The muʻumuʻu has a history stretching back to 19th century Hawaiʻi. In 1820, Hawaiian royalty and newly arrived seamstresses worked together on a long dress called the holokū. Hawaiian women went on to adapt these garments to suit their lives and the island climate. A simpler version became the muʻumuʻu, a Hawaiian word meaning “cut off.” Through the 20th century, its comfortable shape and expressive prints made it a much loved part of Hawaiian dress.

I love the thought behind a dress made for warm weather and real life. For our Aloha series, we took that inspiration and made something unmistakably Nala. I drew the pattern by hand: our Malaysian hibiscus, our famous kingfisher, and a pink that feels light and happy.

Many people still do not realise how much goes into our fabric. We develop and weave our own cotton satin rather than buying fabric off the rack. My drawing then goes to India, where it is printed onto the fabric we have made. The result is a cotton that is beautifully light and thin, with a softness you understand as soon as you touch it. Once you put this dress on, you may not want to take it off.

The dress has an open back, and I love wearing it without a bra. When it is this hot, sometimes you simply want to feel free. It is comfortable enough for an ordinary day and beautiful enough to take on holiday.

And, as always with Nala, it goes in the washing machine. I want our clothes to be worn often, cared for easily and kept for years. Hawaiian families have treasured muʻumuʻu across generations. I would love for this Nala dress, with its own Malaysian story, to be passed on one day too.

The round mooncake echoes the shape of the full moon and symbolises reunion, completeness and togetherness. Families gather, share mooncakes, drink tea and, my favourite part, light lanterns.

For our celebration this year, we brought another tradition into the story: pelikat. Its colourful checks are so familiar in Malaysia, a humble everyday textile that has been worn and loved for generations. We wrapped our mooncake boxes in pelikat, made our mystery bags in pelikat, and even created a pelikat lantern.

I love the meeting of these two traditions. The mooncake and lantern belong to an ancient Chinese festival, while pelikat carries its own history across Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Put them together and it becomes something very Nala: different cultures, colour and stories coming together in one celebration.

And, of course, there is a little mystery inside. Every box comes with a mystery mooncake and a mystery pelikat bag, with a few lucky boxes hiding vouchers too.

This Saturday, follow the lanterns. 🏮

I took these familiar plants, deconstructed them and enlarged them, looking at their flowers, leaves, stems and extraordinary shapes in a completely different way. Things I cook with all the time suddenly became something else entirely when taken out of the kitchen and put onto canvas.

And now we’re adding five more to the series: lengkuas, asam jawa, halia, bunga lawang and moringa. Galangal, tamarind, ginger, star anise and moringa, transformed from something familiar into something to hang on your wall.

We’re printing just eight of each illustration. They’ll be available framed or unframed from our Penang store, and we can also ship them anywhere in the world.

So if you have a particular love for halia, can’t cook without lengkuas, or simply think bunga lawang is one of nature’s most perfect shapes, now is your chance.

Only eight of each. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Contact Brandon for more information

And this Saturday, Drop Two arrives.

If our first drop introduced you to the world of Aloha, the second turns up the colour. There is the Canna Lily in green, orchids, our blue waves, and one of my favourites, a beautiful pink print filled with pandan leaves and the kingfisher. It feels brighter, bolder and perhaps a little more playful.

I love seeing how differently a pattern behaves once it moves from paper onto clothing. A flower that begins as a small drawing can become completely different wh

We have also brought back a few old friends. The Happy Day skirt is back, as is our Daniela top, now in the new Aloha prints. And, of course, we haven’t forgotten the men. Our men’s shirts return in plenty of colour too.

So this Saturday is Aloha, chapter two. New prints, old favourites and a lot more colour, launching online and in all our stores in Singapore and Malaysia.

And we are not quite finished yet. Drop Three is still to come.

P.S. Just a little patience for the mixed-pattern skirts. The one you see in our opening photo is coming too, but you’ll have to wait a couple more weeks for that one.

It has become one of our signature skirts this year, and for good reason. It is light, generous, ridiculously comfortable and made for our weather. Throw it in the washing machine again and again, and instead of getting tired, the fabric simply gets softer and better.

The magic is in the lungi. A simple length of cloth that has been wrapped around the body for generations across South and Southeast Asia. Made for life in the tropics, it is lightweight, breathable, practical and wonderfully unfussy.

And then there are the checks.

We love mixing prints at Nala, and the traditional checks of the pelikat work brilliantly with our patterns. Flowers with checks, geometrics with stripes, colour against colour. Somehow, it shouldn’t always work, but it does. And that is exactly why we love it.

There is just one problem. Good lungis are becoming increasingly difficult for us to source. And because of the generous balloon shape of our skirt, it takes two lungis to make just one.

So when we find a fabric we love, we make what we can. No huge quantities, no endless repeats. Which means this Saturday’s new batch is, once again, very limited.

Two lungis. One balloon skirt. And the more you wear it, and wash it, the better it gets.

Launching this Saturday.

Our Fan Print was inspired by Nala’s Sweet 16 trip to Tokyo. It was our first time exploring Japan together, and I somehow managed to blow most of our travel budget in the first few days thanks to a rather embarrassing currency conversion mistake. After that, we slowed down, wandered the city on foot, discovered beautiful shrines, museums and tiny neighbourhood restaurants, and ended up having an even better adventure than we’d planned.

The print brings those memories together with our signature birds and willow branches. Available as tablecloths, pillowcases, computer sleeves, and our much loved maxi bags, now back and lined with our signature diamond print.

A little side note. These photographs were taken in my sister Fleur’s beautiful home in Antwerp. She has impeccable taste and is the person who taught me so much about styling and visual merchandising. Everywhere you look, there is beauty. Her home feels as though it was made for Nala, which made it the perfect backdrop for this collection. If you’re ever in Antwerp, be sure to visit her café, Kopi O.

Launching this Saturday.