Monday, April 13, 2009

Designer label making waves


From humble beginnings to being a millionaire, fashion designer Key Ng Yew Sing has never thought that it was luck or miracle that made his brand – KN KEY NG – popular in the world of fashion and celebrities. It was his patience and determination.

Ng, who established the KEY NG brand in 1998, says he is very particular about every single production step – from designing and drafting to choosing fabrics, cutting materials and even each sewing stitch. He believes the unique and trendy designs, quality materials and sewing work speak loudly for a brand.

“The aspiration of making a person look good pushes me to design and make more modern clothes for people,” he says, adding that he flies to Japan twice a year to purchase fabrics.

What prompted him to use KEY NG as his brand?

“It’s quite common in the fashion field that designers use their name as the brand. It’s like a trend; thus I decided to label my products under KEY NG 11 years ago,” he recalls.

In 2007, he rebranded the name to KN KEY NG, which he thinks will be easily recognised globally.

Hailing from Sitiawan, Perak, Ng says his hobby – drawing – led him to begin his career in fashion designing in the early 1990s, after his graduation from the Singapore Nanyang Institute of Arts. After two years working for Singaporean designer Bobby Ch’ng, he decided to return to Malaysia. In 1995, with RM200,000 capital, Ng set up City Wave, which operates from a rented shoplot in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. The factory then housed three machines and had three employees.

“(We have come) a long way (and) we did not give up. We managed to obtain our first RM8,000 order from Isetan department store,” he recalls.

Today, it has 180 employees and a four-storey headquarters and factory in Cheras with monthly production of 8,000 pieces of clothes. - The Star

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