Upmarket Foray

ThreeSixFive

38 Dunlop Street, 6341-7752

Hours: 11am-9pm (Mon - Sat)

Dunlop Street is not really known for fashion or lifestyle boutiques, considering most of its patrons are backpackers or hungry folk looking for a good meal. It certainly doesn't seem to be the best place to open a high-end clothing store, but ThreeSixFive owner JR Chan is seeing the big picture.

ThreeSixFive might be the new kid on the block, but its owners are no strangers to the business. JR Chan, 27, has been a menswear designer for seven years. Her decision to open shop on Dunlop Street was based on experience - her menswear label -J-A-S-O-N- (an acronym of the months from July to November) was previously stocked at pop-up store Temporium, also on Dunlop Street, and that brought her attention back to the area. Along with her partner Jermaine Ng, 43, a trained architect and interior designer, they decided to collaborate and maximise on the location to make it a platform for their new company, ThreeSixFive.

It functions not only as the flagship store for Ms Chan's menswear label, but also stocks other lifestyle products and design collaborations. Ms Chan sees her boutique as not just a place for fashion but a creative showcase as well. This vision fits in with her aim to bring variety to Dunlop Street, with its special location and being what she calls a "national melting pot".

"Dunlop has a good mix of culture, history and fragments of an urban-scape, and as designers, we prefer to initiate something and rebel against the norm, rather than go with the flow," she says. Choosing to open shop at Dunlop has so far proved to be a good move. "This area is less hyped up, we are still enjoying reasonably lower rental compared to more developed shopping streets."

She does admit that the area presents some limitations. "As with all conservation shophouses, this place has limits in the scale, architectural motifs and colour scheme, and we are close to unrelated businesses which have a stronger F&B pull," she says. "As creatives, we are in an undeveloped vicinity that comes with slower moving local patrons but we hope to see a better mix of old and new trades that can truly represent Singapore on this street, especially as it is often explored by tourists.

The boutique's items range from $89 to $279 for clothing, and $16 to $75 for bags and accessories.

This article was first published on July 12, 2014.
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