The Value Of: Pride In Your Work

“What do you do now?”
“Sew.”

“What do you want to do twenty years from now?”
“Sew.”

It’s pretty rare to find business owners who don’t want their label to become a fashion powerhouse, but for Gerald Shen and Diana Chan of homegrown label, Vanda Fine Clothing, it was never about fame and fortune – and never will be. 

What’s the story behind Vanda Fine Clothing?
Gerald: It started back when I was in SMU. I was looking for something that was of good quality, well-made but but well-priced, and couldn’t find anything suitable in the market. So I gave Diana one of my old pocket squares and some fabric and asked her to take a shot at it as she’s always had a knack for sewing.

Diana: This was back in 2009.

Gerald: We bought fabric, but we couldn’t buy material for just one pocket square, so we decided to sell the excess pocket squares we had through a clothing forum online and it took off from there. After a year, we decided to challenge ourselves by making ties and had to learn from scratch. We finally got a product that was good enough to sell, so we sold our first batch of ties in 2011.

Diana: We stopped selling ties after the first batch after Gerald graduated from SMU. While we were on vacation to Portland, Oregon a few months later, we saw lots of independent stores operating from their front porch, and that set me thinking seriously about Gerald’s previous playful comments about sewing full time. Although I had just gotten a promotion, we figured since we had no commitments back then, it was probably now or never that we’d start Vanda Fine Clothing. The fact that we found that we really enjoyed the zen moments of sewing also influenced our decision significantly!

What’s a typical workday like?
We start on weekdays at 8am and finish at 5pm. We get coffee, print out orders, and then get working. As the products get sold, we try to replenish them so it never runs out and allows us to do custom orders easily too.

What was it like to be in a relationship and then mix it with work?
We’ve been together for 9 years now, but we’ve never formally worked together before this – so it was hard! We’re both really stubborn and knew there’d be problems along the way; sure enough, in our first year, there were many days where we ended up disagreeing with each other and not talking for the entire day. But after 2 years, we’ve come to understand that we have different ways of working.

Gerald: In the morning, I come in and take half an hour to run around, make coffee, and get into the zone, but when Diana comes in, she puts her things down and starts right away. I don’t know how she does it!

Diana: Yeah, back then when I needed his help because of all the hype and orders coming in, I couldn’t understand why he was sitting there zoning out!

Have you ever thought about branching out? We noticed on your website you might create bespoke shirts.
Yes, but everything will still be done from here. We’re control freaks!

Do you guys see yourself doing this for the next 10, 20 years?
For as long as these hands can sew and these eyes can see.

Diana: It looks easy, but when you get down to it, we literally sit there for hours just sewing. When we first started I was sewing so much I had a case of minor arthritis in my left hand. Sine then I’ve recovered and we’ve learnt to not spend so much time focused on one task and take regular breaks in between. And I forced Gerald to learn how to sew so he could help me out!

How do you guys plan on growing Vanda Fine Clothing?
Our aim isn’t to make this a multimillion business. At the end of the day, all we want to do is keep it small, keep the quality high, and be satisfied with what we’ve done.

The easy way out is to take measurements and send it out to a factory, but that isn’t us. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it here and we’re going to do it properly.

Each product is carefully inspected by the both of us, as it is critical that every single product that leaves the workshop is perfect. This is essential because we deal with mostly overseas clients, and there is no room for error. If there is a small mistake, you may not hear their complaints, but it’s also likely that you will never hear from them again.

What’s the most fulfilling part of your job… and the most difficult?
This trade is very small, and there aren’t many factories left that do make products by hand, so we’re very proud to make everything from start to finish in our little workshop. We love it when we get notes from clients telling us how happy they are! That really makes our day.

The most difficult part of the job is probably getting people to understand why our products are priced the way they are. We get people who walk into our shop and let out a hig “huh?!” when we tell them the prices, but once we explain the process they tend to calm down.

What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learnt?
A lot of people think that being your own boss means you can do whatever you want, at your own pace. But the greatest discipline is to teach yourself that this is your own business; what you earn is what you keep, so if you want to work hard and make it big, you have to work at it.

Diana, we read that your motto is ‘simple in virtue, steadfast in duty’ and we found that really interesting because we don’t know any IJ girl to actually live by that!
I have been an IJ girl all my life; it wasn’t so much the teachers telling me I had to abide by the school motto but it kind of got built into my system. My parents have always told me “as long as you work hard, you’ll be happy!”

What’s the one thing you’d tell upcoming start-ups, considering you started from scratch?
Focus on doing what they do best, rather than trying to think of how to make it big. Focus on what you do, do it well, and people will see that you are genuine and they’ll buy your product. We didn’t start this thinking we’d become a fashion giant, all we wanted to do was to make a product to the best of our ability and stand behind it. If someone comes in and tells us he’s not happy with our product, we’ll fix it or make it better and if we can’t, we’ll strive to do it better tomorrow.

Doesn’t it get tiring to do this day in day out though?
Gerald: Our teacher is 65, and has been in the trade for about 40 years. He’s still extremely driven and is probably one of the few people who can do everything from start to finish on his own. He truly practices what he preaches. There’ll always be something to learn; it’s a lifetime commitment.

He tells us daily to never ever stop learning and to strive to do better than yesterday. That’s the kind of mentality that has carried him forward to where he is today, and that’s something that we’ve adopted.

What do you want to be remembered for?
We want to be remembered not for the brand but our products. At the end of the day, you can’t even see where we place our label tags unless we tell you! Great quality, taking pride in what we do, and moving forward with passion – that’s what we want to be known for.