There are few style-conscious women in Singapore who have not heard of Rye. Since founding it in 2016, Bessie Ye has weathered the crisis of a pandemic and the notoriously challenging Singapore market for her brand to emerge as a leading contemporary fashion label. Ye and Rye have a sharp sense for what women want today. The brand’s design language spoke to a desire for fashion at a slower pace, with considered, unfussy clothing that wear and feel like the opposite of disposable fast-fashion. Recent expansions into opening its own boutiques (the first was in the trendy Joo Chiat neighbourhood in 2023, and a more expansive space in New Bahru followed in 2024) have given the brand an immersive, physical dimension. With it, Rye and Ye are now expressing and expanding the brand’s worldview in fresh ways—most recently,
with an au-courant literary salon event with female writers.

⁠What drives you as a changemaker?

I’m driven by deep curiosity, to keep discovering what creativity can mean. I’ve never seen fashion as just a product, but as a way to shape emotion, perspective and connection. I hope what I create can invite beauty into people’s lives while inspiring a deeper sense of self.

I’m drawn to the tensions and beauty that come from cultural intersections. I feel like a child of the world, constantly observing and absorbing, then reflecting those encounters in my creative language. In many ways, my work is about creating a canvas where all these discoveries, references, emotions and perspectives can come together in a meaningful way.

This year marks the first full decade of Rye. What has changed the most since you started the brand?

Rye has never grown in a linear way. It’s grown with me, responding to where I am in life, what I’m questioning and what I’m learning creatively and personally. The brand has felt like a shape shifter—evolving over time, while slowly becoming more grounded in its identity. The essence is still the same, but the way I understand and express it has deepened. Much of the process has been shaped by challenges, pauses and doubts that I need to untangle through change. What has changed the most is the depth and clarity behind the brand. After a decade, I understand that building a brand is allowing it to continuously evolve while staying rooted in its identity.

In these 10 years, you’ve had the early stages of getting the brand off the ground, then weathering a pandemic that changed the world. I wish I could say the world were on more stable ground now, but it’s certainly not the case. From your perspective, what challenges do you think the fashion industry is contending with most now?

From my perspective, fashion is contending with a culture of excess and a growing crisis of meaning. The world is moving so quickly, in a time when speed is often favoured, and there’s such an overwhelming volume of products and information that we barely have time to digest it all. Everyone is asking for attention, but there is only so much people can truly take in. As everything becomes more fleeting, it inevitably leads to dilution and fatigue.

It’s delicate for independent brands, especially those entering a new phase of growth. There’s a constant challenge to balance between brand identity, scaling, and achieving commercial success. How do we remain aspirational and value-led while navigating rising costs, changing markets and an increasingly uncertain world? I believe brands need to protect their creative heart while building something resilient enough to endure. To me, that’s the real work now.

The fashion industry in Singapore for a designer or apparel brand is notoriously tough. Few have made it off the internet and into one brick-and-mortar location, let alone the growth that you’ve achieved with Rye. What do you think it is you’ve done differently that sets Rye apart?

I don’t know if it’s about doing something radically different, but I’ve been deeply committed to building Rye with consistency and care. That requires a different kind of rigour. Not just in aesthetics, but in how a brand communicates, collaborates, produces and builds trust over time. I’ve built Rye instinctively, but always with intention. In many ways, it is an extension of myself.

Every store, collection and decision has come from wanting to build something lasting rather than simply fast. In Singapore, where it’s especially tough for independent brands to sustain themselves, I think what sets Rye apart is that we are never built to be seen but to be felt. Rye has a strong identity, but it has always remained personal and human. More than just a fashion label, it has become a community where people feel inspired, curious and connected. I think people respond to that integrity.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Looking forward, what change are you most excited to see in fashion in Singapore and how can we get there?

I am most excited to see the Singapore fashion and design landscape feel less conformist and more self-assured in its own nuance and identity. I think we need more than support systems to get there. We need a real shift in mindset, where the unconventional is celebrated and not considered a risk. What I hope for is a future where we feel bold enough to shape culture in our own way.