The Red Wedding: Reviving The Lost Art of Chinese Traditional Wedding Attires, One Couple At a Time
"Have you heard about the latest trend? LED wedding dresses! Your dress can light up the dance floor, quite literally!"
"Consider a wedding dress with built-in Wi-Fi. You can live-stream the entire ceremony, complete with real-time dress reactions."
As the big day approaches, you're drowning in a sea of unsolicited wedding advice. While everyone else is throwing out the latest fads, you're on a quest for something that revives the timeless charm of a traditional Chinese attire.
Western traditions have long dominated the wedding scene with white gowns and tuxedos, but there's a captivating shift emerging. A reawakening of Chinese traditions, resplendent in hues of red and gold, is sweeping across matrimonial celebrations – thanks to The Red Wedding.
Founder Janet Ng, also known as "Towkay" (Boss) in her boutique, began her entrepreneurial journey 16 years ago after her own wedding experience. Driven by her love for Chinese traditional attires which she has always admired for their intricate embroidery and cultural significance, she began searching for such wedding outfit options for herself and her fiancé.
Except she hit a roadblock: there just weren't many of these artisans left making these garments, much less in Singapore and at a price point she could afford. The artisan scarcity, however, only fueled Janet's determination to seek out these talents and take up the mantle of preserving this Chinese artistry that was so dear to her heart. She went so far as to make multiple trips overseas to connect with various master artisans, with the end goal of keeping this dying art alive and making it accessible back home in Singapore – namely the Qun Kua for the brides, and Ma Kua for the grooms.
Today, her efforts have made her wedding boutique the clear industry leader in providing exceptional designs at an accessible cost. The Red Wedding has served over 2,500 couples since its inception and continues to attract an average of 150 couples annually. Their future plans include expanding beyond weddings, through their e-commerce store DONG XI 東西 - offering a curated collection of quintessential items inspired by their passion for preserving the rich heritage of Chinese culture.
Janet, founder of The Red Wedding, will be happy to share more about her story in growing her unique ventures, as well as the following points:
- The inspiration behind the collection
- The broader significance of traditional Chinese wedding attires
- The common misconceptions of the Chinese wedding attire
- How Janet carved out this niche single-handedly, without any family skin in the game despite the tradition-steeped nature of the business
About The Red Wedding
Established in 2007, The Red Wedding specializes in the rental and sale of Chinese traditional attires for weddings. Their attires are hand-designed and embroidered by master artisans who work closely with Janet, the founder, to produce The Red Wedding's very own unique collections. These collections are not just for the brides, but for grooms as well. Besides the attires, they also offer a full range of accompanying Oriental-styled accessories — from hair adornments to jewellery and shoes. They have an upcoming retail concept, DONG XI 東西, that will feature a collection of quintessential items that are also steeped in Chinese heritage.
