Business

Saturday April 11, 2009

Designer label making waves

By RACHAEL KAM


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.

The brand, which has been appearing very often at numerous local and international fashion shows, is ready to spread its wings overseas.

Ng says he is targetting to open two consignment counters in BHG, a leading department store in Singapore, by year’s end. A consignment counter is a retail space in a department store.

And soon, KN KEY NG will be available in Paris too if talks on opening a consignment counter in a boutique there materialise.

“My vision is to bring our brand to the international marketplace,” Ng tells StarBizWeek, adding that he also plans to expand his boutique franchise business.

Key Ng Yew Sing with his latest summer collection of executive wear.

“We are in talks with potential partners in Kota Kinabalu,” says the 39-year-old fashion director and chief executive officer of City Wave Sdn Bhd, a garment and apparel manufacturing company.

Ng designs and produces a mixed range of KN KEY NG men’s and ladies’ wear comprising smart casual, evening and couture wear, modern executive attire as well as accessories like bags, shoes, eye wears and belts.

His collections of KN KEY NG products are in demand among high-end customers.

Ng’s creations have been worn by local TV programme hosts, beauty queens, top models, popular local singers and artistes as well as foreign artistes in Singapore.

Currently, he owns five boutiques in shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya. He also has six consignment counters in Isetan department store and Sogo Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Last year, Ng opened his first franchise boutique in Queensbay Mall, Penang. This year, he plans to add two to three more consignment counters in the Klang Valley.

Ng says he always sets high standards for his products through vibrant designs, quality materials and good workmanship.

“I love to see a person dress with presentable attire at any occasion, whether it’s a grand dinner, an official business meeting, a private date or going to office,” he says.

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.

Despite the current challenging times, Ng says orders are still rolling in as the company is one of the few apparel makers left in the country.

For the financial year ended June 30, it reported a higher turnover of RM4.8mil versus RM3.2mil a year earlier.

“Coupled with our expansion plans and the franchise business in the pipeline, we expect to achieve 10% to 15% revenue growth this year and in the coming years,” he says.

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