It is almost impossible to talk about style in Singapore without her name coming up. For more than four decades, the always impeccably dressed Tina Tan Leo has helped Singaporeans, and those in the region, to dress better and live more elegantly. Hers is a story of luck and privilege, but also one built on a foundation of trust, tenacity and good taste. Looking back on her career—which is far from over—you cannot help but marvel at all the firsts she has accomplished and all the doors she opened for international brands that are now global household names.
Over the past four decades, Tan Leo has helped more than 70 brands enter Singapore and Southeast Asia. These include Versace, Vera Wang, Roberto Cavalli, Hervé Léger, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Lacroix and Givenchy. And while today, almost all of these brands operate their own boutiques, in the 1980s and for a large portion of the ’90s, these houses depended on retailers like Tan Leo to represent them in the region.
Tan Leo was for so many, for so long, an arbiter of taste, someone who could spot trends far before anyone else. One of her oldest friendly rivals in the fashion and luxury world, Douglas Benjamin, CEO of FJ Benjamin, puts it aptly when he says: “Tina was the purveyor of glamour and style, epitomising those two qualities herself completely. She brought things to us even before we knew we wanted them, in her own undefinable, unique way.”
What is even more remarkable is that she started influencing her patrons—telling people about the brands they needed to know and wear—at what seems an almost impossibly young age. Tan Leo was just 19 when she helped Gianni Versace open his first boutique outside of Italy. She met and befriended the late designer and his brother Santo through “fashion friends” in Milan.
