Tell us more about yourself
I'm Desleen Yeo, founder of YeoMama Batik. I'm a very active person day in and day out and I dabble in a couple of sports ranging from pole dancing, wakeboarding, hiit workouts and cycling. I also love music and used to teach piano and play the violin as well.
Tell us more about your business
YeoMama Batik is a Singapore brand that uses authentic handmade batik to create clothing for the modern lifestyle. Each piece is handmade from start to finish, empowering the batik craft and community in Indonesia.
Why did you choose to do this?
I didn't choose this, the batik life chose me hahahah. The business started accidentally and I stumbled into the batik craft. At the start, I was very neutral in my views towards batik. Overtime, the craft grew on me especially when I went on road trips to visit the different batik kampong communities - seeing the artisans' patience and effort in creating each piece of fabric painstakingly is like WOAH.
What was the inspiration behind your business?
Batik seems to be highly stereotyped as something that appears to have a certain look for certain people. But that's not true. Batik itself is a technique and it exists in many different colours and styles. What we want to do essentially is to show people how batik can fit into your lifestyle. That is the biggest inspiration and driving factor behind YeoMama Batik.
How do you see your business impacting other women?
We believe that clothing affects a person's confidence and the way they carry themselves. When a person feels good in our clothing, they are empowered through the day and it's a great feeling to be confident and positive.
On a deeper level, we are contributing to the batik craft and community, a tradition that we want to preserve. It has a straightforward impact of creating more jobs and opportunities for women in these communities when more orders come in.
How do you think you can uplift the community?
We see ourselves beyond just a clothing brand. As creatives, we believe that we can also make a positive impact with our platform by injecting positivity - from designing fun and bold clothing to creating content that speaks about family ties and kinship; content that can bring joy and amusement. These are small ways that we can uplift the community; by bringing smiles to people who follow the brand.
Do you collaborate with other women? If so, how and why? If not, is that something you'll consider exploring in the near future?
We have done a couple of women-led collaboration with other brands such as Our Daily Avenue, Our Bralette Club etc and we are definitely looking into more meaning brand partnerships in the future.
Any wise words for other women looking to venture into running a business?