‘We’ve given people a licence to play.’ How Singaporean label Beyond the Vines successfully rebranded around fun

One of Rebecca Ting’s fondest childhood memories is taking the bus to her artist father’s studio after school. “My sisters and I would hang out there the whole day, playing with his spray cans, watercolours and tools,” she says. “We had a lot of freedom as children.” It was in these moments that play became instinctive to her – something that she has developed as a defining tenet of Beyond the Vines (BTV), a Singapore-based multidisciplinary studio and label that she founded with her husband, Daniel Chew.

“As adults, we tend to take things seriously and forget how to play and be curious,” she tells Monocle, as she welcomes us to her office, which is packed with enticing items such as a slinky that doubles as a pencil holder. “You don’t have to teach a child to play. Give them anything and they will find a way to entertain and engage themselves – and end up learning something from it.”

Play, to Ting, is a creative act, which is why in BTV’s shops customers can customise bags and phone straps with accessories, stickers and charms. It’s also part of the brand’s activations. Last year, employees hopped onto monster trucks during the Songkran water festival in Bangkok, dousing the crowd with water hoses while dispensing specially designed towels.

This focus on fun is fairly new. In 2019, BTV was “very cold”, says Ting, before she decided to take a risk, pressing play on a complete rebrand. “I came to realise that the brand needed to be true to who we are,” she says. “We were a chaotic bunch, yet we were so serious in the shop.” Ting considered it a gamble. “I didn’t know if the rebrand would make an impact,” she says. “It could still have fallen flat.”

The new look introduced bold colours to BTV for the first time. Once again, Ting’s design approach was shaped by personal experience. “I would see my dad spend years on an art piece that would eventually go to one owner,” she says. “I’d always felt that more people should be able to appreciate something so beautiful and it developed my belief that good design should be accessible to everyone.”

It worked: the brand’s distilled design approach resonated with a wider audience and its Dumpling bag, a nylon crossbody satchel, was soon flying off the shelves. Customers love its fresh take on an under-explored material and its functional features. The bag is lightweight, water-resistant, packable and comes in a spectrum of colourways that express BTV’s tenets of play and curiosity.

Today, BTV has a presence in many of Asia’s fashion centres, including Bangkok, Tokyo, Manila and Shanghai. “We’ve had to learn from the ground up all over again,” says Ting. “The countries in Asia are all so different. The only thing that unites us is our love of rice.” Notable disparities include the Thai sidestepping of orange and brown hues because of their associations with the robes of Buddhist monks, while the Chinese covet brighter tones in the summer. To understand the nuances of each market, Ting has hired local staff and continuously tweaks her products to suit local tastes – such as lengthening bag straps for Japan to go over the padded jackets that are popular during the colder months.

Ting admits that opening in so many different markets has been hard work but the brand continues to grow, with revenues increasing tenfold since the rebrand. BTV’s other great strength has been recognising the zeitgeist. “A large part of our Asian upbringing is about keeping things under control and that’s why we are quite serious,” says Ting. “But we’ve given people a licence to play. I’ve seen it in my own crew: when I give them permission to play, it brings out even more of their creativity.”