Collaborating, diversifying, or instituting a mentorship-centred business model: How three of Singapore’s top tailors are staying competitive in a tough trade.
WITH THEIR FORCES COMBINED
Since pooling resources as part of their collaboration, tailors Dylan Chong and Matthew Lai have been able to create a larger production space than they each used to have – but this was not primarily a profit-driven move, say the duo.
The more outspoken and older of the two at age 36, Chong indicates the workspace in their current premises, a spacious shophouse unit in Telok Ayer Street. Occupying about half the unit, the workspace consists of several large tables, where three older gentlemen are busy cutting, sewing and ironing on the morning of our interview.
Says Chong: “My previous workspace was only about a quarter of this, and there was only room for one cutter and one cutting table.
“The reason we expanded our workspace was to have a greater ability to produce things the way we want to. I’m employing another cutter, but doesn’t mean business is so good that we need another cutter. It’s because I think he’s good and can help us to refine how we cut and make our stuff , and bring us one step closer to what we want to achieve.” In fact, it was this commitment to their craft that brought the two together. Previously, both men had their own tailoring shops – Chong had been running Dylan & Son since 2010, while Lai, now 29, started his one-man operation Kay-Jen in 2014. Following their collaboration, which was cemented when they moved into their current premises last September, there are now two distinct entities to their business: Dylan & Son, which specialises in bespoke orders and is overseen by Chong; and Kayjen Dylan, which is run by Lai, and focuses on more accessibly priced made-to-measure orders.
Having both learnt cutting – a key aspect of tailoring – under local master tailor Thomas Wong (see “Passing the Torch”), they share the same vision. Chong says: “To be competent cutters, and not just business owners with no actual technical ability or knowledge.”
