Can't Keep My Mouth Shut - "I started my own fashion brand" with Made by Madre and Mrs Deco

Episode Date: August 23, 2021

Have you ever wondered how these epic brands ever began? How do you even begin to become a designer? How do you 'create' products that people want to buy? Is it profitable? What are the hardships you face? For this 'Girlboss' edit, I sit down with two Singaporean female designers who detail how they took their creative ideas to life - meet Made by Madre and Mrs Deco. 

this podcast contains strong language and discussions about relationships sex and love it may not be suitable for younger listeners this is the sex in singapore city podcast and i am nick selena hi it's nick selena i'm here with another monday evening episode of my podcast yay and this episode came about because um when Vera Wang turned 72 and hot damn by the way it was obviously all in the press and it said that she designed her first dress when she was 40 years old and it got me thinking like how do you even begin your own fashion label how do you begin your own brand and honestly like especially you know at 14 at the heights of a success so I

really wanted to grab a couple of women. I'm sorry for the guys, but I'm here for the Girlboss edit. I wanted to grab a couple of girls who've started their own fashion labels. And luckily, I actually know two awesome humans. Both girls are locals who have set up their own brand right here in Singapore. So without further ado, I'm going to introduce Maya. Hi. Who runs Made by Madre. Made by Madre, indeed. I can't say Madre. You can say Madre. I mean, it's Spanish after all.

Madre. Madre. But it's not really Spanish. It's just I like the ring to it. And this is a? A pearl jewelry artillerie. Indeed, yes. So it's founded, started by my mother and I, hence the Madre.

Yeah, just this year we launched it, a classic collection, and now our summer collection, hopefully more to come. And joining Maya in the studio, I have another awesome friend of mine is Chantel. Hi. Hey, girl. And you run swimwear brand Mrs. Deco. I do, hopefully turning into also a more resort wear brand. Mrs. Deco, because of the Art Deco movement, I have Art Deco prints all over it.

And you started it not in 2021. Exactly. yours was when maya oh my me oh my god i am nervous here okay 2020 oh okay so both are actually fairly fairly new hmm cool i love this and i'm gonna do you mind if i just pick your brain for the sake of this episode we're just gonna like go balls deep on how you even begin a brand because for me like i know i own a brand but it's very different i just created a blog logged it online and there we go. And talk about sex. Yeah. Yeah. Easy. Nice. So hard. Whereas I'm so interested in like, you know, just the back, everything to do with building your own label and how you get your

name out there and everything. So let's begin with you, Maya. What was the concept behind it? How did you begin? Why did you begin? And like, what was the first steps? All right. So I feel like with starting a business, to me at least, it's just by starting it. You just need to go out and just do it. I didn't actually register myself as a business owner until recently after I actually launched the brand. So it started off with my mother and I. My mom loved to bead way back when. And my dad is a fine jeweler. So we've always loved jewelry design. When I was growing up, I would always like draw little designs for him to make. And since pearls are just so in now, I've been seeing people all over the world wearing pearls for summer, celebrities

wearing pearls I just thought why not like I have the connections here in Singapore through my father and my mom loves to bead so might as well just when you say bead explain this to me so beading like um with little crystals making um little key chains uh necklaces bracelets fun little stuff you know just for like party costume jewelry kind of thing right um yeah so the pearls came along just because I thought they were really nice and since she's retired now might as well give her something to do that she enjoys and we both love it so much so we just made a collection for ourselves and I was like hey might as well monetize this because it's actually gorgeous and you know with the whole COVID thing the mass chains came in as well so

we're like why don't we make it classy and make some mass chains too so yeah just step by step obviously we loved it so much that we wanted to share it with other people so that became our little business and we started on Instagram first as how a lot of businesses now start right it's All through Instagram. A website came along shortly after. That one is a little bit more tricky to set up, I must say. So that one you definitely need to research, know how to set up a website by your own domain,

the whole shebang. Well, that's what I know. That's the shit I can do. And that's what I don't know, so I got help for that. Thank goodness. Digital website area, I'm fine. But beading? Beading?

What, like anal beads? I was just going to ask you, I'm sure you're well aware. That one you are well versed in. So is Chantel. Wow, I feel so left out right now. So yours began as kind of like a passion project and a hobby, which turned into something that you're like, it just basically grew. Absolutely, yeah.

And Chantel, what about you with Mrs. Deco? So I started Mrs. Deco, I actually started just sketching back in May when we were during lockdown. I was living with an old Chinese couple I was on my own and I was like oh my god I need to do something and because I am a fitness instructor where I teach swimming and indoor cycling I was like I want to create something that I can wear both for the water and the land and that's where I originally thought of my idea I always did want to start something but I needed a base on how I'm going to start doing it and what I'm going to base it on so yeah so I decided okay I got an

inspiration from way back when in 1920s art deco movement and I just created something I was like okay this is perfect I can make sports bras that I can use as well as swimwear and then I started sketching in May and I launched in August literally everything I did in between there was on my own and the first step that I did was call friends who already had their own business and I would say that that is the thing that I would do again is to just call people who have their own business already and just get tips from them because that helped me the most like even like sourcing I mean obviously you've mentioned um that you sketched and so the designs are yours designs are all mine so you go like I've got this amazing design in my head how then then what how

do you get it to be a thing I know right it's literally just put it on paper and then just fucking do it i mean um just do it um just just do it you can do it while fucking there are no roles sketch may have happened no it was locked down i'm inspired pass me the notepad i must sketch why are we here again um yeah so i called a friend who has a swimwear line her name's amy she runs babe cave and basically i was just like right i need to do this i want to do this and she hooked me up with a manufacturer back in Bali and I just sent him my designs literally through a sketch on a little doll that I just put the swimwear on on paper sent it to him and then he's like um I need measurements and I was like oh how do I do that so I measured from all my

sports bras that I had currently and send him whatever measurements I could and then he sent me a sample and I was like oh this is pretty good made one small adjustment and bam I was in it oh my god yeah wow so okay right so your actual distribution slash sourcing of the product come from a recommendation of a friend exactly and it would have been a lot harder had you not had that girl 100% yeah and I'm can I ask do you think there was was there any kind of this could be a conflict of interest yeah so I asked her so many times even till today um if she's okay with the fact that she said but look she would have also wanted someone to help her out and I think now in this day and age like it's nice that you have people who can support you and if you ask for

contacts here and there you should be able to share it's just sharing is caring and it just makes the world easier and nicer and better is this like your miss world peace sharing is caring and what about you Maya with the pearls where do you source you like a cow on pearl jewelry where do they come from so um yeah my dad actually has a pearl distributor in Singapore just because of his fine jewelry, right? But he does slightly better quality pearls in terms of like the polished ones, super round, and I don't know, all these different grades.

But for me, I kind of like the little different Baroque pearls, like freshwater pearls that are slightly cheaper, obviously, so it's more affordable for my market as well. So yeah, it's from the distributor. Unfortunately, though, pearls are really, really hard to source right now. So it's becoming a little bit more difficult to come up with new designs especially with the more unique type of pearls so yeah it is very difficult but we do have a supplier in Singapore and obviously when Chantel was saying like her

started out with sketches of the swimwear how do you do you sketch out your jewelry good question actually no we literally just see the pearls that we have in front of us kabam it's made no um yeah we just see what pearls we have in front of us and honestly just string them along and if we see a design we like on the actual string itself then we'll close it off if we don't like it then we'll take it apart and add on or yeah remove and just edit it along the way so it's very very like it's very personalized i have to say yeah customized personalized we used to do purely bespoke orders so whatever um some when someone saw a design that they liked online we would ask them what elements they like of it and we would create an entirely

new piece for them for now though i feel like it is just easier for people to just purchase online a product that they see already especially with how unique our designs are it's not really like just one classic pearl strand for example there's always something unique to the necklaces or the chains whatever that may be so yeah it's completely just purely random as sad as that sounds but yeah randomized designs and do you keep stock like do you have a pearl room no we have we have stock of like pearls pearl strands and stuff but we don't actually have ready-made pieces right we wait until somebody orders it and then hand make it from there because sometimes they might even want to add stuff to the already finished designs on like the made to order designs online so we always

want to make room for that a bespoke piece for them yeah and what about you Chantal where where does your swimwear live so at the moment the first collection that I did back in August I actually ordered stock in just to play around and see who likes what and to test around the market as to what interests people what people are interested in but after that round because I realized bikini bottoms are not bought as much as bikini tops so I decided yeah it's so weird people buy just the tops not the bottoms I guess because they like to to try it on first I mean you're you're different you like bikini bottoms anyway but some people just want like the tops like sports bras right because because it is still like sports bra ish designed that you can use both in water and land

And the support is unreal. You think you're going to fall out because, right? But you don't. It just makes your boobs bounce, but it doesn't come out. Every guy is now like, what? Can't relate. Can't relate. Sorry. Yeah. Oh, don't worry, Maya. I got you. I'm with you on that one. Bitty, bitty, titty, bitty. And so, yeah, so bikini bottoms, I had so much stock left over. So then the next one, I had to make then similar colors just to get rid of the stock of the bottoms.

But then from there on, I've done pre-orders where people place an order within 10 days. And then I actually send the orders into Bali. And within three weeks, everything will fly back into Singapore. So I don't waste any product and I don't waste any material. And everyone has their orders. Because obviously, if you've got stock, say, I don't know, 10 bikini bottoms left, that's your loss, right? It's a financial loss for you. Exactly.

And the materials and all of that, right, like environmental friendly, I'm trying to also try and save as much as I can. Yeah. Is your, am I right in thinking your swimwear is made from recycled? So all the printed fabric on my swimwear is 100% recycled water bottles and the plain fabrics are just nylon and spandex. Yes. So mine's recyclable water.

Yes, it is. Oh, I love that. I think that's fantastic. You're saving the environment. That is so cool. I love that there's this, Because obviously sustainability, especially in fashion labels and even fast fashion these days, is a big deal, including jewelry and accessories.

People want to know where their shit comes from. Exactly. It's a woke world, everyone. Woke. Stay woke, people. Stay woke. That's your pitch for world peace. Stay woke.

So I want to ask you girls, and I don't mind who wants to go first and brutally honest there is it still fun are you still enjoying it or is it is there elements to owning your brand that's so stressful that you've kind of wanted to call it quits I'll let Chantal speak first I was gonna say Maya can go first um look it's been almost one year and exactly on the 8th of August it's exactly one year and I've planned an entire new collection which I am stoked about and just planning and getting everything ready I've got my photo shoot this Thursday like I'm still excited the reason why I started was out of passion right and one year in I'm still very passionate about it and they've never thought oh the stress no yeah no I love it I do I mean of

course when sometimes I'm stressful I just hired my first intern as well um and I'm just like okay she can help me out with some parts but at the end of the day I'm like yeah I still want to keep doing this no matter how difficult it is I have to agree on that as well I still absolutely love it I mean it's still super fresh it's only been a couple of months um and I've had an amazing photographer slash creative director by my side she inspires me every day and now she's leaving which makes it a little bit more more stressful for me so I kind of need to figure out how she's leaving Singapore by the way not the brand she's not like she is working for Maya is awful she's leaving both I've done it for a few months exactly monster boss over here I am too woke

yeah but it's it is very very stressful but that doesn't stop me from creating new designs creating new collections um my mom still very much enjoys it although her eyesight is going because obviously yeah it's really really difficult as an older lady to be threading through really fine little beads and pearls yeah so I'm trying to take on the bulk of the making now. She does more of the designing. I will need to either hire a photographer or be my own. What was it like with it? You mentioned she was a creative director, this girl who's leaving. So did you ever have any like clashes of opinion or she thought the brand would go in one way and you had a slightly different idea? Honestly, so when we first began Made by Madre, I had a completely

different aesthetic to the brand and I hated it. I really needed someone to just inspire me and take over that creative aspect. So when she asked to actually help me with it, I was like, hell yeah, like go for it. You know, you take control and I completely trust you 100% and see where it goes. Obviously we would always communicate with each other. I would always be there on the shoots. she would send me mood boards, like we have to have a similar outlook. Right. Um, so it was definitely incredible for her to kickstart the new kind of aesthetic of Made by Madre. It's definitely more artsy now and kind of where I want it to go. It's more classy as compared to before it was very like low budget. It still is low budget, but in a different way, at least it

doesn't look low budget. So yeah, I'll figure it out. And what's it like to see someone wear your pearls? Like when you're on Instagram or when you're out with your friends? It just makes me so excited, really so excited because I never would have thought anyone would support me on this. It's not the cheapest of jewelry lines. I think a lot of people don't necessarily appreciate slow fashion and handmade fashion yeah it's definitely not appreciated enough um I find that in Singapore especially lots of people just love fast fashion or branded goods and that's why it's not my market isn't quite in Singapore or it's for the slightly older ladies um established women or mature yeah absolutely yeah and what about you Chantal when you see Mrs. Deco on people

so I actually was at the beach once I think this was a couple of weeks ago and I didn't know this person but she was wearing my stuff and I was like hey girl and it just honestly it just touches me I'm just like oh it's nice because people appreciate something you put effort into and you don't see it on everyone like most of the time I see it only on myself right like I don't really see it on so many different body types and all of that and it's so nice to see just the whole set put together from a piece of paper from a sketch made into this thing a real life version and then it's on a different body type and they're rocking it and it looks great and I'm like yeah I did that yeah I saw a girl in my scroll I tagged you she was just like randomly wearing it I was

I checked to see if it was tagged and it wasn't it wasn't tag me always tag it looked great it does and that's what I love as well it's a very like and I think both of you have now this is a very iconic look like when you see it you're like oh that's mrs deco yeah what's made by yeah yeah I love that because it doesn't feel like if we're going down the fast and slow fashion obviously fast fashion is cheaper but it's also replicated and everyone ends up wearing the same shit And here we've got brands where it's so individual and unique. And I think that's another good thing about Bathe Cave and you as well. It's completely different styles.

Yeah. Right? Exactly. I think actually made by Madhuri and Mrs. Jekyll could go well together. Yes. Potential collaboration. I think so too, actually, because pearls, you know, pearls is a very beachy thing. Classy.

Yeah. Totally. Super summery, but yet again, yeah, adds that elegance to any outfit. I don't take my pearls off even when I'm swimming. Well, yes, I know. And it's completely broken. I'm obsessed with my anklet that Maya made me, but I don't take it off because I love it so much. And it just falls off. Yeah. Even when was it ground zero? So it was mid-workout and my bead just went everywhere.

And Maya wasn't looking. I was like, don't tell her, she's going to kill me. Just to put it out there, you should not wear your pearls in chlorinated water, in salt water, anything that's not like pH neutral. do not wear it it's not that the pearls actually die or the gold actually tarnishes or anything it's just the interior of it starts eating away and it starts turning green because naturally that's what's going to happen with salty water with anything are you listening to this i've sent her many guides many look at her eyes this is what i was avoiding this is why i was in the middle of the workout scooping up all these pearls on the floor don't shower oh my god shower this is like the fifth time and every time i had it over she's like

this keeps gonna happen you know that right okay i just don't take it off i love you just wear the other stuff next the necklaces stick to that one she's still going Maya has officially left the conversation so Chantel can I ask is Mrs Deco's a full-time job it's not a full-time job oh I thought because you hired an intern or I thought and your new collection we were going with full-time no I have actually three jobs um I teach spin I teach swimming and then Mrs Deco is my side brand side gig um and then i'm a part-time model here and there but like that's a small thing so all

of these jobs are all freelanced okay um and mrs deco i do in my spare time wow i know i know that like i can't imagine like the stress it's not stressful though when you enjoy something fair you know when you're here taking notes taking notes i've got i've got to finish this podcast okay i don't like it dresses me out apparently it's not my passion project i'm out oh wow and what about you my full-time nope so similar to chantal actually i am a resistance trainer at a gym um i do part-time radio djing on the weekends and made by madre is also a part-time thing girl and yeah part-time model too I'm like okay anyone who just has one

job out there right you are not underachieving at your life that's quite normal these are two overachievers the hustlers the real hustlers in life feel like it's weird I just work Monday to Friday and we work Monday to Sunday yeah we don't really have a day off actually yep yeah that's got to be pretty crappy I mean like what tell me if there's any downsides to starting your own label um so I guess it's just being able to be organized and coordinated enough to make sure everything has a path or like a direction that it's going to go to like you need to know you need to be disciplined okay and you need to make sure that everything is organized because if not everything's going to fall over and then you get more stress. So I'm glad that when I started this, I had a

clear vision as to timelines and then everything just kind of flowed on its own. She sounds like she has her life sewed together and I'm just like the complete opposite, just like trying to figure it out. I'm literally the complete opposite of you. I find it incredibly stressful juggling all of this, especially as a freelancer. You know, your schedule is never really fixed. You never have a routine you can't get into a routine because it's always changing and especially with your own business there's always going to be struggles there I mean if you work for another company obviously you work as a team right but with your own stuff it's just incredibly stressful for me no actually that's true I mean you got to be organized to some extent having a very busy

schedule and it's never exactly the same week to week right like you have to be there on time like for example spin classes or when Maya's teaching a fitness class we cannot be late right absolutely um and my swimming schedule because it's super freelance I go to people's condos like I it's never the same every single day it's different there are cancellations all the time so you have to be organized in the sense where you are able to replan everything and what about if you're talking about being disciplined in organization what about finances like how do you take my money those two evil laughs take my money do you because obviously it depends on how much you sell so how when you even start this how do you know it's even going to sell

you don't yep you really don't it's taking that leap of faith and it's a passion project right so you love doing it and you're willing to bear whatever sunk costs exactly I was ready to be like okay whatever I order in stock it's probably not going anywhere and I'll just give it to friends for presents I love that about having your own brand yeah giving it as present you don't even need to think about birthday presents anymore well I know what my presents are to both of you actually uh oh what

oh I got a sex toy from you same honey no I'm just saying we've all got our own brands let's be honest and I believe

all are quite a necessity to life you want to swim you want to look pretty in pearls and you want to get off so

yeah but to be fair both of you slid into my DMs like oh that looks nice yeah oh you got a spare one I did ask for it

did you I just said that looked nice I didn't say a spare one but yeah okay next I asked if she had spare she has like a whole basket of them at home oh my god it's in my bag wait I digressed damn it okay so finances is basically do you did you save a bit of money as like a pot before you started it is that a first step so it was really funny because last year the whole lockdown period the government actually for singaporeans and prs they funded us i think nine grand it was one grand a month for nine months yeah it was a very open thing did you

are you did you not go in the world no i didn't get anything for for freelancers who are not working in a company what the hell um that's a missed shit that is a massive missed fucking shit yes so only freelancers right people who are not registered in proper companies for fuck's sake that's that's yeah yeah i didn't how did you get that you registered as a freelancer yeah oh i didn't register yeah yeah so you register as a freelancer through your cpf and everything for people who don't know this now you do is that just last year it was just for last year but you can try and check it out anyway but that was the money i used to fund oh cool yeah i was like instead of spending it on alcohol drinking on my own at home with an old chinese

couple I will fund it into a brand that is very cool and look where I'm sorry I know you're bummed don't you mate all I can say is take my money so when you as you say you started these labels did you find the reception from people and was there any negativity was everyone like positive has anyone gone oh I don't think you should do that or what if it doesn't work that vibe um of course it crosses I'm sure it crosses Maya's mind as much as mine but like there's always when I launch it right when I launched it on the first so the first time which is 8th of August last year I was like oh my god there's a you know there's like you saw me you saw how I was I was like oh my god what if no one buys my stuff this whole thing just will be like a wasted effort but again

then I was like no but hang on there are friends that will support you there is in at the end of the day you enjoy doing it always back to the first point about passion so and if if nothing happens with it at least you tried yeah yeah I mean like did you have any I don't know Chantal like your parents were they like oh you know don't I wouldn't bother you're gonna waste your money was there any negative like that was just was it full support it wasn't a full I wouldn't say it was a hundred percent support neither was it like no don't do it however I did have a friend or two who were like oh you didn't study this I don't think it's going to go anywhere but at least you know if you're ready to fail you'll be fine oh wow yeah yeah yeah yeah of course there's always

going to be someone that doesn't agree with what you want to do right it's not going to be like the base of my money I think this was the main thing for everyone it's like oh but this is not going to pay you the big bucks so the reason of the fail comment was because you weren't perceived to have done enough what business research to run a business I think so yeah I never I never studied it right like but again who cares you just do it it's honestly experience yeah I mean I did study business and management for my bachelor degree so I did management and marketing right um but yet again for marketing it's changing it's always changing the environment's always changing social media is changing like we learned about Facebook no one uses Facebook anymore like Instagram is a

thing now actually tiktok is the thing yeah so i think it's just all about experience and just getting it done like if you have an idea in mind just start it that's the best way to learn just getting it done right if you fail and i'm being found in photo commerce then you just learn from that if it is a failure or that step and then you carry on in a different direction exactly until you succeed and you just be careful yeah with the amount of cost that you put into it in the first place be conservative obviously don't just be like yo yo yo you know like a million dollars and let's invest. Exactly. Like we've all got millions of dollars to invest. I don't know what to do with it. Just sit in there. And I'm like, well, I can't. I said, wait, keep your millions of dollars.

In front of your TV. Just keep it right there. Okay. So I guess let's look to the future then. Do we have any plans? I mean, not right now, But would you like to go full time and become like Mrs. Deco? That's it. Oh, I don't know. That's a tough one. I think if I'm still doing the same thing in the next two to three years, maybe, depending on how large it grows.

But right now, I'm keeping everything small and controlled only because I want to be able to do everything still kind of on my own. I'm worried about expanding yet, like not yet, maybe one day. worried as in like but is it like happy nervous energy worry or is it like because obviously you also enjoy your cycle job right exactly and you love teaching kids to swim so perhaps would you be concerned that if you went full-time you know finances aside would it then not have that same passion exactly I think that's the whole that's the whole thing right because I am who I am because of all the things that I do and I'm crazy with how many things I do at one

time but that's what makes me and if I lose some parts of it to focus on only one of it I would probably lose myself and I wouldn't be as into it as I was doing everything at the same time what about you exactly same thing I wouldn't want made by Madre to really be my full-time job because I want to keep it as a passion and I feel like if you do anything full-time you lose a bit of that spark that creativity because it is it becomes tedious right it's just the same thing every single day whereas for us at least we have so many different things going on it keeps you on your toes and everything's just always so exciting and I love fitness I mean I could never ever give that up I think it's just so much fun and I love keeping fit myself I love inspiring others to be

healthier and better versions of themselves so I definitely could not give that up at all 100% I am such a better version of myself honey honey have you seen my ass that's just being in love but okay I'll take it I'll take it champagne you got fat we're working out together because you got fat I work out to eat too so it's all about the balance baby it's all about the balance I literally when I work out with Maya I'm like okay 200 calories for one latte I gotta burn 200 calories just for your coffee and I'm like oh muffin muffin I burnt a little bit extra so i can afford it okay straight to boobs and butt thank you very much nick selena for your amazing genetics yeah and survive i'm not gonna lie and um one of my burning questions

before i start to wrap this up is i would like to know do you have your very own personal favorite piece from your collection past or present and if so what and why my yeah um okay my absolute favorite piece is Magdalene and actually named after my mother. It is the most difficult piece to make in terms of just beating, not beating it, threading it through. And it's, how do I describe it? It's a pure just pearl necklace that has a little droop down in between your décolletage with a little droop, like a beautiful big pearl that droops at the bottom. And yeah, i just think it's so elegant it is so unique and the fact that it's so difficult to make as well makes it so special um it's limited edition so we don't really stock that many of it especially

the drop pearl at the bottom uh so yeah it's exclusive that sounds so sexy i got goosebumps yeah i think it's just the way you're explaining it it's like your voice should be on every single video that you are promoting and like people won't even need to see the product and they will just buy it buy it blind yeah just take my money i'm just about to hand over my podcast phrase for today take my money wow okay i cannot be bad you got this just like smoke your smoke your voice right okay what's your favorite piece mine is actually no i'm kidding so my my favorite piece is actually coming out in the next collection um it's called the next collection collection is called be bold stay luxe and basically my prints have evolved from basic prints very very minimal

colors to four colored prints um a little bit retro of a design and it's one pieces i mean it's just sexy and the girls came over on the weekend and they tried it and they all have different body shapes and I've only seen it on myself so when they put it on one of them she's got a curvier body with bigger boobs and bum and I was like oh my god this also looks good on you and the colors are sandstorm which is like an orangey shiny orange um and navy which I call indigo so I haven't given a name for the swimsuit yet I'm still deciding but yep it's coming out soon I think one pieces are just so flattering for all body types and it makes women at least feel confident because some people like me especially I don't want to show my tummy in

every single piece that I'm wearing right so this one is it's sexy it's classy yeah awesome when it comes to products available do you have currently you don't have one pieces or you do you have a bikini I only have two pieces at the moment okay and swim shorts for boys right yeah because But actually, both of you offer... Unisex. Yeah. Do many guys buy pearls, Maya? No, and especially not in Singapore.

I haven't seen any guy actually wear pearls in Singapore. We need to change that. Well, yeah, that's why we did a photo shoot with this gorgeous, gorgeous man. Oh, no, she's going to give Natoza a shout out. I'm not going to say his name, no. I won't, I won't. It's not the first podcast you've been in, honey. Let's just say that.

but yeah i mean he looks stunning in it i think it did look good i saw that so stunning so hopefully i was i had reservations when you're like we're shooting him we're gonna do a mouse off and i was like i don't know how this will work and yet it was it looked cool it looked fresh it it looked very like high-end magazine as well that's and very beachy as well you could definitely wear it to the beach hell yeah i think it's super mykonos you know like at a beach club in mykonos with like a button-down shirt, a white shirt with the pearl shells. So the one that he wore actually in one of the photos, it's actually mother-of-pearl shells.

So it's not actually pearls themselves. And yeah, it adds that like beachy element to it. Whereas like regular pearls, it's quite classy, right? And for men, they might feel a little bit more effeminate when wearing it. So a lot of men might not want to. Hence why we added shells or we would add titanium beads to add that little like rock element to it too nice um but yeah no i haven't seen any man wear it in singapore or boys you got to change that oh yeah yes thank you very much it's very sexy

you could pick up all the ladies patrick patrick come on now you're a really tall ginger guy but pearls and I want you to buy these sandstorm orange swimming shorts okay I actually love the swimming shorts I'll buy them for for I can tell like when you guys have thought about male products you have tapped into the kind of thing that the guys would like the shorts are amazing thank you darling they're very cute yeah right and so so you do um men's shorts only and you do women's bikinis but you're bringing out one pieces as well and you mentioned resort wear yeah maybe cover-ups and everything that will come out I love that caftans yes what a vibe lacy lacy take me to Mykonos right

now please thank you very much basically I'm creating products for holidays that are non-existent at the moment so you can pretend you are so depressing and maya you've mentioned that you have a necklace but whatever and obviously i mentioned ain't clear whatever products do you do so we have mass chains um the one that i'm wearing today is actually called a bola so it's called like um uh it's a mexican term i think bola um it's kind of like a chain that looks like a tie but you can customize it and add pearls to it so you can wear it with a suit for men even they can wear it open up like they've just opened up their tie so it's kind of like a replacement for your tie um so we have bolas as well we only have one for now that's a limited edition piece we've got

some bracelets and very soon i do want to try introducing some earrings yes i think yeah i think earrings would go really really well I just need to find uh what type of quality I want to do because 14k gold in Singapore is actually really difficult to manufacture um and you only use 14k gold right I only use 14k gold filled jewelry um I don't do any plated except for some um 14k gold plated clasps that are slightly more unique and that's only if someone wants it they don't necessarily have to have that clasp um so yeah earrings I'm either going to do um 18k gold which is fine jewelry considered fine jewelry and I'll use my dad's um workshop for that or I will do stainless steel and price it down a little bit can I have a stainless steel you have one baby

you have one stainless steel you also had one and you broke that one too I gave you all types of qualities and you still managed to break it she's so rough can I just say honestly it's been such a pleasure having you both on like I don't know how people feel listening to this but I'm inspired being around you both and it's so refreshing for you guys to admit like it's a case of just start it you know like you obviously had light plans and light sketches but you didn't do you know years and years of research on your own business you just went headfirst yeah and really followed your passion and I think it's fantastic to for you both to have this on the sideline and honestly I'm biased because I love

them as humans but the products are awesome the swimwear and the pearl jewelry are beautiful thank you and I have in fact purchased myself but like that's how much I love them and yeah I think it's it's wonderful and I hope young girls and guys who tune in and listen to this if there's any passion that they have out there that they feel inspired to start right absolutely just do it just do it literally just do it is that it that's the main key advice here yes and stay woke and take my money okay so to finish up let just word of instagram tiktok whatever how do we find your brand so let's go with mrs deco just instagram and facebook for now it's mrs deco with an underscore at the back on Instagram

and just Mrs. Deco on Facebook. That's it. Can you shop directly on Instagram? You can. But you can also go to the website. You can also go to the website, www.mrsdeco.com. That was quite nice. That was really good.

Thank you. And Maya? You can find Made by Madre on Instagram. We haven't actually set up a Facebook shop yet. I'm still trying to figure that part out. But we do have a website where you can purchase directly on on madebymarjorie.co and Instagram as well is madebymarjorie.co. Beautiful.

Thank you so much, girlies. Thank you for having us. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks, honey. And that's the end of this episode. Thanks for listening to the Sex and Singapore City podcast. This episode was produced and hosted by me, Nick Salina, and recorded at the Splice Car Studio in Singapore.

I'm available to listen to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google and all major podcast listening apps. Do subscribe to enjoy a new episode every Monday evening. Please do give me a five star review. It helps other people also find my podcast. For more awesome content and features to read, you can check out my website, sexandsingaporecity.com. That's sexandsingaporecity.com. I'm also on social media simply search at nixalina n-i-x-a-l-i-n-a

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