Brand conscience: Barehands is the hot Singapore label selling clothes made by refugees

SINGAPORE – Local fashion brand Barehands bears all the hallmarks of millennial cool.

Its new store at Takashimaya Shopping Centre is decorated with quirky wood furnishings and a statement mustard wall. Inventory is heavy on tasteful linens – like a pair of tencel pants in peacock teal – cheerful prints and tactile handbags, woven and beaded.

Scan the QR codes on the fabric care labels of its clothes, though, and one finds the story of each object’s maker.

A breezy blue dress, for instance, can be traced to Zahra X, an Afghan refugee and mother of two. She is part of the refugee tailoring community in Malaysia that sews around 95 per cent of Barehands’ apparel. A collection of woven pochettes, Barehands’ hot new product, is the work of leather artisans in war-torn Myanmar.

Providing livelihood to such marginalised communities is at the core of the six-year-old business, say founders Chanel Go and Germaine Lye. They are speaking to The Straits Times a week after opening their second outpost at Takashimaya on Nov 14, two years after the launch of their first store at Funan mall.

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