[This is a sponsored article with hello ronron.]
A new brand has emerged from Malaysia that hopes to influence the wardrobes of modern women working in Southeast Asia.
It’s called hello ronron, but it’s not your typical office wear fashion brand, it’s knitwear. The literary media often describes it as a ‘tattered piece of clothing’, but hello ronron would like to help defy that perception.
Examining the brand’s ethos, it’s clear that the team is serious about creating quality knitwear. But Malaysia’s climate is a far cry from a sweater climate, and one has to wonder why knits in particular.
To understand a brand, you first need to know its founder.
take knitting seriously
Angela Chiang graduated with a BA in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, UK.
The university is world-renowned for its arts and design education and has produced a diverse range of notable alumni, including fashion designers Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.
There Angela studied pattern design for women’s clothing and textiles, working with different fabrics and trimming, screen printing and digital textile printing.
Professionally, I worked at a fashion company in London and then at a fashion couture house in Taiwan while I was in school.
“Client consultation, design and fitting processes have always been some of my favorite parts of my job while working for this couture house,” recalled Angela fondly.
While she was working, the idea of starting her own fashion company slowly began to take shape.
Perhaps the sentiment most associated with fashion designers, she explained: [beyond] Just the aesthetics or function of the work. “
Hello ronron was born because I wanted to be able to call a part of it truly my own.
As a bit of trivia, Angela notes that the word “Lon Lon” is a woman who wears Halo Lon Lon who is happy, confident, original, inspiring and exudes both grit and grace. They let us know that it was the name they gave to us.
She is you, but she can also represent your friend, sister, mother, or daughter.
Seamless silhouettes and styles
Thanks to her previous experience working in the fashion industry, Angela began her market research with an already good understanding of customer behavior.
She knew what her clients (the modern working woman) encounter in their daily lives and how the clothes they wore affected their lifestyle.
At the same time, she herself faced the challenge of finding a particular style of knitwear. In particular, she was looking for a minimalist cut that would accentuate the SEA feminine silhouette, be comfortable to wear, made from high-quality materials, easy to care for, and airy enough for the warmer months.
So, hello Ron Ron, she wanted to check all those boxes, so it made sense to tailor the design to fit the modern Southeast Asian female silhouette.
To that end, she studies historical fashion, creating pieces that resemble the cut and silhouette designs of kebaya (Malay), qipao/cheongsam (Chinese), ao dai (Vietnamese), and other heritage classics. created.
Specifically, these pieces create a silhouette that elongates the lower body, visually shortens the upper torso, accentuates the waist, and accentuates the neckline-to-shoulder ratio.
There are many other things that the design of hello ronron wants to do. It helps the wearer feel attractive, feminine and comfortable without being too revealing or too form-fitting.
Angela describes it this way: [the] From boardrooms to happy hours, visit your in-laws for a special dinner just for two. “
Features like adjustable shoulder straps, neckline and buttoned skirt slits make this versatility possible.
thread the needle
Returning to the story of knitwear not being made for Malaysia’s hot and humid climate, Angela was quick to let me know that there are, in fact, different knitwear materials made for sunny weather.
Examples include cotton knits (breathable and soft), viscose knits (drapable and silky), and linen knits (breathable and lightweight).
Angela also experimented with different cuts, from detailed cable knits to dynamic moulinet knits.
All hello ronron products are designed in-house by her, and she goes through several sample prototyping with a knitwear manufacturer in Shanghai to finalize the product.
“As a start-up, my company currently has no economies of scale and all products are produced in small batches,” Angela said.
Committing to producing a completely custom-designed product from scratch would arguably cost more for a startup, but she also assured:
“I have invested in research and development to create tailored pattern cuts for SEA women’s silhouettes and believe in manufacturing using only quality materials and garment construction, and will continue to do so. .”
In Angela’s words, well-made, well-designed products stand the test of time, and this is also their approach to sustainable fashion.
Discerning knit from the beginning to the end
Unfortunately, the transition from fast fashion to slow fashion has been very gradual and currently difficult to popularize.
But smaller brands are trying to change the status quo, and Halo Lon Lon is no exception.
Halo Lon Lon’s design is seasonless and is made with a full fashion knitting method that eliminates waste so that you can use it for a long time.
Do you know: By way of explanation, full fashion or shape knitting is a production method in which the front, back, and sleeve pieces are knitted to the correct shape directly on a knitting machine. Cutting may be required after knitting.
In the case of hello ronron, this applies to the sewing of Japanese seashell buttons, the finishing of armholes, and the sewing of clothing labels.
The trimmings and pockets are then knitted separately and sewn together with the rest of the knitting to complete the garment.
According to industry standards, this method is much more efficient and traditional cut and sew methods can waste up to 30% of the original fabric as cut loss.
make a cut
The team sent me 6 different designs, and I witnessed how carefully Halo Lon Lon’s pieces are made.
Lynn Top Lavender (RM180), Agnes Top Black (RM200), Hera Skirt Evening (RM300), Silvie Skirt Rose (RM280), Mila Dress Cloud (RM380), Angelique Dress Black (RM390).
From these, I was able to research how Halo Ron Ron pulls off different cuts and designs.
Although it’s on the thin side of knitwear that we’re used to, there were no loose threads or poorly sewn seams, and each piece felt solidly made.
After trying a few of them, they definitely fit my body type, but were still comfortable enough for me to move around (for context, I’m pretty petite).
hello ronron is now available in 3 sizes S, M and L, but Angela reassured us that all knits have great stretch that stretches up to 10 cm.
She also added, “If you’re in between sizes, look at your waist measurement first to see which size is closest to you.
If you’re not sure what size fits you best, Halo Lon Lon provides garment measurements that cover shoulder width, sleeve length, garment length, skirt slit length, and more for all of our products.
More comprehensive sizes are also in the pipeline, she shared. I would also like to study
- Learn more about Halo Lon Lon here.
- Read about other Malaysian startups featured here.