From skin to sketchbook to wall

by Arnaud | Oct 2, 2026 | Design

5 min read

From skin to sketchbook to wall

This one is personal.
For the opening of Strawberry Fields at JAM in PJ, we are launching our very first artist collaboration,
with Jefr of Jefr Studio.

LISETTE

At the centre of it is the Gustavia superba, often called the Heaven Lotus. It is an extraordinary tropical flower, with an explosion of stamens at its centre and petals opening around them almost like a firework. There is something beautifully extravagant about it. A flower that refuses to be quiet. This particular flower has been part of our family for some time.

It is tattooed on my arm. It is tattooed on my daughter’s arm. The same flower, carried by two generations. And now we handed it to Jefr.

He took something already deeply personal to us and pushed it somewhere completely new, reworking the Heaven Lotus through his own graphic language and transforming it into a piece of art.

On Saturday, that artwork becomes a mural, painted live by Jefr at Strawberry Fields. It also becomes a small collection of objects: hand silk-screened T-shirts, bags, pillowcases, an embroidered cap and a limited series of artworks that Jeff will sign on the day.

Pins and keychains will follow in the weeks to come.

Jefr took it off our arms and gave it another life.

From tattoo to art. From art to wall. And now, something you can take home.

Launching this Saturday at Strawberry Fields, JAM, Petaling Jaya.

I’m not a fridge magnet

by Arnaud | Oct 2, 2026 | Travel

5 min read

I'm not a fridge magnet

About a month ago, I made a T-shirt with a tennis racket on it.
Someone looked at it and asked, “Could you put the Twin Towers on the T-shirt?”

LISETTE

I looked at him and said, “Do I look like a fridge magnet?”

I was joking, obviously, but there is something in that.
Why does something Malaysian automatically need the Twin Towers on it? Why does everything need a bunga raya? The minute we want to make something “Malaysian”, we seem to reach for the same handful of symbols. There is so much more around us, including all the completely ordinary things that perhaps say much more about where we live.

Which brings me, strangely enough, to a plate. I haven’t actually visited the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore yet. I went to the museum shop. Museum shops are one of my favourite pastimes in any city. Sometimes I spend longer in the shop than I do in the museum, which probably says something about me.

This one is particularly dangerous. I found these extraordinary porcelain plates by Singapore design brand Supermama. Beautiful blue-and-white porcelain, some produced in Arita, Japan, where they have been making porcelain for centuries. The quality is gorgeous, the packaging is gorgeous, everything is beautifully considered.

But what really got me was what they chose to put on the plates.

An HDB flat. A chess table from underneath an HDB block. Singapore’s otters. Completely normal things that people probably walk past every day without even noticing them.
Suddenly an HDB flat is sitting on beautiful Arita porcelain, looking terribly important. I love that.

For me, that is good design. You don’t have to make something exotic or glamorous to make it interesting. Sometimes you just have to look properly at what is already there.

We do this a lot at nala too. We have always drawn the slightly banal, slightly funny, very Malaysian things around us because they are part of our visual language. The red plastic chair is a perfect example. There is nothing glamorous about a red plastic chair, but somehow everybody knows exactly what it is and where they have seen one.

The museum shop was a bit of a wake-up call for me because the standard is so high. Singapore does have a habit of doing that.

Now I’m thinking perhaps I need to call Arita. Imagine our Malaysia on really beautiful porcelain. Not tourist-brochure Malaysia. The Malaysia we actually live in. The plastic chair, the kopitiam cup, the packet of nasi lemak, the pasar bag, the mamak table. All those ordinary things that make you smile because you recognise them immediately.

Maybe I’ll put the Twin Towers on the bottom.

Next time I’m in Singapore, on 8 October, I am actually going inside the museum. The Asian Civilisations Museum is currently showing Crosscurrents: Masterpieces of Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman Art from the Musée du Louvre, bringing around 100 works from the Louvre together with pieces from ACM’s own collection. It runs until 24 January 2027, so there is still plenty of time to see it.

I’ll report back. Assuming I make it past the shop.

The Initial Idea

by Arnaud | Oct 2, 2026 | Culture

5 min read

The Initial Idea

I’ve always loved personalisation.
We used to do it a lot at nala, and somewhere along the way, I forgot about it.
More importantly, I forgot how happy it makes me.

LISETTE

It’s such a simple thing. One little initial. But somehow, it makes all the difference. Something that everybody has suddenly becomes unmistakably yours.

And nowhere is this more useful than with our Shupatto bags.

In my family, my daughters, my friends and I all seem to have the same ones. They get left in cars, thrown into handbags, taken to the supermarket, borrowed and occasionally never returned. Very quickly, nobody knows whose is whose.

So I started personalising mine.
One initial. That’s it. And I love it.

There are two ways to do it. You can choose a curly letter, which is softer and more playful, or fileteado, a bold capital letter. Same initial, two completely different personalities.

A little letter. A little more you.
And, in my family at least, no more arguments over whose Shupatto it is.

A NOTE TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS

For the month of October, enjoy one complimentary personalised initial with the online purchase of any of our three Shupatto shopper tote bags.

When placing your order, simply leave us a personal note telling us which letter you would like and whether you prefer curly or fileteado.

Online only.

Calling for a comeback

by Arnaud | Oct 2, 2026 | Taste

5 min read

Calling for a comeback

Translating my personal paintings into wearable art for the first time marks a proud creative milestone, successfully blending the soul of the original canvas with the precision of a silkscreened skirt.

LISETTE

Last Sunday, I invited fifteen of our longest-standing nala clients in Singapore for high tea at nala Great World.

Some of them have been with us since 2017. We had scones from my favourite little bakery, strawberries and clotted cream, champagne, tea and kuih We talked about nala, what they love, what they would like more of, what they miss and what we could do better. Everyone was wonderfully honest.

I also introduced our new ALOHA collection, we had a Q&A, we laughed a lot, and somewhere along the way it stopped feeling like an event and started feeling more like a family gathering.

At the end of the afternoon, everyone received a little set of compliments cards. And that’s when something funny happened.

Everyone of a certain age knew exactly what they were. My younger team members had absolutely no idea.

“What’s a compliments card?”

It had never occurred to me that something so familiar to me could almost disappear in one generation.

The calling card has been around for centuries. You would leave one at someone’s home to say you had called, sometimes whether they were home or not. There were rules and rituals around them, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, when leaving your card was simply part of social etiquette.

Compliments cards and correspondence cards came from a similar world. Small, beautifully printed cards, often bearing your name or initials, with just enough room for a few handwritten words.

You might send one with flowers after being invited for dinner. You might tuck one into a gift. Or simply write a few words to thank someone for something kind they had done.
No essay. No long letter.
KJust a proper thank you. Perhaps it is old-fashioned. But I rather like old-fashioned things when they are good things.

Because today we can send a heart, a thumbs-up or a quick “thank youuuuu” in about three seconds. And we do.

But there is something completely different about choosing a card, picking up a pen, writing someone’s name and thinking about what you actually want to say.
It takes a little longer.
Which is precisely the point.

So when my younger team looked at these cards as though I had handed them some mysterious object from another century, I thought perhaps we shouldn’t let this one disappear.

I’m calling for a comeback.
Of the calling card, of the handwritten thank you, and of taking a few extra minutes to let someone know that they mattered.

See you at Strawberry Fields

by Arnaud | Oct 2, 2026 | Events

5 min read

See you at Strawberry Fields

This Saturday is the big one.

LISETTE

After our little soft opening, Strawberry Fields is officially opening at JAM, PJ, and I am incredibly proud of what we have made.

We’re launching our new streetwear collection and our collaboration with Jefr of JEFR Studio. Jefr will be there creating a live mural on the day, so you’ll actually get to watch the work come to life.

There will be music, street art, strawberries, refreshments and, naturally, peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Because really, what’s JAM without strawberries?

And we have a little something for you too.

RSVP before you come and receive a limited-edition Strawberry bag with any purchase on the day. We only made a small number of them, so once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Saturday, 3 October
11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Strawberry Fields at JAM, PJ
15 Jalan 13/6, Seksyen 13, Petaling Jaya

I can’t wait for you to see it all. The shop, the collection, Jeff’s work, the strawberries, the whole thing.

I’m very proud of this one.

See you at JAM. And don’t forget to RSVP.

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