Tastemakers: Rachel Lim of Love, Bonito
From blog shop to fashion business
Rachel Lim has seen the small fashion blog grow into a full-blown regional business.
Along with her co-founders, Rachel Lim began what would become Love, Bonito when she was still in school.
“We started out as Bonito Chico, which means ‘Pretty Boy’,” explained Lim of the name. “We thought it sounded better than Bonito Chica, but when we went online, Bonito Chico was already bought. So we came up with ‘Love, Bonito’ sort of to say that everything is from us, with love.”
Since its start in 2010, Love, Bonito has developed into one of Singapore’s most successful online fashion retail businesses. The brand, which Lim says, is designed to “empower and inspire” women, mixes style with fast fashion affordably. The brand has since collaborated with two couturiers and participated in Singapore Fashion Week to showcase.
Lim often wears her own label and has been featured in the New York Times for her street style.
Now in its fifth year, Love, Bonito has recently opened two stores in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, and is looking to celebrate this milestone birthday in a special way by giving back to its supporters.
Lim explains, “We are going to hold a symposium and invite our customers, who can listen to speakers like Daphne Koo and Wong Li Lin share their life lessons. We think this is more purposeful, at least they will leave with something they’ll remember.” See what else Lim had to say during our chat.
At the beginning, it was daunting but along the way we learned the ropes … we took everything slowly and progressed at our own pace, so we learned all the various aspects of the business from how to do proper accounting to stock taking, how to market our items, etc.
People were very encouraging, they saw us as young women aspiring to be businesswomen … so we’ve actually been very blessed and lucky. In particular, Dr Georgia Lee has been very supportive and encouraging. She’s like a big sister to us, looking out for us and giving us advice along the way.
Love, Bonito x Tex Sevario at this year’s Singapore Fashion Week.
Online works really well here in Singapore so we haven’t seen the need to open a store … but different cities have different characteristics and customers have different behaviour, so in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta we have physical stores so that customers can go in, touch and feel the clothes before buying. In Singapore, we already have a reputation so people trust the brand.
I’ve always wanted to reach out and help women … and as the years went by, I slowly saw how Love, Bonito actually allowed me to do this. Customers would write to us or come up to us and tell us and thank us for giving them the confidence to go to an interview, or on a date, and that was eye opening for me. That really helped me see why we’re here.
I see Love, Bonito as more than just a business … we aren’t just here to churn out the cash and sales blindly. Everything we do is impactful from every story to every article — we want to subtly inspire and empower the women out there. That’s what we really believe in.
We try to concentrate on various aspects of a woman’s life … we’ve done bridesmaid dresses in the past and now we’re looking at sportswear and maternity. That’s what we’re going to concentrate on in the next year.
Rachel Lim with business partner Viola Tan.
I think things are more overwhelming now … because of the increasing competition. But if you go back to the purpose behind why you’re doing something, it helps you stay focused.
Local competition is great because it means we’ve inspired others to follow us … it’s more the international competition that’s hard to compete with and global online shopping has been made much easier recently.
For me, this is a long journey … it’s a marathon not a sprint. Really knowing your purpose and what you’re passionate about will give you the motivation to keep moving forward.
Find out what else Rachel Lim has to say about being a Tastemaker on cable television channel Life Inspired‘s Tastemakers Singapore programme, which airs on 9 August 2014 at 9.30pm.
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