One of our island’s best and fashion forward multi label boutiques, Surrender, has been at their swanky new space at Raffles Hotel Arcade for the last couple of months. Other than the fine product offerings available, their interior and space is another attraction to pay attention to. We managed to chat with the people behind Surrender, Earn and Samuel, who collectively share with us their visions, evolutions, and key to success. Check out the full interview below.

Surrender is located at #02-31, Raffles Hotel Arcade

How did the idea and concept of Surrender come about?

It was an idea James Lavelle (UNKLE) and myself were thinking about it for a while. There was a scarcity of clothing stores we like here. So we thought it would be a good idea to open a store here. I discussed it with Samuel and six months later, we opened our doors at Far East Plaza. When we first opened in late 2004, we concentrated on an identity, a concept. Since then, it has been an organic growth which means these days, there’s less focus on adopting a concept, and more on the store being able to represent itself so people can identify with it.

How much is Surrender a reflection of yourselves?

Surrender is basically our passion translated into a business and we focus what we like and what we would wear ourselves. You’ll never find something like three-legged pants at Surrender no matter how trendy or popular it is. We have always stuck to what we like, push what we believed in and progressed from there. When we were younger, we were very involved with the youth subculture, and we still are now. Except that, as we grow older, our pants don’t sag as much. Haha. So yeah, at Surrender, you can find a good selection of graphic teeshirts to well fitted suits. In a way, it’s constantly growing with our customers and us personally. We can proudly call ourselves a menswear store now.

What has been key to the success of Surrender as a store and as a brand name?

Like I said, Surrender is a menswear store. And men do not like to be associated with fashion, which is why we never followed any trend. However, men like to be stylish. From there, we cover every aspect of lifestyle, from music, art, design and architecture to food, watches, furniture and cars. The products we carry compliment that lifestyle.

Besides offering quality products, we offer personalized service too. In every business, honesty is the key. Especially in menswear where it’s all about proportion, so getting a second opinion from us can be quite important. On the other hand, if the shirt doesn’t fit well, we will advise our customers not to get it. We want our customers to look good and I am glad they trust us to do that.

What happened to the Surrender clothing label? Will we be seeing a resurrection?

We have decided to take a break from production and focus on retail instead. When the time is right, we will relaunch our new line. But the collection will not be big as we have no intention of world domination. We would just like to have a small collection ranging from casual pieces to tailored clothes at our store, and hopefully along with a made to measure service too.

3rd time moving guys, does it get any easier or any harder?

It tends to get harder. Singapore is a small city and it is difficult to find a space we like. I’ve never liked having a store in a mall, it takes away the characteristics of what a store  should be. It works for big retailers but as an independent retailer, it doesn’t work for us. We do not like to be grouped or categorized and be placed according to levels in their malls. We’d prefer to find a spot that’s suitable for us rather than worrying about the traffic flow. So when we found this spot at the Raffles Hotel, we knew it would be our new home.

In terms of evolution, what can we expect from the new store? How different from the last store? Inspirations?

Our previous two locations were very modern. There are so many shops out there, from fast food joints to clothing stores with cutting edge, avant garde designs, modern decor, crazy technologies, elevators that go sideways etc. So this time, we want it to be more timeless and lo-fi, like the products we carry… it doesn’t get old, it only gets better. That’s what we want for our new store. A classic decor that ages well over time.

Why Raffles Arcade?

The Raffles Hotel is a beautiful hotel which has a great heritage attached to it. Dating from 1887. There are so many 6 stars hotel in Singapore but there is only one Raffles Hotel. Like what they say : “When staying in Raffles Hotel, why not visit Singapore?”. It represents Singapore so we are proud to be part of it.

Also, it is more relaxing than other shopping districts where there’s a lot of competing against one another and screaming for  your attention. Our customers know what they want and prefer to take their time to shop in a more relaxed environment.

Personally, what are the favorite things about the last two stores that you will always remember. What do you/will you miss?

I am glad you asked, because when we were in the midst of moving last week, we found many artworks from the last two stores. It’s an archive of what we have done. I missed particularly the set of handscreened “Bizarre Beyond Belief” that used to hang proudly in our gallery. There were also artworks from the past exhibitions that we have done with Kostas Seremetis and Rostarr. But all will be hung at our new store.