The stories of both Royal Selangor and Pestle & Mortar Clothing share similar traits of passion, grit, and entrepreneurship. With more than a century apart, both brands come together in the same beliefs and the entrepreneurial spirit to have the Limited Edition collection of merchandise called The RS X PMC collection. We had a chance to sit down for a short conversation with the CEO of both companies, Hugh from PMC and Yoon Li from Royal Selangor. Introducing the background story for this limited edition capsule consist of four garments; plain t-shirt, worker shirt, tote bag, and a cap.
The collaboration is an ode to Royal Selangor Heritage, what’s the main highlight of this collection?
Hugh : The main highlight to me is actually to be able to work with Royal Selangor. Both of our brands are very different, but there are definitely similarities as well. Firstly, both our brands are homegrown [in Malaysia], and the values we stand for as a company in terms of entrepreneurship, culture and heritage – which, of course, Royal Selangor has been a pioneer in for over a hundred years- is very similar. Although PMC is a fairly young company, but we definitely have a cultural heritage in our arsenal.
Yoon Li: For me, I think the main highlight is the chance to work with a young and energetic company. It’s not just Royal Selangor’s effort alone in this collaboration, we have an entire team made up of a mix of the two companies. We have the design studio team, product development team, the marketing team…just to mention a few. We all worked hard for a successful project, but we do not aim for just success in sales, but also a successful collaboration between RS and PMC. This experience of working together allowed us a chance to learn from each other and also to get new ideas to reach out to younger consumer and crowds.
Tell us the reason behind the elements chosen for the collection; FIRST FACTORY, TIGER PEWTER, PEWTER TEA.
Hugh: When we first started off the project, I was granted the access to have a glimpse of the archive library. To me, that was an amazing opportunity. We’re talking about almost a hundred years of imagery, logos, iconic typography and the likes. Everyone knows RS now, but not everyone knows RS heritage. When it came to the logos and graphics that we were inspired by, we thought of an idea to start work off, based on the different pictures and graphics. It’s educational, in a way, because clothing is a conversation piece. People would say, “Hey, what’s that clothing about?” and it tells a story. I think both brands are storytellers, and through this collaboration, we’re telling a tale through clothing.
How does local brand Pestle & Mortar Clothing compliment Royal Selangor in this first ever clothing collaboration? Will there be more collaboration with other clothing brands?
Yoon Li: I can’t say for sure. I don’t think it’s just clothing or fashion, to me, the collaboration is more of a cultural project. Hugh’s company is a younger one than RS, but the core values that both our companies uphold are very similar so that’s a good place to start off. It’s more of an urban culture that I found interesting with PMC. They have a way of connecting with the youth – or rather, urban Malaysia today, in places like KL, Penang, Johor and more. It’s interesting to see the strong following of PMC in today’s urban audiences even though there isn’t what we call traditional advertising that the older generation is used to. Even my kids know about PMC It’s an interesting connection for RS to be able to understand the psyche of this.
Royal Selangor has been infusing pop culture, eg Star Wars, Marvels, DC Comics and finally now, Pestle & Mortar Clothing. Tell us more about the significance of incorporating pop culture theme in your past collaborations?
Yoon Li: I would look at this differently, as compared to Marvel, DC and Starwars. Those collaborations are more to addressing a fanbase. If you look back 20 years ago, we did a collection with Lord Of The Rings too. Lord Of The Rings was a huge success because we managed to tap into a fanbase, which has many collectors of limited edition figurines, franchises and such. With PMC it’s slightly different, the audience is more urban-based. They are intrigued by the brand, and would perhaps wonder why our two companies are working together. So that’s an interesting project with PMC.
Besides clothing & figurine collaborations, what are the future collaboration plans for Royal Selangor Heritage?
Yoon Li: We have licencing collaborations and partnerships with major brands and franchises, as well as collaborations with museums as well. In terms of licencing collaborations, it’s pretty straightforward, because we know who the market is, and we know that there are collectors out there. But for museums, they are more of an inspiration for our studio designs to work on slightly different angles, be it historical or contemporary. There’s always that big institution which we can tap on, such as National Palace Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum, which we just signed up with – we’re launching a Celtic collection with them in the summer – But as for PMC, it’s a collaboration where we go in with the brand and a dialogue and conversation happens that results in a collaborative creation. This is different as opposed to taking in the inspirational elements and producing a product.
Hugh: This partnership is 6 months in the making, it’s not over a short period of time. It’s been a period of thinking about ideas, looking at samples and prototypes and other aspects of production as well.
Check out the full lookbook here. Royal Selangor & Pestle & Mortar Clothing Capsule Collection is made available from the 19th of January 2018 at the Royal Selangor Flagship store in Pavillion, Kuala Lumpur and Pestle & Mortar’s flagship store in Bangsar.
