-evolving. Our vision right from the start was to have this all-encompassing lifestyle space in the form of a hospitality environment. In our shops, we try to create the feel that you are visiting someone's house, giving people the very warm, non-intrusive, non-pushy retail environment. That is what our direction has always been, to just create a hospitable vibe for people. It will be nice if we can create a Scene Shang hotel one day, which will have the same spirit as our shop. That is the dream, the goal.

Pamela: That is not about how many shops or how many countries we will be in. It's more about being able to attract more people into this lifestyle, embrace it as a modern Asian lifestyle brand, and to be appreciative of Asian contemporary design. If it is going to be in the form of another shop in Japan, Australia or wherever, so be it, but it doesn't have to be, it's not limited that way.

Jessica: Just do it. (Laughs) I always believe that if you want to do something, you just have to try. Sometimes you don’t really know why you do something at a given point of time, but later in life, you will realise that there is a reason for that. It's important to just go out there and do things. Through it, you get inspired by certain things, certain people. Then, all these encounters will help you to form your story, and you find your voice as a designer. That was my process. For example, I started in interior design, and after I tried it, I knew that it wasn’t something I wanted to pursue in life. But it is because I have tried it, that I know for sure that I don’t want it anymore. I want to create things that people actually want, or that people actually want me to do. Everything you do, it's about having a positive spirit. In the end, everything you do—whether it works or not—will be a valuable lesson.