ART DIRECTION BY JOYCE LIM / MAKE-UP BY WAN NING & RACHEL WONG / HAIR BY ANGELINE LOW & RACHEL WONG
She’s a furniture designer.
Which in her case means hours are spent on the workshop floor, seven days a week, working in sweat to make sure exacting measurements are kept as precise as possible.
“Not even guys can deal with the stuffy factory heat. You can specify your design and carefully explain your chosen materials, but if you’re not there to watch how the workers are putting your design together, chances are they’ll get it wrong. Even if they say, ‘yes boss, no problem!’”
Her ride is a customised Porsche Cayman S.
And she’s always loved cars. Driving a BMW Z4 previously, I ask if she likes normal-ish cars that don’t immediately scream ‘look at me!’.
“I wouldn’t mind a Maserati. But I’d have to have a tonne of spare cash lying around. I don’t think Italian cars are easy to maintain.”
Just in case you’re wondering how Tan got her start; Caccina, the company she designs for and now leads, is a home-grown brand started by her mother and uncle. Which sounds cushy.
Except many years ago, a massive fire ripped through their factory, taking the lives of several workers and said uncle’s younger brother who had just come aboard.
Debtors, clients and suppliers were soon knocking on their doors.
“You’ll never guess the first thing my uncle did. He bought a new calculator and determined how much was owed and what he needed to do to turn things around.”
“Through it all, we never considered declaring bankruptcy. Even when everyone around us said Caccina was finished. We stuck by each other and worked it out. That’s what it takes to make it in business,” she explains on a side note.
Want to build a business and drive a supercar of your own?
Get ready for the side notes folks. Caccina recently partnered with famed local fashion designer, Melinda Looi, in a one-of-a-kind collaborative project for the KL Fashion Week.
