Beyond The Vines’ Daniel Chew And Rebecca Ting: “Remove What Isn’t Necessary So That What Is Lasting Will Remain”

By Read-A on 4 November 2020

The global outlook on consumer spending may be less than peachy when it comes to fashion retail, but that didn’t stop customers from buying five times more of the brand’s beloved Dumpling bags during the circuit breaker.

“The performance of the dumpling bags exceeded our expectations,” said Daniel Chew and Rebecca Ting, the husband and wife duo behind the Singaporean brand Beyond The Vines. “We were definitely surprised, because the dumpling bags are not new — they were launched at the end of last year. We only made the decision to place the spotlight on the bags during the circuit breaker period because while most people weren’t buying ready-to-wear, bags were still a necessary and functional accessory.”

The Dumpling bag went on to become a collector’s item, with new iterations released by the duo each season. It’s loved for a multitude of reasons: it’s lightweight, deceptively spacious, can be folded into a compact square, and can be worn in a myriad of way that go from crossbody bags that street-savvy teens sport to simple handbags for the contemporary woman going out to high tea.

Beyond being a best-selling hit for the brand, the Dumpling bag is a testimony to Chew and Ting’s “good design for all” ethos.

“From the beginning, it was always our goal to make good design accessible to all,” they tell us in an email interview. “To be honest, the simpler the design, the harder it is to execute it well, because there are no frills or layers to hide behind. It is also our guiding principle that our designs allow space for individual expression. It’s always been important to us that the wearer wears the clothes and not vice versa. We think of our designs as building blocks in a wardrobe.”

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