If you find yourself in Singapore’s pastel-hued Joo Chiat neighborhood, wander into the collector Alvin Yapp’s home to visit the Intan, a museum on the ground floor. There, you’ll find two regal, engraved rosewood armchairs with mother-of-pearl inlay.
The chairs are part of Mr. Yapp’s emporium-like display of Peranakan design, which includes jewelry, teak benches and cabinets, and colorful kitchenware. Mr. Yapp has been accumulating this collection for more than 30 years to both document and showcase the culture in which he was raised.
Peranakans are descendants of Chinese settlers who traveled down the Strait of Malacca as early as the 15th century, making their new homes throughout Southeast Asia and marrying local women. The term Peranakan translates to “local born” in Malay, one of Singapore’s official languages, and the culture that emerged in their communities combines Chinese, Malay and Indonesian elements. It comes through in the food, design, architecture and more.
Signs of Peranakan heritage have long been evident in Singapore’s cityscape and public life — in the colorful shophouses that line neighborhoods like Joo Chait and the stalls in busy hawker centers that sell laksa, a spicy, tangy noodle soup. Classic Peranakan patterns, marked by colorful geometric designs that incorporate Art Deco elements or Chinese-influenced floral, fruit or animal motifs, have inspired crafts and clothing, including Singapore Airlines’ flight attendant uniforms. You can even buy Intan-themed tumblers designed by Mr. Yapp at Starbucks locations across the city-state.
Though nothing from the collection at Mr. Yapp’s museum is for sale, there are many great places where you can browse and buy vibrant Peranakan designs.
clothing
Rumah Kim Choo
111 East Coast Road, Katong
More than five centuries of geopolitics have informed what the kebaya — a style of long-sleeved, tailored blouse — looks like today. If you visit his second-floor studio, the designer Raymond Wong can provide you a crash course on how colonization, increased trade, immigration and economics led to changes in fabrics, colors and embroidery designs.
Now, Mr. Wong is committed to updating kebayas for the 21st century. In his studio and retail outpost, he fashions kebayas with elaborate, detailed embroidery depicting fish, insects, flowers, or mythical creatures like dragons and phoenixes along the neckline, sleeves and bottom hem. This embroidery, he explains, is a defining feature of classic Peranakan-Chinese fashion. Mr. Wong often receives commissions for high-end pieces or costumes for films, and he made a traditional Peranakan shawl for Michelle Obama in 2016. But he also features off-the-rack items, like batik sarongs (28 to 280 Singapore dollars, or about $21 to $211) and kebaya tops (280 to 680 dollars).
Jewelry and accessories
Asian Artistry
Two locations at Jewel Changi Airport
When Francis Ngau’s grandfather arrived in Singapore from China in 1925, goldsmiths in the Little India neighborhood taught him how to make jewelry. He opened a modest shop in 1933 and taught the craft to his son, who taught Mr. Ngau and his brother. Today, Mr. Ngau owns and runs two jewelry shops at Jewel, the shopping and entertainment complex at Changi Airport, where he sells pieces like rings, earrings, pendants and brooches adorned with gem-encrusted flowers, feathers, hummingbirds and peacocks (from 350 to 15,000 dollars).
Traditional Peranakan elements play a key role in his designs. Mr. Ngau is professorial and enthusiastic when he explains the hallmarks of the jewelry and accessories, like “abundance,” meaning surfaces are filled with intricate designs, and rounded edges, which symbolize harmony, unity and nature.
home décor
Peranakan Tiles Gallery
37 Pagoda Street, Chinatown
Walking into the Peranakan Tiles Gallery, on a pedestrian street in bustling Chinatown, is like entering a life-size kaleidoscope. It’s packed with more than 30,000 colorful tiles adorned with designs like Islamic-style geometric patterns, dragons, birds, flowers and European-inspired landscapes. The tiles, historically made in Belgium and England, have become symbols of affluence in Southeast Asia.
Its Indonesian-Peranakan curator and owner, Victor Lim, started salvaging tiles in the 1970s from demolished shophouses, live/work buildings often built in the late 1800s and early 1900s and known for their detailed ornamentation. Though many of the remaining shophouses are heritage-protected, Mr. Lim continues to salvage tiles (38 to 960 dollars), which go through a weekslong soaking-cleaning-polishing process. His factory has also produced replicas since 2001 (6 to 12.50 dollars).
clothing
Kebaya by Ratianah
23 Bussorah Street, Kampong Gelam
To hear the designer and owner Ratianah Tahir explain it, when you buy a kebaya, not only are you purchasing a stylish blouse, you’re also acquiring a symbol of Singapore’s history as well as a prospective heirloom. Her boutique features kebayas of various lengths in a spectrum of colors, with different kinds of embroidered patterns.
Ms. Tahir emphasizes a kebaya’s versatility — “It can be worn with jeans or with a sarong, a traditional long wraparound skirt, for more formal occasions” — as well as its heritage. “Women have kebayas that have been in their family for 100 years,” Ms. Tahir said. “When I put on a kebaya, I’m reminded of all the ladies who wore it before and their struggles to be equal.”
Beadwork
Rumah Bebe
113 East Coast Road, Katong
Beaded slippers are a touchstone of Peranakan fashion. Creating them involves painstakingly stitching minuscule glass seed beads one by one onto a fabric base in intricate, pointillistic patterns. In her workshop and store, in a 1920s-era shophouse, Bebe Seet preserves this dying art form. On any given day, you’ll find her at a wooden table with small dishes of various colors of shimmering beads. Watching her is like observing a surgeon at work.
The level of craftsmanship may be exquisite, but visiting Rumah Bebe, Ms. Seet’s store, is no fussy affair. You can buy Peranakan interpretations of traditional dishes like beef rendang, otak-otak (aromatic fish cakes) and tapioca cakes in Nyonya Nosh, the parlor-like cafe in the front room. Then browse the shoes (150 to 2,500 dollars) and bags (350 to 500 dollars) featuring her beaded designs. A chat with Ms. Seet is a casual exchange that can encompass topics like how, centuries ago, a woman’s embroidery skills were seen as a measure of her potential to be a good wife. Ms. Seet, who wrote a book about beading, is cheerful and modest as she nimbly maneuvers a needle and one- and two-millimeter beads. Conspicuously absent? A magnifying glass.
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