Behind the brand name JeannieRichard is a husband and wife duo hailing from Singapore. They design handmade jewelry that are distinctly modern yet classic and trendy for any given fashion phase. Their designs are intended to rise to your occasion, daily styling and even become your sentimental heirloom. Learn more how this emerging designer team started their business:
1. Tell us about yourself!
We are a husband and wife tandem, thus the brand name JeannieRichard.
Being the gentleman that he is and like they always say, ‘ladies first’ – my name came first.
We are both creative individuals and know not what else to do than to create.
We’ve known each other since 1992 and practically grew up together experiencing and learning
everything together. But do not be mistaken that we are two peas in a pod!
Fundamentally, we share the same in beliefs with regards to spirituality, life and values.
Superficially, we have our differences like Jeannie is a tea person while Richard is a coffee man,
Jeannie loves the sea while Richard loves the mountains, Jeannie keeps the curtains open while
Richard keeps them closed, Jeannie hates onions while Richard can’t stand raisins, Jeannie is the
relaxed half while Richard’s funny face is for Jeannie exclusively… lol!
That is exactly what keeps us together because it combines us in so many ways where either one of
us is lacking – making a balance in our relationship.
And it has undoubtedly been an underlining driving force of push and pull in our personal and
working lives as one union.
Baby Love Knot Necklace @ $60 & Baby Love Knot Earrings @ $15
2. Have you always been interested in fashion?
Indeed it has always been!
Jeannie’s mother was formally trained in fashion and merchandise, thus the exposure to fashion
lifestyle started early. Sketches of fashion drawings was a pastime for Jeannie as a child, which
accompanied her days being the only child. While Richard has always had his own unique sense of
fashion style, the first time we went on a date (he was 15), he wore red converse hi-cut shoes, and I
was “Wow, this guy is not afraid to express!” Back then in singapore, fashion for males is totally non-
existent and being fashionable was almost a taboo in the image of machoism.
We evolved together over the years, of course. There is a fine line demarcating the concept of fashion
and tasteful style. Fashion is all about being trendy at that point in time, but we need to tastefully
style it to flatter our character. For it is a tool of expression without having to speak, it is a
presentation of us to strangers in 3 seconds.
Infinity Love Rings @ $35 each
3. When did you first get involved in design and what are your influences?
Quite stumped here because its like we’ve been designing since we were kids.
Officially in terms of bread and butter? When Jeannie headed a web development team in an IT SME
in 2000 and Paul Rand definitely played a huge influence in her art direction.
Richard is a slightly different case, if design not only pertains to visual, I would say he designed
sound – music. Being the songbird of the two, Richard is classically trained in music though more
old school jazz by soul. He started singing before learning to talk!
Music is a very big part of our lives, with our music library genre spanning from classical, country,
folk, traditional to metal, rock, rap, disco, pop, etc... jazz remains the number one on our all-time hit
parade :)
Life has its way of teaching us, it certainly has been one roller coaster ride for us in many aspects.
During the last few years of running our design advertising SOHO since 2002, we felt the yearning to
return to work with our hands - at least with something that is not solely computer-dependent.
So here again, we are combining – fashion + music, both very influential mediums that would
manifest a style for us to create.
4. What was your inspiration behind your collection?
ASAP. As Simple As Possible, that’s how Richard wittingly puts it!
Not so much an inspiration but a artistic belief.
It is quite impossible to pin point an inspiration, as the vision of our designs so very often appears in
our mind’s eye by His divine willing. But always, it is ASAP because we believe it should endure and
stand above through the ever-changing and rotating trends. A design must be able to become a
recognizable icon, image, brand. We suppose, in that, is the inspiration behind our collection – our
jewelry pieces must be memorable to the owner, that through our jewelry, it evokes pleasant
memories of her life... how our jewelry becomes so intuitively a part of her life and possibly even
passed on to her loved ones.