< Back to Articles By UOB Cards x T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Meet three women who founded businesses in unexpected places – founder of Exhibit, Yoyo Cao, owner and creative director of The Paper Bunny, Jaime Lee, and funeral director of The Life Celebrant, Angjolie Mei. Brought to you by UOB Cards and NET-A-PORTER.

French Historian, Andre Malraux once said “Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one who have better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.” We look at three Singaporean women who took a chance leaving well-worn paths and venturing into unfamiliar territories armed with nothing but the will to succeed and a strong belief in their innate abilities.

Yoyo Cao, Founder of Exhibit

Yoyo Cao started her business just like any successful entrepreneur did — "by seeing a gap in the market.” She was referring to shopping habits and the choices that were available to consumers. “I found that shoppers either had to go for pricey branded goods, or economical fast-fashion type clothing that may not last very long.”

It was a gaping hole in the fashion choices for consumers, which Cao filled with her multi-label brand, Exhibit. The boutique in Far East Plaza featured labels from Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Cao’s criteria was simple: “Affordable clothing made with quality fabrics,” she explains. “That was what the market was really lacking back in 2009.”

Exhibit has since evolved, with Cao replacing sourced labels with her own designs. “Designing clothes was always on my bucket list,” she says. “Three years ago, I was asked to design 15 outfits for a jewellery designer’s show at the then-called Audi Fashion Festival. It was a great opportunity to introduce my brand and my own designs to the fashion industry.”

Cao’s design garnered attention for her minimalist, menswear-inspired style, featuring clean lines and silhouettes, and monochrome designs.

To Cao, her designs were a reflection of her personality and character. “I’m a very straightforward person, and I like things to be simple and timeless,” she explains. “I guess it’s something I picked up from my parents who are in the fashion industry as well. They always went for pieces that would last them at least 10 years.”

While Cao’s beginnings may follow the same narrative as most other fashion designers, it is the way she utilised social media to market herself and her brand that really sets her apart. “I use Instagram as a platform for self-expression. I’m able to combine my two favourite things: fashion and photography.”

Posting OOTDs (Outfit Of The Day) was merely a way for Cao to market her brand, Exhibit. But its popularity grew and launched her to social media stardom. Today, Cao has over 260,000 followers on Instagram.

A regular attendee of the Paris and Milan fashion weeks, Cao is constantly featured in international style magazines and blogs, as well as street-style galleries.

To Cao, the rise of OOTDs has a lot to do with the mixing and matching nature of it. “OOTDs have never been about single brand looks. It’s more about showcasing one’s ability to match high and low fashion brands for a stylish and sophisticated look, which people look to for inspiration.”

At the end of the day, Cao pegs her success on her ability to stay true to herself. “I look at photos of me seven years ago and I see that my style hasn’t changed at all,” she says. “And that’s because personal style, to me, is more about staying true to yourself than it is about following trends. I’ve never tried to be someone else, and I think genuineness is something that people really appreciate these days.”

"The coat-dress is one of my favourites when I need to look more dressed up. This one from MM6 is minimal, androgynous, yet sensual at the same time. It's a versatile look, too. I can dress it up with a statement shoe, or down with a pair of sneakers if there are errands to run."

Jaime Lee, Owner & Creative Director of The Paper Bunny

Far too often than not, we find ourselves privy to the notion of having fallen victim to the allurement of living life with the results of other people’s thinking. That was pretty much how Jaime Lee became a lawyer. “My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, even though I always felt that I wasn’t cut out to be one.”

It was, as Lee describes, a safe and easy route. “Good pay, good colleagues,” she says. “Being a lawyer was so easy.”

In 2010, Lee helped a friend to design her wedding invitations. “It was my first brush with something creative,” she recalls. But more importantly, it was an experience that reignited her passion for design.

It made her seek out better work-life balance, which she did so by leaving practice to become an in-house legal counsel. It prompted her to take up night classes for graphic design at NAFA. And, ultimately, led her to start the stationery and lifestyle brand, The Paper Bunny in 2013.

"There was a real desire in me to create products that would impact real people, something I couldn’t do if I dealt with brides every day,” Lee explains.

It is a brand born from a simple idea: “I like pretty things,” Lee laughs. She wanted to design and create products that went beyond functionality. To her, stationery at the time was all about functionality and sorely lacked an aesthetic aspect to it.

Lee injected creative design, prints, and inspirational quotes into stationery for a collection that would appeal to “the individual with great style and a big heart.”

Lee had seized this opportunity at the perfect time. “In 2013, the creative scene in Singapore was just starting to flourish,” Lee says. “People were starting to want to express themselves through her clothing and accessories.”

The Paper Bunny’s product did just that with uplifting or sassy quotes, and striking prints to catch the eye of magazines, style influencers and discerning aesthetes around the world. Soon, The Paper Bunny diversified its offering to include other lifestyle products such as phone cases, greeting cards and clutches.

To Lee, everything someone wears or carries is an extension of their personality. "I try my best to evoke the same sense of modern femininity that my products do. I like dresses and skirts. I guess I would describe my style as girly but not too girly,” she laughs.

That statement, on closer inspection, reveals a lot about how Lee feels about femininity. Women are so pressured to be and appear strong that they sometimes forget to embrace their feminine side.

“The Paper Bunny hopes to inspire people through design and empower people through words,” Lee says. “It’s not all about being positive and cute. It’s about being sassy, having grit, and really embracing yourself for who you are.”

"I love this outfit because the silk blouse and straight cut denims balance each other out. The look is feminine yet edgy, elegant yet casual, proper yet sassy. It's everything I need to transition from office to meetings to events with ease."

Angjolie Mei, Funeral Director of The Life Celebrant

When Angjolie Mei stepped into the funeral industry in 2004, she realised they were "males. All males. It's like my mum and I were the only females."

Her father, Ang Yew Seng – famously dubbed 'The Coffin King' had just passed on. Angjolie, her sisters and mother had to step in immediately to keep his funeral business running.

"We got rejected [by customers] for being women in the industry. They were like, 'You're ladies. Do you actually know how to do this?'," Angjolie recounts. "One year later my mum actually chased me out of the business. She thought I was too young, and there weren't many young women in the industry."

The funeral industry was considered a low profession, often associated with vices – gambling, drinking, and womanising. "People who ended up in this job are people who couldn't do any other things. Then they resign to their fate...You wouldn't be a university graduate and say, 'Yes, my aspiration is to be a funeral director.' Nobody wants to do this job."

To Angjolie, a sense of responsibility towards her family drove her back to the funeral industry a couple of years later. In 2010 she started a non-religious funeral company, The Life Celebrant. In the past seven years, she's led the local industry to change.

She's introduced secular celebrant services, improved embalming processes, strayed from the usual cookie cutter funeral packages, making customised funerals possible. More consequential is how Angjolie ushered in a new generation of female industry leaders. "We sort of set the trend... kind of paved the road that it's now easier for females."

There are increasingly more females willing to join the funeral industry – some are children taking over their parents' undertaker businesses, others approach owners like Angjolie asking to join and learn the ropes.

For a female leading a male-dominated industry, she notes that most females who join the industry feel obliged to dress in suits and pants. But she begs to differ. "I make it a point to be in dresses. Even my ladies are in dresses for funeral day." To her, females shouldn't have to emulate men to be in power. "I'm not going to fall into this stereotypical image. If you're a woman, you can wear dresses like this to be professional."

Her wardrobe is easily divided into two sections – Chinese cheongsams for events, and dresses for work. It's predominantly "black. A lot of blacks. I always have a jacket or a black dress in my car... in case I get a call." On days when she has to be involved with operations, Angjolie opts for black trousers. "But I still believe in heels. My girls have to wear heels. If not it must be wedged." She swears by Salvatore Ferragamo's Vara bow pump heels.

To Angjolie, business-centered females are no longer speaking in male languages whilst trying to fit in. It's perhaps, to invent a new code of female power dressing – by females, for females.

"I decided on this outfit because black and white are very neutral colours and suitable for my line of work. I chose a pants suit as I need to be both mobile and presentable. This ensemble exudes professionalism, while allowing for that feminine touch of elegance."