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Latest issue on 7 Sept 2025. Update every Saturday.

Thursday Show
Vol.12 大切なものを運ぶ小さな袋

Vol.12 大切なものを運ぶ小さな袋

5 min read

Vol.12 大切なものを運ぶ小さな袋

これを読んでいる方なら、

Nala Designsが、これまで数えきれないほど日本からのインスピレーションを受けてものづくりをしてきたことは、きっとご存知だと思います。

今回の新作発表を聞いたときも、正直に思いました。

「……Ms.Lisette、またやってくれたな」と。 そんな新しい、そして日本から大きくインスパイアされたこの商品のエピソードをご紹介します。

LISETTE

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彼女が選ぶモチーフ、素材、形。そこにはいつも、理由があります。

なんとなく、ではない。“可愛いから”だけでもない。

背景ごと、文化ごと、想いごと、選んでいる。

今回新しく数量限定で発表されたのは、

日本の巾着(Kinchaku)に着想を得たバッグです。巾着は江戸時代、着物とともに使われていた小さな袋。帯に結び、暮らしの中に自然に溶け込む存在。

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.

“持つ”というより、“添わせる”という感覚に近いものです。

Lisetteは、その巾着を本革とNalaのファブリックで再解釈しました。

中には、7〜8年もの間、倉庫で大切に保管されていた生地も。

「いつか、この生地にふさわしい形が見つかるまで」

そうして待たせていた素材が、ようやく居場所を見つけたのです。 <kinchaku pic2>

そして、このバッグにはもうひとつの仕掛けがあります。

すべての巾着の中に、

小さなミニ巾着と、ひとつのコイン。 

昔、コインを贈ることは豊かさの始まりを意味していたそうです。

お金の流れを“スタートさせる”という、小さなおまじない。

形だけでなく、意味まで持たせる。それが、Lisetteらしいところ。

この巾着バッグは、日本へのリスペクトと、Nalaの美意識と、そして“贈る”という文化への想いが重なって生まれました。

小さな袋の中に、時間と物語と、ほんの少しの幸運を。

またひとつ、Lisetteと日本の物語が増えました。

これからもNala Designsと日本の素敵な関係を伝えていきます。

PS. このコラムももう12回!いつも読んでくださりありがとうございます。 こんなエピソード読んでみたい!ご意見募集中です。 ご意見 ご感想は、

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
From Pelikat to Batik

From Pelikat to Batik

5 min read

From Pelikat to Batik

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The Balloon Skirt will be available in all stores from this Saturday, including Singapore.

This silhouette began as our Pelikat skirt. It quickly became a favourite because of its volume, ease, and strength. Now it has evolved into batik, while remaining entirely Malaysian in spirit and production. It is 100 percent Malaysian and 100 percent made here. That is something I am very proud of.

This new version is crafted in batik on cotton satin. The fabric is soft with structure, comfortable yet polished. It holds its shape beautifully and moves well on the body. It is effortless to wear, whether styled casually or dressed up.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.

The skirt comes in two colour versions, each with its own personality, but both rooted in the same heritage craft.

Each piece carries the individuality of handmade work. When it is finished, it is finished. We are not overproducing it. We are honouring the process.

For me, this is a quiet statement of Malaysian pride. A silhouette born from pelikat, reinterpreted in batik, and fully manufactured at home.

The Daily Bloom – Pasar Raya

The Daily Bloom – Pasar Raya

5 min read

THE DAILY BLOOM - Pasa Raya

Our baju raya is not something we take out once a year and then carefully return to the cupboard.
It is part of how we live.

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This is Raya in real life. Worn in the market, among fruit, flowers and movement, the collection feels completely at home in the everyday. You can wear it to the bazaar, to open houses, to lunch with friends, and then again on an ordinary Tuesday with a pair of jeans. It is designed to move between occasions effortlessly, without ever feeling like it belongs to just one moment.

Inspired by our native Ixora, Iris and Passiflora, The Daily Bloom was printed in Malaysia using the traditional batik technique. I made this print at the very last minute because I wanted a collection that felt honest, rooted and timeless. Batik has that ability. The more you wear it, the more it becomes yours. It softens, it settles, it carries memory.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.

Alongside the new batik, we are also releasing a small selection of our classic NALA prints as sarongs, pieces many of you already love, now reimagined for Raya. And for the very first time, we are introducing the batik with the red chair, a print I have kept close to my heart until now.

All pieces are produced in cotton voile and cotton satin. The voile is light, breathable and effortless, perfect for our weather and for layering. The satin has a gentle structure and polish, allowing you to dress it up beautifully for evenings and open houses.

This launch is extremely limited and available exclusively this Saturday at our Kasturi branch. Once it is gone, it is truly gone.

I wanted to create something that makes sense in the way we actually live, especially during Raya when we often invest in outfits that are worn once and then forgotten. This is different. This is something you can dress up with heels and jewellery, or dress down with denim and sandals. It is something you will reach for again and again, and perhaps one day hand down.

We believe women should feel comfortable and beautiful all the time, not only on special occasions. We make our universe beautiful in the way we dress, and in the way we live.

Pasar Raya is Raya. Open, practical and alive.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
Full Circle at Tanglin

Full Circle at Tanglin

5 min read

Full Circle at Tanglin

My mother was digging through her archives and found something extraordinary.
A copy of Tanglin Shopper magazine from 1973.

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I was three years old then. Tanglin was already there. Already alive. Already full of shops, energy, aspiration and style.

And now, decades later, we have a shop in Tanglin Mall.

If that is not full circle, I do not know what is.

Flipping through the pages feels like opening a time capsule. The typography is beautiful. The advertisements are earnest and proud. There are diamond stores, beauticians, directories of tenants. Bata was already around. American Express too. The rhythm of retail, already established.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.

One headline made me smile: How to work away the flab. The photographs are priceless. The activewear from 1973 looks nothing like what we wear today, yet the message feels familiar. There is also House of Donnie, described as being for the fat and the not so fat. And fifteen hints on how to stay slim.

Clearly, some conversations never change.

It is fascinating to see how culture evolves while certain human concerns remain exactly the same. The silhouettes shift. The colours shift. The language softens or sharpens. But the desire to feel good, look good, belong, and improve ourselves has always been there.

For me, Tanglin Mall is not just another location. I was born in Singapore. Life moved. The brand grew in Malaysia. And now we are back in Singapore, in Tanglin Mall. That small discovery in my mother’s archive suddenly made everything feel connected.

Sometimes the universe leaves you a quiet reminder that nothing is random. That stories loop back. That places hold memory.

And that it always pays to keep old magazines.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
Where It All Began

Where It All Began

5 min read

Where It All Began

While going through old boxes, I found a sketchbook from 1989. It was my first year at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, where I studied graphic design and illustration.

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Opening it felt like meeting my younger self.

This was completely pre computer era. The typography was handwritten. Layouts were drawn by hand. Text was applied manually or prepared for silkscreen. We were only just beginning to hear about computers, but they were not part of our daily practice at school. Everything required patience. Precision. Touch.

You can see it in the pages. The lines are not perfect, but they are intentional. The spacing is considered. The letters carry personality because they were shaped slowly, by hand.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.

I had just left Malaysia, so naturally that was the theme closest to my heart. Distance has a way of sharpening memory. The tropical references, the textures, the cultural elements, they appear instinctively throughout the work. When you are far from home, you draw home.

One project featured an Aikido school. Another was a packaging assignment for fish. Of course I chose ikan bilis. It has always been my favourite fish, so even in Antwerp, thousands of kilometres away, that small anchovy made its way into my design brief.

Looking back at these pages now, almost three decades later, I see the beginning of everything. The love for typography. The fascination with culture. The instinct to connect story and design. The discipline of working by hand.

It is humbling and comforting at the same time. A reminder that the foundation was always there. Long before Nala. Long before stores. Long before social media.

Just paper. Ink. Ideas. And a girl far from home, drawing her way forward.

The skirt that thinks it is a painting.
The skirt that thinks it is a painting.