Curved edge scarf in black and red from Shelley Siu from Singapore Shawl. Dress of the day 552.

 I loved this scarf worn by Shelley, Shelley Siu, who was standing by her stand at the Tanglin Club Christmas Fair. The Christmas Fairs are wonderful. I always go there thinking that I have enough clothes and food and drink. Then I see something unique and irresistible.

She was wearing this shawl, with the curved edge in contrasting black against red. 

The Shelley Siu story is interesting. She is the classic entrepreneurial Chinese lady. She started out a well paid trainer for big companies. (I wish I had known - my dream job - I could have asked her about that. She left that to train Singaporean ladies who had lost their jobs. But those in the older age group were not being taken on. So she looked at Indian and America where businesses starting up cannot afford shop rents and sell products from low cost wheeled carts. Which products? Scarves. Take a simple scarf, of good quality fabric, and add fringed or tassels or cut into shapes and make an elegant and expensive item. As marketing minds like to say, value added. 

She made her own designs and tught people to copy them and develop their own idea. Her elegant scarves are now sold in top hotels, such as Goodwood Park, just near Ion in Orchard, dead centre of Singapore, and in Takshimaya, as well as in auctions for charity. Her favoutie charities include breast cancer. She used as models women who had had breast cancer, showing they could still look elegant, and giving them confidence, pride, and experience for a cv. The story is better told in more detail in the article I have listed below.

She told me that she wants to hand over the business to others. Empowering others. 

I love her rhyming and positive phrase that she is not going to retire but to refire!

Useful Websites

https://sg.canon/en/campaign/business-insight/tips/the-singapore-shawl-empowering-marginalised-women

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