Creative moonlighting

Text: Annie Tan

Audrey Hong: A wardrobe from waste

A taste of Europe’s vibrant thrifting scene sparked the NTU alumna's passion in sustainable fashion, leading her to set up a chain of stores selling pre-loved clothes in Singapore.

Audrey started her brand as an NTU student and has since grown the brand into a thriving business with three physical stores.

Three years ago, Audrey Hong was among the first batch of NTU undergraduates to go on a student exchange programme when pandemic restrictions eased. The business student chose to go to the Netherlands.

“It was spring and the sun was out. There were a lot of thrift pop-ups. People set up picnic mats in football fields selling curated clothes to clear out their closets,” recalls the 24-year-old. With the Netherlands as her base, Audrey also travelled around Europe, discovering a vibrant thrifting scene. 

After returning from Europe, Audrey started selling pre-loved clothes sourced from Asian countries via Instagram and an online store from July 2022. In less than two years, her passion project would grow into a thriving business with three physical outlets and 22 part-time staff. 

Upon graduating in 2023, Audrey joined L'Oreal as a management trainee, crunching numbers and analysing financial data to support L’Oreal in big picture strategising. She divides her time between working in her full-time job from 9am to 6pm and managing her shops from 6pm to 9pm. And she won’t have it any other way. Thrifting has after all been a big part of Audrey’s way of life since she learnt about climate change, Singapore’s fast-filling landfills and the amount of clothes discarded in the name of fashion in secondary school. 

She called her brand Un.Wastelands; the online venture grew into a physical shop. 

More in store

Javier Tan: Care and confections

A management associate at the National Healthcare Group, he also runs a popular baking blog. 

 Javier Tan (left) with his baker friends. 

Every Monday, Javier Tan’s work bag is loaded with treats – rainbow sprinkles cake, avocado brownies, pandan hot milk cake, and more. For the past seven years, the affable young alumnus has been giving away his bakes to friends and colleagues. 

No, Javier does not run a bake shop. Neither is he a pâtissier. Javier works as a management associate at the National Healthcare Group (NHG).

As part of his day job, he supports major healthcare programmes, examines service quality trends and runs patient feedback, sometimes staying after hours to support urgent enquiries such as patients’ loved ones enquiring about emergency services.

It is a job he loves. But when off-duty, he mixes flour, butter and fresh ingredients to create fusion recipes of his own. He shares these on his blog, Bakeomaniac.

Mixing business with pleasure

Since he started blogging in 2017, he has grown a community of nearly 50,000 on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook combined. Last year alone, he had 25 to 30 brand partnerships, pocketing him a four-figure sum outside his day job.

This passion project doesn’t only invigorate him, but has opened new doors in his career and professional growth.

In his second year at NTU in 2019, his baking blog scored him his first internship. What began as a partnership to create chunky monkey cookies with Hey! Chips’ evolved into a threemonth stint doing marketing and sales.

The 27-year-old was invited on CNA’s Talking Point to give his insights on the nutritional value of biscuits in 2021, as well as on Channel 8 to demonstrate how to make cookies in 2022. He has also been invited to TikTok’s headquarters in Singapore for community engagement events.

All these experiences equipped the science graduate with the communications skills to pivot to his current role at NHG. They also unlocked career opportunities for him. In the first month at his current job, Javier was given the opportunity to conduct a video interview with Prof Philip Choo, Group CEO of NHG.

“The communication skills that I learnt for my side project apply to my full-time job and vice versa. It has been quite synergistic.”

As a biological sciences major who pursued communications modules, Javier’s education at NTU supported his diverse passions and growth. He also served as president of the NTU Food Craft and Fermentation Club, where he used to conduct small baking workshops regularly.

“My time at NTU has given me a lot of confidence through managing a large club, and the opportunity to work with peers and to receive their feedback," he says.

This is something he shares with current NTU undergraduates at bi-annual career sharing sessions. “Many science students think that they are destined for the lab. This is not true. You do not have to follow a linear path to achieve your career aspirations. I encourage them to build their skill sets and secure the internships that they want in different ways,” says Javier.

Beatrice Tan: The art of self-expression

A sports manager by day, national footballer by evening, and art shop entrepreneur at weekends, Beatrice talks about her multi-faceted approach to finding identity, purpose and fulfilment.

Beatrice Tan is a sports manager at Deloitte, one of the big four accounting firms. In the day, she works with different business units in Deloitte to help clients in the sports industry across Southeast Asia with auditing and consulting work.

Come evening, she changes into her football jersey and trains tirelessly as goalkeeper for the Lion City Sailors Football Club and the Singapore women’s national team.

If there is one thing most people won’t guess about the 32-year-old sport science and management graduate, it is this: “People think I like football more than anything. But art is my first love and passion. I find that I can express myself better with shapes and colours than with words,” she says.

Creating patterned products is her form of self-expression. Her brand, The Patternholic, is done in collaboration with her over 90-year-old grandmother.

Art is Beatrice's first love and a way for her to express herself.

Every weekend, Beatrice spends a few hours holed up in her bedroom studio drawing on her iPad. It is a visual diary of all the things she loves, from her pet rabbit to her yoga practice. She turns her drawings into patterns, and sends them to manufacturers in Indonesia who turn them into cotton poplin fabric. Together with her grandmother, she then cuts up large swathes and sends them to small local businesses where they are turned into cute beeswax wraps for leftover food, fabric cup holders, coin pouches and baby products. At any one point, her bedroom is piled with 30 metres of printed fabric.

An all-rounder

Beatrice shares that perseverance and resilience are two things her football and NTU journey have taught her.

“In the national football, I was the backup goalkeeper for a long time. I started training with the national team in 2014, but only got to represent the country for the first time in 2016. After that, it was a few years before I got to represent Singapore again.”

“It can be very discouraging to train day in and day out, only to get the chance to represent the nation once in a while. But I know that rejection is part of life and that it is important for growth. And I’m always someone who shows up,” adds the shot stopper.

She reflects that her NTU experience and hall life gave her the opportunity to pursue her diverse passions, such as sport science and management, football and art, concurrently. It also taught her to manage her time better.

“There is no one aspect in life that is so huge that it is prioritised. I don’t find that one thing defines me. I enjoy a lot of different things. It just makes life more fulfilling,” she shares.

This article first appeared in issue 5 of U, the NTU alumni magazine.