A cross-cultural wedding in Perth, with our dog as ring bearer
There comes a moment in your relationship when you know you need to discuss The Future.
For D and me, the moment came quite quickly in our courtship. We had met in Perth in 2023, and clicked almost immediately. We both saw life as a spiritual journey, and our time on earth as an opportunity to grow, to become the best possible versions of ourselves, so we can be of service to others.
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Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Kodak, once the picture of a dying brand, is having a moment
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Corner Shop, a Kodak Apparel store in Seoul, is what locals call the 'Brooklyn of Seoul'. SEOUL - Even among the flashy signs on the bustling main drag of Seongsu-dong, a former warehouse district turned hipster haven in Seoul, South Korea, the mustard-yellow facade of the Kodak Corner Shop stands out. On a recent afternoon, the two-storey apparel store in what locals call the 'Brooklyn of Seoul' teemed with shoppers. 'Share Moments. Share Life' – a slogan Kodak launched nearly a quarter-century ago – was posted above the door. People browsed shelves of Kodak-branded clothing, including shorts, T-shirts, baseball caps, book bags, sundresses and sandals. One of the shoppers, Ms Erye An, 27, a film photographer, modelled a cross-body bag emblazoned with Kodak's signature red-and-yellow, camera-shutter logo, once among the most recognisable symbols in the world. Ms An, who mentioned that her refrigerator was packed with Kodak film and kimchi, said the shop mirrored the 'dreamy' tones of analogue photographs and evoked for her a nostalgic feeling. Her friend, Ms Lee Young-ji, 30, a marketing student, offered an explanation for why the shop was so busy: 'I think it's because Kodak hasn't lost its emotional touch.' The Eastman Kodak Co., a brand as big in its heyday as Apple or Google today and whose sentimental ads left lumps in the throats of generations of consumers, has become a cautionary tale for companies slow to adapt to change. At its headquarters in Rochester, New York, most of the roughly 200 buildings that once stood on its 1,300-acre campus have either been razed or are occupied by other businesses. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Seller's stamp duty rates for private homes raised; holding period increased from 3 years to 4 Asia Japan urges evacuation of small island as 1,000 quakes hit region World Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending Bill wins congressional approval World US Treasury chief sees 100 countries getting 10% reciprocal tariff Sport A true fans' player – Liverpool supporters in Singapore pay tribute to late Diogo Jota Singapore Universities like NUS need to be open, to become a sanctuary for global talent: Vivian Balakrishnan Singapore 193ha of land off Changi to be reclaimed for aviation park; area reduced to save seagrass meadow Business More Singapore residents met CPF Required Retirement Sum when they turned 55 in 2024 But Kodak is having a moment again, mostly overseas, through trademark licensing agreements with manufacturers and retailers of a wide range of products. The company's logo is being slapped on lifestyle items such as apparel, luggage, eyewear and paint; on hardware like such as solar panels, flashlights and power generators; and on audiovisual equipment such as televisions, voice recorders and binoculars. Its ubiquity is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in South Korea, where there are 123 and counting brick-and-mortar stores that just sell products from Kodak Apparel, the name of the clothing line. There are no Kodak Apparel stores in the United States. 'Kodak is now a trending fashion brand in South Korea,' Mr Adrian Tay, an editor at LinkedIn News Asia, said in a post on April 1. 'No, this isn't an April Fool's joke.' Brand licensing is a growing, if small, part of Kodak's business, accounting for US$20 million (S$25.5 million) in revenue in 2024. That represents a 35 per cent increase over five years ago, when branding became a stand-alone segment of the company. Kodak has never fully recovered from a ruinous decision to bet on film, just as digital photography, a technology it invented, was taking off. In 2024, according to the company's financial filings, it recorded US$1 billion in revenue, compared with US$19 billion in 1990 when 'Kodak Moments' were captured on film everywhere. The bulk of Kodak's revenues comes from commercial print products and, to a lesser extent, materials related to the motion picture industry. Kodak currently has 44 brand licensees, according to the company, and some of them make products that many people might consider unrelated to the thing they most associate with the company: photography. But company officials said elements of photography such as creativity, telling stories and preserving memories were often integrated in the products bearing the Kodak logo. 'Our brand licensing portfolio begins with photography and imaging, but it's much broader than that,' said Ms Clara Fort, the vice-president for global brand licensing at the company. Ms Fort pointed to Kodak's wide-ranging apparel licensing deals in Asia, Europe and the United States as natural extensions of the brand at a time when images, amplified by social media, are central to daily life. 'With people taking pictures of themselves on social media,' she said, 'we thought, well, why don't we extend our brand to lifestyle?' Kodak Apparel and its related shops are the brainchild of Mr Lee Jun Kwon, the CEO of Hilight Brands, a South Korean fashion company that has been acquiring licences to prominent trademarks. The company holds licences for Diadora and Malbon Golf, and has Kodak Apparel outlets in Japan, Taiwan and China. 'We believed Kodak could not be limited to just the keywords 'camera' and 'film,'' a company representative, Hyejin Park, wrote in an e-mail. Kodak Apparel dovetails with a resurgence in film photography and a youth culture trend in South Korea known as 'newtro' – a portmanteau that describes a blend of contemporary style ('new') with nostalgia and vintage design ('retro'). American brands that have been 'newtroed' in South Korea include National Geographic, Discovery, CNN and the aeronautics defence contractor Lockheed Martin. Brand licensing is a prevalent and growing corporate practice, with a global market value estimated at upward of US$320 billion. Disney is often cited as the gold standard. 'Licensing is all about bringing to life the emotional connection between consumers and the brands they care about,' said Ms Maura Regan, the president of Licensing International, a trade organisation. The Kodak warm fuzzies were once deeply embedded in the company's hometown, Rochester, where the company employed 60,000 people and was the leading benefactor of the city's cultural institutions before it filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Today, Kodak employs about 1,300 people in the city, and its residents are more likely to regard the company with bitterness than as a paragon of branding. Yet in May, Kodak was in the running for Best Corporate Brand honours at the Licensing International Excellence Awards in Las Vegas alongside household names such as Jeep, Goodyear and the Girl Scouts. Though not ultimately winners of the prize, the company did win the distinction two years ago. In 2025, Kodak took home two other awards, one for its partnership with Hilight and another for a collaboration with American streetwear company HUF to put Kodak logos and images on hoodies, gold lockets and skateboards, among other items. In recent years, Kodak has partnered with Mattel on pink Barbie cameras and printers, and signed a deal allowing EssilorLuxottica, the European eyewear conglomerate that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley, to use the Kodak name in perpetuity. Kodak officials said the company was exploring options in the gaming, smart home and health care industries. Mr Eric Kunsman, a photographer from Rochester who works around the country, recently recalled spotting young people wearing Kodak clothes in Los Angeles. The sight warmed his heart, he said, and reminded him of Rochester's halcyon days when Kodak was on top of the world. 'I got this sense of hometown pride,' Mr Kunsman said. 'Even though I knew they weren't made in Rochester, to me, it was still Kodak.' NYTIMES
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Japan's ‘hikikomori' finding voice through self-determination
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A Japanese magazine called Ship was launched in April 2025. It is planned, edited and published by people who have experience either as or with social recluses. Japan is home to some 1.5 million 'hikikomori', the Japanese term for individuals who withdraw from society and self-isolate, often in their elderly parents' homes. A new quarterly Japanese magazine, called Ship – planned, edited and published by people who have experience either as or with hikikomori – was launched in April 2025 . The publication seeks to shake up society to allow social recluses to live happily, by giving voice to those who have previously suffered in silence. The national government, meanwhile, has also established new support guidelines that emphasise the 'autonomy' of hikikomori and encourage dialogue that respects their choices. Ms Rika Ueda, 53, a member of the quarterly's publishing team, went through a spell as a hikikomori in her 20s. 'I took refuge away from society,' she said of that time. After graduating from college, Ms Ueda changed jobs two dozen times. She was a part of Japan's Employment Ice Age generation consisting of those who struggled to enter the workforce in a decade-long period from the mid-1990s. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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Adding to the difficult environment, discrimination against women was also rampant, characterised by overwork, power harassment and the reduction of part-time and temporary staff. Given these challenges, Ms Ueda's inclination towards social withdrawal deepened. Ms Ueda said each time she became unable to move forward, she felt like 'a nobody in this society '. Her mother blamed herself for 'not being able to put her daughter on the right track in life ', and both shut themselves off from the outside world. One day, at a family gathering in Tokyo, Ms Ueda was shocked to hear a man who was also a shut-in talk about his experiences of feeling like society had become his enemy. Similarly, Ms Ueda had suppressed her feelings while harbouring distrust for anyone outside those close to her. 'I wasn't the only one ', she thought, and the understanding that she was among others facing the same struggles gave her a feeling of redemption. The quarterly is edited by people affected by hikikomori, parents and supporters who met at hikikomori-related events and family meetings around the country. Ship is an acronym for Social, Human Rights, Inclusive, Peer – a reflection of the group's values. The special feature of its inaugural issue in April 2025 was Breaking Down Preconceived Notions. The content included personal stories from individuals and their families, as well as interviews with experts, and explored the background of the difficulties people face in life, such as prejudice, lack of understanding and peer pressure. According to a Cabinet Office survey published in 2023, there are an estimated 1.46 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 who are socially withdrawn in Japan. Despite various triggers and circumstances, government support has until recently emphasised independence through employment and other means, and there have been many cases where individuals have been driven into a corner by a uniform response to the problem. Feeling like there is no way out, some, particularly those who fall under the banner of the '8050 problem' – referring to a situation where parents in their 80s are financially and emotionally supporting hikikomori adult children in their 50s – have turned to shady businesses that remove shut-ins from their homes, often by force, at the request of parents. These operators are known as 'hikidashi-ya' – translating literally to 'one who pulls (someone) out'. It is believed they purport to take social recluses to 'rehabilitation centres ' and charge exorbitant fees for the service. There have been a number of civil court decisions in various parts of the country that have gone against them. In January 2025 , seven men in their 20s to 40s who lived in the Kanto region among other areas successfully claimed in a class action suit that they were forcibly taken from their homes and confined in a facility in Kanagawa Prefecture by a firm purporting to support the 'independence of social recluse '. The same month, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced a new guideline for use at local government offices, called The Hikikomori Support Handbook: A Compass for Supporting Hikikomori. It states that employment and social participation are merely a means to an end, and that the goal should be autonomy to allow people to decide how they want to live their lives focused on dialogue, including with family members. The Tokyo-based network that publishes Ship held a series of events in May 2025 – a total of 10 lectures introducing the perspective of shut-ins – featuring specific examples from the newly published support handbook. 'Dialogue means not forcing the 'right' answer on the other person, ' Ship's Ms Ueda said. 'I want to make it possible for everyone to feel that it is okay to value their own voice in the rough and tumble of society, and not have their voices silenced.' KYODO NEWS
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
The Closet Lover founders, who suffer from lupus, reflect on 17-year brand journey after closure
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Sisters Brianna (left) and Bertilla Wong, both lupus patients, made the difficult decision in May to close their fashion label The Closet Lover. SINGAPORE – Photo shoots in far-flung destinations like Egypt and Spain, and quarterly sourcing trips to China. For all the perceived glamour involved in running a fashion business, what Singaporean sisters Brianna, 39, and Bertilla Wong, 35, will miss most about their label The Closet Lover (TCL) are the human interactions with their customers, staff and live-stream hosts. 'Connection is what we've always loved about the business. In the early years, there was nobody to talk to except each other,' says Bertilla. The co-founders announced in early May that, to prioritise their health, the popular home-grown womenswear label would wind up after almost 18 years in business. They ceased operations on June 30 and closed their last store in Tampines 1 on July 2. Both sisters have lupus, a chronic autoimmune condition where the body's immune system attacks healthy tissues and organs. Bertilla was diagnosed first at 15, while Brianna was diagnosed at 22. Because the symptoms of lupus are more manageable when diagnosed at a younger age, Bertilla says she had fewer major flare-ups. Brianna was tipped off about her diagnosis when she started suffering from swollen and 'frozen' joints. After a blood test confirmed her suspicions, she managed small flare-ups over the years with medication. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI During her first major flare-up, a cough on a work trip to Taiwan in 2017 turned into gasps for air on Christmas Eve. She was hospitalised for a month – the first of many hospital stays. Each time Brianna was warded, Bertilla would run TCL solo with her team. 'In the long run, it was not very good for me either, because I'm also a lupus patient. If it's not her who (falls ill), it's me.' The breaking point was Brianna's second major flare-up in Seoul in February 2025. She developed 'pig trotter' feet – a sign of ailing kidneys being unable to dispel toxins – but pushed through the work trip before getting hospitalised back home. This time, the inflammation had affected her kidneys, heart and lungs. Failing to keep her lupus under control could lead to organ failure, she was warned. Some customers had suggested running TCL as an online-only venture, or taking a step back to let team members drive it. But these were not viable long-term solutions, say the sisters. 'The stress of running a business is still there, and will always be at the back of our minds. We would never be able to rest properly,' adds Bertilla, who has two sons aged four and five. Her husband manages the financial aspect of TCL. 'We would talk about business every single day. Even when I'm sleeping, my mind is running the numbers. What have we not launched? When should we start planning for Chinese New Year? After we announced the closure, I felt so relieved. It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.' In the last five years, they had tried to step away and go behind the scenes, but that did not work out, notes Brianna, who is in a relationship. 'Right from when we launched, it has always been our faces (fronting it), so customers associate the brand with us. It's very hard for us not to be involved in the business, which is why we made the decision to just shut down fully.' Blogshop era Considered a staple in the local fashion scene, TCL's closure marks the end of an era for many Singapore fans. At its peak, it had four stores in Singapore, two in Malaysia and two franchise outlets in Cambodia. The sisters started TCL in 2007 to make extra pocket money. Their father is a retired civil servant and their mother is a homemaker. The Closet Lover's early designs were modelled by co-founder Bertilla Wong, and posted on the brand's Livejournal site. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER Brianna, who had just graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, put in $3,000 of her savings as capital. Bertilla, who was still in junior college, contributed contacts from wholesale mall City Plaza. This was the era of the blogshop, hosted mostly on Livejournal, where budding entrepreneurs bought wares in bulk from suppliers at City Plaza to sell online. Competition was stiff, and blogshop owners battled one another to 'fight for stocks'. The sisters would wake up at 7am every week to camp outside the mall before it opened. 'It was very chaotic. Within a few minutes, you'd have to decide whether you want to 'bao' (meaning 'wrap' in Chinese), or take the whole batch of designs, so it would be exclusive to you,' says Bertilla, who skipped classes in university to do so. 'I was a terrible student,' she adds in jest. The race did not end there. What followed was a harried process of shooting the products and uploading them to the website by the next day. 'You had to aim to be the first one to sell so people would buy from you,' recalls Brianna. For the first few years, the sisters photographed and modelled everything themselves, shooting against a white wardrobe in their bedroom. The Closet Lover's early designs from 2014 were modelled by sisters and co-founders Brianna and Bertilla Wong. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER As the local blogshop scene ebbed and flowed, they kept up. More brands began hiring influencers as their models, and the scene was soon dominated by a handful of familiar faces. Studio-shot collections evolved to outdoor shoots, which required hauling the clothes to scenic locales around Singapore. The sisters hired their first professional photographer, who suggested they hire professional models to elevate TCL. It was no walk in the park. Brianna wanted to give up after the first three years. 'I just felt like the effort wasn't worth it. There were no results and I'd rather do part-time jobs then,' she says. Bertilla helmed the business solo for six months while studying sociology at the National University of Singapore, continuing the gruelling weekly cycle of camping for stocks and launching new collections. The Closet Lover's early designs. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER 'Our mum wasn't very supportive, especially because I went to good schools,' she admits, having attended Nanyang Girls' High School and Hwa Chong Junior College. 'She wanted me to become a doctor or lawyer, after studying so hard my whole life, instead of doing my own business without a secure future.' Her persistence paid off and sales finally began rolling in, prompting Brianna to rejoin the business to help. The latter had been studying for a bachelor's degree in mass communications at SIM, and dropped out a year in to focus on TCL. 'I think it pushed me to work even harder, because I had to make it work,' adds Brianna. 'My mum always said, if you don't have a degree, it's hard to survive and nobody will want to hire you. I wanted to prove her wrong, so I used this as my push factor to work day and night.' Things got real when they had to file for goods and services tax for the first time – meaning they had hit $1 million in revenue in a year. The Closet Lover's first physical store, in Bugis Junction, opened in 2015. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER Full-fledged fashion It took the pair a while to break free from the diminutive label of 'blogshop'. When a wholesaler pitched the idea of manufacturing their own designs to stand out, they bit. Playing designer, they could choose their own colours and sizes, expanding beyond the standard S to XL sizing. Their first collection included a colourblocked blouse. It turned out to be a false start for TCL's originals, which struggled to hit the minimum order quantity for designs, and were harder still to sell. This period coincided with the sisters' brief stint at playing wholesalers themselves, which landed them in debt of $100,000. It took a year of sleepless nights trying to clear their debt by going back to selling ready stocks. They bounced back in 2012 when, for their second act, they decided to cut out the middleman and fly to China themselves to find suppliers, landing on a factory which had worked with them since 2014. The Closet Lover's Suede Blazer in a photo from 2014. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER Their 100th collection on TCL's website proved a breakthrough, thanks in particular to a suede blazer with polka dot lining that went viral online. As their original designs gained traction, they could progress to evolving minute details like manufacturing buttons with their logo. After testing the waters with pop-up stores, the sisters opened their first physical store at Bugis Junction in 2015, marking a new chapter for them in offline retail. Two years later, they opened stores in Raffles Xchange and Tampines 1 just months apart. Business at the physical stores made up 60 per cent of total sales. The sisters believe the brand was at its peak during its era of collaborations with local influencers, especially fashion personality Andrea Chong. Drea Chong X TCL Capsule Collection 2018. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER The 33-year-old, who today runs her own womenswear brand, Good Addition, worked with TCL on two collections in 2018 – steering the process from designing to shooting the campaigns abroad. 'She pitched a trip to Egypt, which was so niche – but in Drea we trust. We visited the pyramids, we sat on camels,' Bertilla recalls with an incredulous laugh. The first collection sold out in minutes and drew 'crazy' queues at TCL's stores, prompting many backorders – and a second capsule shot in Spain and launched in 2019. The Closet Lover co-founders Bertilla and Brianna Wong with influencer Andrea Chong in Spain, shooting for their second collaboration. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER 'I think for consumers, it was very refreshing. Till this day, customers still talk about certain items.' Closing the closet Behind the polished photo shoots, however, they had been quietly battling lupus throughout. The condition requires patients to have a lot of rest and minimal stress – two privileges entrepreneurship does not afford. Ms Brianna Wong suffered a second, more serious lupus flare-up in February that pushed the sisters to re-evaluate continuing the business. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI Yet, it was Bertilla who made the call to shut. 'Brianna actually didn't want to close. She always pushes herself. But as a sister, I just felt she can't risk her life,' Bertilla says, choking up. 'No matter how good your business is or how many years you've done, you cannot sacrifice your health.' The changing retail landscape has taken a toll on them physically. Getting onboard TikTok live selling meant energy-intensive, late nights that wrapped around 3am, repeating every other week. For their Chinese New Year 2025 sales, the sisters took turns to host the live streams five times a week. 'The brand is so intrinsically tied to us that if we don't appear for the lives, customers don't feel as connected or convinced by what we are selling,' says Bertilla. 'In this industry, some brands do marathon livestreams for six to eight hours – how are we going to fight that? And they're healthy individuals.' They had also been plagued by slowed business in the past few years. They signed the lease to their Takashimaya store in January 2020, months before the pandemic hit. Coupled with post-Covid shopping behaviour, the high rental cost was punishing, says Bertilla, who chalks the store down to a 'marketing cost'. The Closet Lover's 4th and last store in Takashimaya Shopping Centre. PHOTO: THE CLOSET LOVER Running a business now is so different from before, they add. 'Back then, we'd shoot the item, do some marketing and launch the product – and people would buy. Nowadays, you have to do so many things – styling videos and reels, live streams – just to capture one sale,' says Bertilla. 'It really felt like we had to put in 200 per cent effort to sell one product, compared to pre-Covid, where 100 per cent (effort) could sell that same product,' adds Brianna. 'This was why I decided I really cannot do this any more. Stress is one of the top triggers for lupus; as a business owner, there is no way you can be stress-free and have sufficient rest all the time.' Nevertheless, it has been a fulfilling journey both are proud of. Some of their career highs are marked not by numerical milestones, but by the small things, such as opening their first office in 2010, being able to upgrade their staff's tables to proper office furniture, and providing their team of 15 full-timers insurance. Including part-timers, TCL had a team of 44 at closing. Co-founders Brianna (left) and Bertilla Wong say the changing retail landscape has taken a toll on them physically, which was a factor in their decision to close. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI There was also a Care Bear collection launched in end-May, the brand's first international collaboration and a personal win for Brianna. This final collection broke the label's records in live-stream viewership and generating backorders. 'Bree really wanted to do it to end on a bang. So I told the team, let's do it for her,' says Bertilla. Going out on a high, the sisters have no regrets, and plan to rely on content creation on their individual Instagram pages, @briannawonggg and @bertillawong , while they rest. 'We've spent over 17 years building this. It still feels a little bit unreal to close it, because this has basically been a major part of my life. So it's hard to let go,' says Brianna. 'But it was either I pick my life or I pick my career.'
