Why and how did Modelle start? This was one of our requested topics and a question I get asked occasionally so here goes! ๐ (PS: Long read ahead)
I remember I was Primary 6 when people started using BlogSpot or LiveJournal pages to sell their second-hand items online. Creating a blog and putting up things to sell was a pretty cool concept to me at that time. Since I was bored at home during the school holidays, I decided to create my own BlogSpot blog and tried putting up some of the things lying around at home for fun. I managed to sell a few items and earned some money, which was a great feat for a 12-year-old kid with only $2 pocket money a day! I dug through my precious art supplies and managed to make a few rings and bracelets with some beads and up online they went!
Slowly I started making more things to sell online and my secondary school life was filled with me running around Singapore to do meetups with customers at MRT stations to sell my things. This was way before bank transfers, credit card payments online and couriers are used for online transactions, unlike how common it is now. I even skipped compulsory CCA throughout secondary 3 and 4 so that I could have more time to make things to sell. Apart from studying, avoiding and running away from my CCA teachers in school, all I thought of was what I could make when I got home.
My little humble booth at Scape! (Which has now become Scape Underground)
Flea markets started becoming common as well and I started joining the flea market at Scape to sell my accessories every weekend. (Anyone reading this remembers? It was the “IT” place in town for teens to hang out at the time!) Every week I had to fight and bid for the best booth slots and my supportive parents would accompany me all day or drive me there to set up my booth. I did this till I entered polytechnic and eventually stopped after my first year - sales was dwindling as less people frequented Scape and also to focus on studying.
Somewhere in my second year of polytechnic, I got a part time job. Upon graduating from polytechnic, I took all my savings from working part time and started Modelle! This time, I wanted to try selling clothes so I excitedly got stocks, went to studios to take pictures every month and uploaded new clothes online every week. My room became a mini warehouse, half of it was filled with stocks and sometimes I could take an hour to look for a dress that someone ordered because there was too much things around. Everything was so fun despite how tiring it was to do everything alone.
At some point in time I put up some earrings I made online and they were unexpectedly well received. Eventually, I stopped selling clothes and focused more on doing earrings and accessories, which is the Modelle you are familiar with today! ๐