The Singapore Tat2 Convention 2010 held last month was a blast as we had fun making new friends and knowing more about their industry. One of them was the good people from Room 101. plussixfive had the opportunity to have a chat with Matt Booth, Founder of Room 101, as he shared with us his take on the industry, inspiration, and possible ventures into Singapore. Read the full interview below.

Is Room101 looking to expand its brand to Singapore?

We’re interested for sure. I think the quality and level of retail and presentation here is top notch, I mean on a global scale.

When you design your jewellery, where do you draw your inspiration from?

A lot of the inspirations behind my designs come from sculptures that I’ve seen from Japan and Noh Theatre (Traditional Japanese Theatre), masks, Buddhist deities and sculptures outside of temples. But you know, my executive collection is all geometric shapes, patterns, things like that. More contemporary, modern contemporary.

So do you do a lot of travelling to places like Japan and Thailand because of the Temples that they have?

I’ve seen temples in Thailand, but their sculptures are different. Every country kind of represents the same characters differently. And I definitely connect more with the Japanese representation.

How long have you been doing Room101?

I started the brand in 2003, but I’ve been tinkering with jewellery design far before that.

And what got you started/interested in jewellery? Cos it’s not very common for a guy to be interested in jewellery.

Yeah, it’s kinda funny right? You know what started me was, was well, I had met Giom. He was one of the first of the first guys in the business that I met, I met him through friends of mine through the music industry. Cos in LA, everybody wears big silver jewellery and its very common for musicians to wear. And I was really interested, asking questions and asking people what they got. What is that? Where did you get that? And I was introduced to Giom through friends of mine. And the rest is history. I think I ended up being at his place more than being at our music studio and probably bugged the shit out of him, asking questions. He made a lot of stuff, a lot of custom stuff until finally he said, ‘maybe you should think about doing this yourself’.

So he taught you how to make jewellery?

He did not, but he introduced me to people who helped get me started. I basically took part in an unofficial apprenticeship with a master.

For an independent label/store like you guys, how do you go about marketing your products?

It’s definitely word of mouth and we also have the luxury of ahh…  there is a worldwide following with what we do. Not necessarily solely following our brand, but just this, the LA silver-culture. There’s kind of an underground worldwide following, so it’s very word of mouth through that network. But our brand, which is something that I’m very proud of, is that we’re the first brand to have crossed over into the fine jewellery market. And Han Cholo has done a great job in attracting clients from the infusion of the hip-hop/skate/urban culture and we’ve attracted some of that, I don’t think as well as they have but I think that our two brands are the only two that have also crossed over into that aspect as well.

Why actually drove you to want to make custom jewellery for people?

Well, Room101 is just essentially a collection of stuff that I like. And that’s really the way that I want to purchase something. The way that I treat the things that we make, is I treat it as though I were making it for myself. A lot of times, after completing my customs, I always tell customers that I want to keep the piece for myself but I’m going to give it to you cos you paid me for it.

We really respect what you’re doing and its quite rare nowadays to find a craftsman that actually takes pride in his work and put himself out there to actually take the time to sit down and talk to a client.  Props to you for keeping this art form alive.

Thank you.

How would you say that the internet has affected the way that you guys run your business as opposed to back when you started and people hardly used the internet?

Well with the internet, we put so much into our presence, our website and it’s the closest thing that we could get to a private showroom and our website has been a tremendous tool for the last summer. We’ve attracted business from Europe to the far East.

Has Room101 gotten any clients from Singapore?

You know what, not yet. But I think that’s going to change after this tour.

Could you just run through the steps on how someone from Singapore would place an order for a piece of Room101 jewellery?

Especially if it’s a custom project, I would probably do it in person and they would contact us through the website, through email and I would get in touch with them and they would get in touch with me directly after that. Normally people would browse through our catalog of stuff that we’ve done before and choose a couple of pieces and let us know how or what they want us to tweak. Some people they just want their initials added to something sometimes it’s very minor. And some people want a onetime custom piece. So I can accommodate at any level. We make stuff for all price levels. I mean we’re most well known for our black diamonds and our custom stuff, but we also make things that are more affordable.

Room101 also has a small line of apparel right? Tell us more about it.

Yeah, some t-shirts that we’re expanding on and also custom tailored suits and things like that. I just want to be able to offer custom tailored shirts, suits and slacks, especially slacks. And it will be something more of a function of the flagship, like if we open a flagship store here. It would be one of the functions of the flagship store.

That’s great. Cos I think people need that now. I just feel that a huge chunk of the public is just being brainwashed by the bigger companies that ahh…

Ohh yeah, dude we (me and Dave) were having this conversation today. Because, you know what, because globally they’re just shoving their product down people’s throats. So people are programmed to have stuff like, I have to have a L**** V*** bag and I have to have this and I have to have that.

Is Room101 planning on expanding its line of jewellery to include stuff for females?

Absolutely, it’s going to be like Tiffany on steroids. Watch out for it.

So what does plussixfive do? (Asked by Matt)

plussixfive: The thing about Singapore is that every single international brand is here, so for our website, we’re trying to give more exposure to the local brands/establishments. Cos it’s the independent stores that don’t have the budget for marketing to put out advertisements and stuff like that.

Matt: You know man, that’s what it’s all about and that’s where the most creativity is. And the thing that sucks is that a lot of the super creative individuals, they are underfunded. A lot of their ideas get taken by bigger companies that have money and they market it to the world. I mean, I’ve seen it happen and it’s very important to give and help people like that. I mean that’s where the creative energy is, in any industry especially this one.

Dave (Richardson from Room101) was telling me that he had to twist your arm to get you down to take part in this convention (Singapore Tat2 Show).

Yup, you know what man in the States we wouldn’t market our brand at a tattoo show. But you know, he helped me realize that this is going to be more of a hub of counter-culture. Because tattooing is a counter-culture phenomenon and it will attract basically all the people that are seeking something alternative and not just people want to tattoo and not care about the jewellery guy.

How much do tattoo conventions in the U.S. differ from Singapore?

You know what, I don’t know cos I’ve never been. But just judging from the level of presentation that I’ve seen here and other things, I have no doubt that it’s going to be a high quality show. So I’m interested to see how it turns out.

I was talking to Dave and he was telling me that it didn’t occur to him that the majority of Singaporeans spoke English.

Yeah, its been surprising actually. I understand that it’s actually your first language right? All the signs are in English.

I’m glad that Dave actually managed to force you to come down.

Yeah, me too. This dude has forced me to do a couple of things man. And it’s all good. That’s his job. And what’s amazing is that we met on the internet. I mean, he found us. Originally he was a customer and we met up. And the thing is that a lot of the people that we deal with end up being part of the family. It’s a certain person, a certain consumer that signs up for our programme. Room101 is like a beacon, it’s like smoke signals. People picking up on it and they come.

We’re really glad that you guys came down to Singapore.

Yeah, me too. It’s already been a super trip. I think, you know what man, I see a lot of potential here man and we’re going to do a lot of big things. Big things in your back yard my friend. Stay tuned.