Anak rebrands womenswear label Love, Bonito

Brand practice Anak has teamed up with one of the most exciting names in womenswear, Love, Bonito, to redefine the global ready-to-wear landscape for the Asian woman.

Founded in 2010, Singapore-headquartered womenswear brand Love, Bonito has grown from its humble beginnings as a 19-year-old student’s side hustle, to a multi-million-dollar female-led fashion enterprise with a thriving e-commerce platform and more than 20 stores across the region. In tandem with this growth, the world at large has been catching up to the power of the Asian woman: from Michelle Yeoh to Eileen Gu, from Blackpink to Chloe Zhao, Asian women are claiming the global spotlight like never before. And yet, despite all this cultural power and recognition, there has never quite been a womenswear brand that spoke directly to the real lives of Asian women – until now.

As Love, Bonito readied itself for its next chapter of growth, they turned to another Singapore-headquartered, female-led creative business, Anak, to help shape their global narrative. The result of this year-long collaboration is a major redesign for the brand and a commanding new voice for the fashion industry: one that finally understands and represents the real needs and lives of Asian women, in all their complexity.

“Globally, there’s been a lot of attention on Asian women in the cultural spotlight. But just as there’s more to Michelle Yeoh than a red carpet, there’s more to Asian women than what’s in the headlines or social media. The time felt ripe for a voice that the world hasn’t heard before, but is probably very close to the hearts of Asian women all around the world. To us, it was not just a question of representation, but of putting something out there for the next generation of Asian women,” said Lee Hanyi, Creative Partner, Anak.

A brand with Asian women at its heart
Clothes should fit you, not the other way around. But for years, Asian women had to struggle to find ready-to-wear that was actually ready for them to wear. Enter Love, Bonito, which was one of the first mass-market fashion brands to cut clothes to Asian women’s proportions and use Asian fit models, in defiance of standard industry practices.

Anak put Love, Bonito’s true commitment and care for Asian women into a bold new Heart monogram that serves as a signal for Asian women to feel loved every time they see it. By giving their logo a fresh update with a strong, sleek wordmark that expresses their take on contemporary femininity, with bevelled accents as a subtle nod to the brand’s Asian roots.

From real pockets, to bloat-friendly adjustable waists, to padded busts for extra comfort, to pants that add instant length, Love, Bonito has also refined a design perspective that combines stylish, feel-good clothes with functionalities that are deeply empathetic of women’s daily realities. Anak distilled this design ingenuity into a powerful new tagline that gives voice to what women really need from their wardrobes: Ready-to-live, not just ready-to-wear.

“It is high time we celebrate ourselves, as a brand that is created in Asia, lovingly made for Asian women, by Asian women,” says Dione Song, CEO of Love, Bonito. “While many of our Asian cultures have been known to be more conservative, we want the world to see who the multifaceted Asian woman is in this 21st century. By doing so, we too want to let Asian women know that it is perfectly alright to be unabashedly ourselves while keeping to our roots and heritage.”

Song added: “Our consistent double-digit year-on-year growth since 2020 has been an encouraging sign and we will be rolling out a new assortment strategy as part of this new brand identity. The vision of being the go-to destination for Asian women is big, and we are just getting started.”

A multifaceted graphic system
Overlapping responsibilities, slipping into multiple roles, staying prepared for a gamut of occasions – 24 hours a day, every day – while looking and feeling your best. Love, Bonito’s approach to clothing understands that modern women’s real lives are layered and complex as hell, so Anak built a flexible, modular graphic system that embraces and accommodates those complexities too.

The Love, Bonito facet system is made to encompass every facet of the brand and the women they serve – different facets of womanhood; different facets of real life; different facets of a collection; different facets of a product. The graphic system debuts in the brand’s first-ever global campaign, fronted by a powerhouse line-up of Asian women, specifically chosen for their personal stories and outlooks that strays from what a stereotypical Asian woman should be or look like – actress Arden Cho, singer-songwriter Yuna, writer and activist Chanel Miller, and intergenerational fashion influencers Gym Tan and Mya Miller (no relation to Chanel Miller). Lensed by photographer Lenne Chai, the campaign dispenses with the traditional playbook of a single, didactic fashion fantasy and instead introduces a multifaceted view of modern life that meets women right where they are.

“I really loved working with our cast, and I felt so inspired by their lives and stories! My goal with the shoot was to capture their personalities and genuine moments of spontaneity. It was great that the campaign was honouring how practical the pieces are – Love, Bonito has undeniably become a staple in the wardrobes of many Singaporean women, and I love that the campaign was inspired by the boba-drinking, Hai Di Lao-slurping lifestyles of the modern Asian woman everywhere,” said photographer Lenne Chai.

A new language of Asian sass
Love, Bonito was one of the first who believed that Asian women deserved a new approach to ready-to-wear. Anak translated this unique point-of-view into a new visual language for the brand, with playful, cheeky technical iconography to illustrate how seriously functional the clothes are made. Crease-ease fabrics, nursing-friendly tops, and bodylicious dresses all get called out to demonstrate that this is a brand that gets you, and your need for bloat-friendly pants.

With clothes made to speak to the truths of Asian women’s real lives, Anak felt the brand’s voice had to do so, too. Anak worked with the brand to draw back the curtain on a very special tone of voice we call Asian sass. The kind of tummy-cramping, sometimes-twisted, laugh-at-ourselves humour Asian women share with each other when no one else is around, that no one else gets. Whether it’s talking about being a stereotypical straight-A (cup size) or about dresses that bào (抱; hold) without making you feel like a bāo (包; dumpling) – we speak to Asian women in the way that other brands can’t.

“As a brand practice led and fueled by Asian women, working on the rebranding of Love, Bonito was a profoundly meaningful journey. We wanted to create a brand where modern Asian women can finally recognise themselves as they are, not as the world wants them to be,” said Eunice Tan, CEO of Anak. “A natural synergy emerged between the clients and our all-female creative and business teams, resulting in a true partnership and work that is deeply resonant for us; not just as design professionals, but as Asian women in the world.”

Credits
Agency: Anak
Client: Love, Bonito
Photographer: Lenne Chai
KOLs featured: Arden Cho, Yuna, Gym Tan, Mya Miller, Chanel Miller