You complete me.
Couples are having a moment. Cue O.G. celebrity lovebirds Bennifer, fashion-loving duo Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, and TV’s complicated couple Miranda and Che.
But there’s another kind of love story we heart as well – the one that involves two creatives coming together as one. Ahead, we speak to four couples hailing from the fields of fashion, design and art on how work and personal lives intersect.
What is one aspect of your partner’s creativity you wish you could possess, and why?
Nicole Liew (NL): “The way that he adapts really quickly, he’s super quick-minded and fast in carrying out his actions without a doubt.”
Douglas Tan (DT): “The ability to make every stage her own. You should see her model.”
What is the most challenging thing about being with someone from the creative scene?
NL: “Personally nothing, because I still think we’re from different scenes and ultimately do different things.”
DT: “You know creative people don’t play by the rules.”
Have you influenced each other’s working styles throughout your relationship?
NL: “Yes, Douglas is super hardworking when it comes to creating content and that rubs off on me.”
DT: “Yes definitely, I take pride in making sure my work delivers, and working with Nic allows me to achieve greater heights. I often ask for her opinion because I value it.”
Credit: Livia TaslimHave you influenced each other’s personal style?
NL: “For sure, I’m practically Douglas’s personal stylist! He has evolved his fashion in line with mine, we actually love leaving the house wearing similar styles.”
DT: “I honestly dress more and more like her everyday.”
What kind of style do you most love to see your partner in?
NL: “He can never go wrong with a T-shirt & pants.”
DT: “Anything comfortable and chic!”
How has your partner changed you as a person?
NL: “He made me view love differently. This love is very gentle and nurturing — I’ve become as happy go lucky and positive as he is and I think my friends can vouch that I’m very smitten by him.”
DT: “I’m usually a closed-up person and it takes a while for me to warm up to others. After spending time with Nic, I am able to tap into my emotions, process them, and validate my feelings so much more. It’s safe to say that I see things from a new and better perspective now.”
Faris Heizer and Aisha Rosli are high school sweethearts who met in 2016 while pursuing their Fine Arts diploma at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and have been together since. The two work as individual figurative artists, but have once come together for a duo show — Diptych — at Coda Culture in 2019. Although they are independent art practitioners, the pair share a common goal: to expand their audience and exhibit beyond the walls of Singapore.
Have you influenced each other’s working styles throughout your relationship?
Aisha Rosli (AR): “He has definitely influenced my work ethic. When he starts painting or gets in the zone, he never stops working and can stay concentrated for hours. For me, I take quite a number of breaks while painting or researching as I have a shorter attention span — but he motivates me to be more careful with time.”
Faris Heizer (FH): “I’ve picked up using certain painting mediums and trying out more experimental styles from her.”
What is one aspect of your partner’s creativity you wish you could possess, and why?
AR: “It’ll have to be Faris’s rendering when it comes to drawing or sketching a painting. He does it so seamlessly and efficiently. Faris has this unique style of rendering that’s obvious is his and I wish to have a style that people can spot easily as well.”
FH: “I would say her sense of colour. It’s one of the best traits she has as an artist and I’m slowly learning it from her.”
What is the most challenging thing about being with someone from the creative scene?
AR: “So far, it has been a strength instead of a challenge. I am thankful to have someone with similar goals and has big goals for our future. Having someone from the creative scene is nice because Faris is very understanding.”
FH: “Same here. It hasn’t really been a challenge to be with Aisha because I get motivated when she excels so it’s cool to be with someone like that.”
Credit: CourtesyHave you influenced each other’s personal style?
AR “When it comes to fashion, I think he’s better at it than I am! I usually make him choose an outfit for me and style me when I need to dress up. He knows best what is flattering on me and tends to have a specific aesthetic in mind. I usually go for a more effortless and comfortable style for my own outfits.”
FH: “I’ve always been interested in vintage styles and a baggier look. When we go shopping together I’m normally the one suggesting clothes to her, so her style naturally ends up blending in with mine.”
What kind of style do you most love to see your partner in?
AR: “I love Faris’ long hair. I love when he wears wide pants and a sweater or T-shirt with loafers. I like when his outfit is a bit feminine. I love how he doesn’t care if it’s women’s garments as long as it looks good on him. And I love that we can share clothes because of that!”
FH: “I love her chic and effortless look, but from time to time I love it when she wears a cocktail dress.”
How has your partner changed you as a person?
AR: “He has helped me a lot with my confidence and acknowledging my little achievements. Now, I’m slightly better at understanding myself as a person and not being too harsh on myself.”
FH: “I think I’ve learned to be a bit more grounded and patient thanks to Aisha.”
Danish designer Christian Hammer Juhl and his Singaporean partner Jade Chan met at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, where they both pursued their bachelor’s degrees. In 2018, they set up their design practice in Copenhagen – aptly named Christian + Jade. The sculptural objects they create are primarily crafted from aluminium and focus on rethinking and exploring our relationship with objects. Ask what their work dynamic is, and they gave quite a sports analogy: “Juhl is a tennis ball launcher machine shooting balls aimlessly, and Jade is the tennis player trying to hit them and give them direction — though they usually whizz right past her.”
Do you have any memorable projects together to share?
Christian Hammer Juhl (CHJ) and Jade Chan (JC): “If we had to share one it would be the first project we did together called Architecture for Fishes. We kept 20 different fish and attempted to design the ideal home environment for each of the fish species. We created toys, mazes, feeding tools for our fishes, and designed glass architectures for them based on their reactions.”
Have you influenced each other’s working styles throughout your relationship?
CHJ & JC: “Yes of course! That’s not something we have managed to escape. We work together, so we naturally begin to develop a common language and method that benefits both our ways of working.”
What is one aspect of your partner’s creativity you wish you could possess, and why?
JC: “I wish I had Christian’s imagination and obsessiveness to rethink and redo everything he does.”
CHJ: “I wish I had Jade’s ability and perseverance to go through with my own ideas.”
What is the most challenging thing about being with someone from the creative scene?
JC and CHJ: “We don’t see anything challenging about it, there are only plusses. You are able to share your interests and your work with someone who is equally excited about it! It’s nice to speak the same language both in ideas, form, colours, techniques and more.”
How has your partner changed you as a person?
CHJ: “How? I do not remember how I was before.”
Robin Lam and Beixin Lee run a three-year-old multidisciplinary creative studio called Beixin and Robin which specialises in creating dreamlike imagery and films. There, the two wear number of hats such as photographers, videographers, and creative directors. Some of the brands that have sought them out are Parkroyal Collection Pickering, National Parks Board and Uniqlo.
Do you have any memorable projects together to share?
Robin Lam (RL) and Beixin Lee (BL): “So many! One of the most memorable ones has to be our work trip for Tourism Western Australia. It was our first extensive work trip and we were filming a huge video project with just the two of us. Quite an epic experience and something we frequently look back on.”
Have you influenced each other’s working styles throughout your relationship? If so, how?
BL: “We have quite different working styles: I’m very much a perfectionist, which is good in some ways but can also be debilitating sometimes, whereas he’s much more relaxed. He’s helped me to learn to take it easy.”
RL: “Beixin is more detail-oriented and better at managing time than I am. I’ve definitely been influenced by her to hone those skills.”
What is one aspect of your partner’s creativity you wish you could possess, and why?
BL: “He’s extremely sure of his style in any form and I think that’s so cool.”
RL: “We’re both quite similar in the creative aspect, but one thing I wish to possess is her strength in language skills.”
What is the most challenging thing about being with someone from the creative scene?
BL: “It would probably be learning how to ‘switch off’ our work mode when we’re together. Both of us are so passionate about photography, videography, and nature, so we see creative opportunities everywhere we go. We’re still trying to find a balance between work and leisure.”
RL: “It doesn’t happen often, but once in a blue moon we’ll have different ideas and approaches to our work, which we’ll need to reconcile. We try to work that out by remaining communicative, open-minded, and flexible.”
Have you influenced each other’s personal style?
BL: “Our personal styles are quite similar, to begin with, actually! We love the same colour palette: whites, earth tones, blacks. We also tend to go for classic, functional pieces that will follow us through the seasons.”
RL: “I was definitely more of a minimalist, to begin with, and have managed to influence Beixin to buy and own fewer things. Nowadays we buy only what we need or really see ourselves owning and using for a long time.”
What kind of style do you most love to see your partner in?
BL: “I love Robin’s cold weather layering and styling.”
RL: “I love seeing Beixin in active, technical wear. She looks good, plus they’re comfortable too.”
How has your partner changed you as a person?
BL: “Robin has inspired and continues to inspire me in so many ways: to be braver, more adventurous, more carefree, and just have a lot more fun with life.”
RL: “Beixin’s a very kind and thoughtful person, so I’ve definitely learnt that from her. She’s also taught me to be more cautious since I tend to be a bit more reckless or careless.”
Jaime Loh and Ryan Drysdale are the well-dressed creative forces behind vintage menswear retailer Un Homme. The two have been together for a little over a year — the brand a little under — and in true new gen fashion, met on the very same online platform they now sell their garments on: Instagram. And did we mention, they take the cutest coordinated couple wear shots?
Have you influenced each other’s working styles throughout your relationship? If so, how?
Jaime Loh (JL): “I tend to be particular as a perfectionist and get very stressed out when I don’t meet our deadlines, but Ryan’s calm nature has helped us to meet our to-do list slowly but surely.”
Ryan Drysdale (RD): “It’s not always the most peaceful but we are trying to compromise and meet in the middle. So far it has been working out fairly okay I must say.”
What is one aspect of your partner’s creativity you wish you could possess?
JL: “Ryan does the styling for most of our photoshoots and I’d leave it to him to decide as he is very clear and particular with how he wants it to be.”
RD: “Her ability to think out of the box almost immediately when she gets stuck in a situation.”
What is the most challenging thing about being with someone from the creative scene?
JL: “There are instances when we wouldn’t agree on the same things but we’d still listen to each other’s opinions nonetheless, to make sure we don’t shut each other down.”
RD: “I feel that Jamie has the upper hand and more knowledge, so sometimes I feel like I’m lagging behind or I’m not doing things correctly.”
Have you influenced each other’s personal style?
JL: “We’ve always been interested in the same kind of styles even before we met each other and being together right now has definitely helped us to be more inspired which eventually led us to start Un Homme.”
RD: “I don’t quite think we did. We already had quite similar styles when we first met.”
What kind of style do you most love to see your partner in?
JL: “There’s no specific style but I really enjoy seeing how Ryan styles the same top or bottom differently every time; it doesn’t matter to him if anyone looks at him differently, he just embraces it!”
RD: “‘70s retro disco fever kinda vibe.”
How has your partner changed you as a person?
JL: “We always encourage each other to try new things and it has allowed us to step out of our own comfort zones individually.”
RD: “In many good ways actually, but one of the more prominent ways is how she guided me to better manage my time and plan ahead in order for me to stay on task and feel accomplished at the end of the day.”
