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In 2005, three Singaporean friends, Rachel Lim, Velda Tan, and Viola Tan, launched a secondhand clothes blog on LiveJournal called BonitoChico.
What started as a way to make extra cash while juggling school quickly became a revelation: with a blog and a bit of hustle, you could reach buyers across Asia.
They sold their own preloved clothes, packed orders by hand, and modeled everything themselves.
Orders came in from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, proof that word-of-mouth could travel faster than any marketing budget.
🌏 Selling out and into opportunity
Soon, they ran out of clothes. The trio tried something new: sourcing inventory from overseas like Thailand, learning the ropes of fashion and logistics from the ground up.
With zero background in the industry, they became their own models, photographers, merchandisers, and customer service team—all from their bedrooms.
They hand-packed parcels, wrote customer emails late at night, and had makeshift photoshoots at home.
🪡 The lightbulb moment
As their following grew, so did their ambition. They noticed a gap: most fashion brands ignored Asian women’s needs. Western sizing and styles didn’t fit local bodies, climates, or preferences.
The founders saw an opportunity to design clothes specifically for Asian women—tailored fits, colors for local skin tones, and styles that actually worked for Southeast Asia’s heat and style.
🎓 Everything on the line
By 2010, it was time to double down. The team registered and renamed the company “Love, Bonito.”
Rachel, just 18 when she started selling clothes online, left university in her final year at one of Singapore’s best universities, paid a five-figure penalty for breaking her government scholarship, and borrowed her mother’s life savings to keep the dream alive.
Their first collection was so popular that the website actually crashed due to high traffic and stayed down for about 6 to 8 hours. They had prepped the site for a few thousand visitors, but the traffic they got was beyond anything they expected.
🧱 Building the brand
For the next six years, Love, Bonito continued to serve its customers online. The brand also experimented with pop-up stores to better understand its audience and test new markets.
In 2017, they opened their first flagship store at a major shopping area in Singapore, 313@Somerset on Orchard Road.
While the world was betting on e-commerce, Love, Bonito doubled down on physical retail to build trust and intimacy. The gamble paid off: the flagship turned the brand into a household name and brought their mission to life.
In 2018, Love, Bonito secured $9.5M ($13M SGD) in Series B funding led by Kakaku.com and NSI Ventures for expansion into new markets and categories.
💥 When success nearly sank them
Then, the pandemic came. Love, Bonito had invested heavily in immersive offline experiences: stylists, community zones, curated spaces. Suddenly, it all became deadweight.
The company had invested heavily in physical spaces: stores with stylists, curated community zones, and immersive offline experiences. It all turned into deadweight.
In contrast to all the physical spaces they’ve built, the pandemic made online sales go through the roof. But the company wasn’t ready for it.
Fulfillment centers buckled under pressure. Shipping delays mounted. Customer service couldn’t keep up—and by mid-2021, over 200 formal complaints had flooded in across platforms.
In 2021, Love, Bonito posted a $8.1M ($11.1M SGD) loss, nearly double the year before, even as they raised $36.5M ($50M SGD) in funding to expand into new markets like Hong Kong and the US. They were scaling in public while scrambling in private.
✂️ The painful reset
By 2022, the founders were burning out. And they brought in Dione Song as CEO to bring back focus and discipline.
Her first move? Cut 60% of product styles (SKUs). Most weren’t profitable. Some distracted from core offerings.
By simplifying product development and narrowing focus, the team could start regaining control.
She rebuilt logistics from the ground up—warehousing, fulfillment, customer experience.
It wasn’t glamorous work, but it was essential.
Then came the layoffs. In 2023, Love, Bonito cut 7% of its staff, mostly from headquarters.
It was painful. But it marked the first time the company was willing to make hard calls to survive.
The blogshop days were officially over.
🔁 From fashion brand to lifestyle stack
Signs of recovery emerged in 2023: revenue hit S$88 million ($64M USD), up 37%, and losses narrowed by 27%.
Love, Bonito opened new stores in Hong Kong and Manila and quietly laid groundwork for a U.S. launch—building supply chains, scouting locations, and adapting messaging for a Western audience.
They didn’t stop at clothes. Love, Bonito acquired Butter, a local activewear brand (now cheak), and invested in Moom Health, a women’s wellness startup. The vision? Grow with their customer, from fashion to fitness, wellness, and whatever came next.
🗺 The big win
In 2024, Love, Bonito opened its first flagship store in the U.S. It was a defining moment.
From a blogshop in a Singaporean bedroom to a growing global brand, Love, Bonito built something that didn’t exist—for themselves, and for millions of women like them.
And now, they’re leading the next chapter.
Takeaway Scoop
Lessons you can take from the Love, Bonito story.
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