How the Singapur Au -upen brand conquered the fashion world in the storm: Founder Nicholas Tan explains the creation of Instant 'IT' Tasche The Nirvana – the fans like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé praises

This is exactly like Nicholas Tan, which recently found that it is the brain behind the brand. When I started to see Aupen's arm candy on A-listeners two years ago, nobody knew that it was a Singapore brand, let alone who could be his mysterious founder. Since Auupen's official start at the end of 2022, details about the brand and the identity of his founder have been kept very secret. This probably serves to turn the pockets of interest yourself, but it also makes a point about the type of brand Auupen – essentially, one that produces buzz because it does not try. Calm marketing for calm luxury, so to speak, operated exclusively on the basis of word of mouth, social media and the mentality “If you know you know”.

Just a few days earlier, I had the opportunity to meet Tan in Hong Kong to learn more about the man behind the secret and to discuss a meteoric climb to the “IT -BAG” charity status. “We wanted to create a silhouette that concentrated timelessly and not on logos,” he says casually and looks as cool and effortlessly as the bags themselves. “Something simple and bad, so that it was easy to absorb and stand out the entire outfit immediately when a girl was wearing a T-shirt and a jeans.”

You can't put someone like Tan in a box. The former national swimmer for Singapore is large, strikingly good looking and could easily happen for a model – another calling that has dealt over the years – but surprisingly has no formal design training. In other words, he is completely different from what many people had in mind for such a reserved and reserved brand, and also not the first person to think when you thought of a founder of the fashion brand. This is perfectly fine with Tan, who has to do with satisfaction and even excitedly excited things, to prove that they are wrong and that they should bring new expectations of what a pocket brand – and a pride of Singapore.

“If we design our bags, we want them to be sculptural,” he says and hurls typical Nirvana bag – manufactured in an asymmetrical form with an asymmetrical form with an golden, removable charm, which acts as a counterweight at the slimmer end on his shoulder. “This differs a little from some pockets that are crossbody or simply collapse completely. If you put it on the table, you can put it next to your coffee and take a photo.”

It is this type of storytelling through silhouettes that initially gave the brand almost global recognition-proud that all celebrities of Aupens have purely organically organically and not paid-and has made it a success in a segment that is normally dominated by the Louis Vuittons and Chanels in the world.

“When I started, I sent aupen to everyone I knew,” laughs Tan, pointing out how western countries and celebrities – not Singapore or Asian Kols – made a famous one for the first time. “I think it has to do with the openness of the West – how they are more open to new ideas and brands.” Tan, who studied biology in Harvard, agrees that his time in the United States made it possible for him to think and explore various career paths and to promote an ambitious attitude that believed that everything and everything was possible.