Singapore is one of the leading fashion countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It contributes a large part of income and revenue to the country. Fashion is a key to portraying your personality and behavior, it has become the art of representing oneself. In recent years it has also been used to symbolize your status, which is not partially right.
Fashion accounts for a larger market size in Singapore. The estimated revenue from the fashion market is around US$1,045.00m in 2024, with the projected annual growth rate from 2024 to 2029 of about 12.68%. Singaporeans prefer to wear clothes like dresses, skirts, swimsuits, shorts, etc that give a subtle and classy look. Here we discuss one such famous fashion brand of Singapore called Love, Bonito, and the women entrepreneur Rachel Lim, who founded it with her love and passion for apparel.
Rachel Lim’s entrepreneurial journey
Rachel Lim is a co-founder and chief brand officer of Love, Bonito which is a popular women’s fashion brand in Singapore, it was founded in the year 2010. Rachel Lim completed her college at Meridian Junior College and Nanyang Technological University she was an undergraduate and dropped out at the end of the final semester. Later in the year 2005, with her love for fashion and apparel, she started a blog shop with her friends named Viola and Velda. She was just 19 years old when she started her fashion blog post and was able to make sales.
She started her business by promoting through blog posts, WordPress, and other blogging platforms which is the most used way in Singapore. Later in 2010, after 5 years she was able to start her business as Love, Bonito, and then they decided to design the clothes on their own. She took money from her mother’s savings, along with other co-founders the business was just founded with $500 and has now grown to be a popular e-commerce fashion brand.
Rachel Lim was able to make a strong business when even e-commerce was not as growing as it is today. For now, Love, Bonito has around 17 retail outlets in different countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Rachel Lim is only focused on e-commerce as she believes that data can tell you everything from customer interest to the reason for no sales. Along with marketing and designing, she also has the responsibility of creating good content and customer service.
She also focuses on building community by conducting talks related to women’s topics that need awareness and she considers the community as the key to business success as it helps in connecting to customers in the long run. She had faced a situation where she felt unfit as a leader but with her strong willpower, she could make it successful.
Brief in Love, Bonito
Love, Bonito is an apparel brand that focuses on all types of women’s fashion clothing from formal attire to daily wear. It believes that getting ready is more than just looking good and hence provides a wide variety of designer clothes options. One can buy their product through their online website and will be notified of new arrivals. They have all the collections of tops, bottoms, outwear, Skits, and whatnot.
Awards and Recognitions.
Apart from possessing great entrepreneurship in the fashion industry, she is also a public speaker. In 2019 she was a guest speaker at TEDx Talks where she spoke about success from her perspective and also in the programs organised by Love, Bonito. She was one of the panelists at the World Young Women Achievers Forum in 2016 which was focused on working women and encouraging them in achieving dreams.
Rachel Lim was honored in 2016 by Forbes as Asia’s 30 under 30 where she was the only woman entrepreneur from Singapore in the list. She was awarded by TatlerAsia as the Asia’s Most Influential in 2021, 2022, and 2023. When her consistent hardwood and business strategy she was able to make a net worth that is estimated to be between US$1 million to US$5 million. With embarrassing e-commerce and making it a powerful tool for scaling the business she is been able to build a top fashion brand in Singapore.