about

WHAT IS TONG TONG FRIENDSHIP STORE ALL ABOUT?

“Friendship Store” [友谊商店] – Quaint state-owned stores founded in the late 1970’s as a sign of friendship when communist China first opened up to the world. Kookily drab, dreary, and actually not very friendly at all. Sold decadent imported western goods, accessible only to foreigners.

Tong Tong Friendship Store [彤彤友谊商店] – Founder/designer was born in the 1970’s, and eager to share her fresh take on tired stereotypes of Chinese culture. Sells delightfully decadent Chinese-inspired wares. Promises a friendly & quirky shopping experience to all who walk through its doors.

Tong Tong was set up because of a mad mad love for Chinese material culture. It is a bold experiment to study Chinese aesthetics and push its boundaries.

Whilst keenly interested in the ancient past, Tong Tong is even more eager to explore the potential of Chinese aesthetics within modern lifestyles, drawing upon images from the depths of our memory and pulling them to the fore of our mind. Tong Tong playfully attempts to bend and stretch these symbols and images into shapes and forms that fit modern times.

Come. Be friends with Chinese culture.

 

ABOUT THE CLOTHES

Tong Tong is a fresh take on the tired stereotypes of Chinese clothing, creating wearables that don’t shout “costume” and pieces that don’t look out of place in our cosmopolitan milieu.

  • Introducing Chinese & Asian elements into the universal and sometimes monotonous European sartorial vocabulary.
  • Light-hearted & quietly quirky, but always with a respectful nod to tradition.
  • Inspired by the classics, but thoroughly in-tune with the modern woman.

The clothes have a joie de vivre spirit about them – celebrating life & diversity – as interpreted through the eyes of a Chinese who has grown up in Singapore, at the crossroads of Western aesthetics and Southeast Asian traditions.

 

ABOUT THE FOUNDER-DESIGNER

Sheau Yun has worked in the media industry, trained in Asian decorative arts, and has a cerebral and sensual addiction to Chinese material culture. She hopes to use clothes as an evangelising tool to draw unsuspecting shoppers into the lush material culture of Chinese civilisation.