The name GESEHO rings a bell if you’ve been following Singapore’s streetwear culture scene long enough. Their range of workwear products brings back the garage & customs subculture vibes. They had been featured in online sites like Hypebeast, Freshnessmag and Streething. We’re more than glad to have a chance to dig up some untold stories from the man behind the brand.
Let’s start with an introduction of yourself.
My name is Tony Tay. Mastermind of GESEHO. Advocate of local street culture (streetwear).
GESEHO Motor Works sounds like an automobile company. What was it about?
GESEHO Motor Works is a car garage that does car repairing & spray-painting work. It was the birthplace of GESEHO apparel. The brand started out in a small office space inside the garage. To get to the garage, it’s a 10 minutes walk from the main road right to the far end of an industrial estate. Customers will have to go through all the mess in the garage to just to get their hands on our products and we only operate on Sunday for a couple of hours. However, we are no longer operating at the garage. GESEHO only available online now.
What does GESEHO mean and what made you chose that name?
The name came from the car garage GESEHO Motor Works and i presume it meant something like “Everything will be Good” in some dialect. Anyway, that’s not the only reason why the name GESEHO is chosen. I like the idea of how it doesn’t suggest anything about the brand and it definitely did not sound like another American brand.
Would share a little about the process of the production?
I do all the design work for GESEHO. Our tees are printed locally and most of the times ourselves. All the cut & sew process are produced by factories overseas. Now we shifted back in Singapore and working with local seamstress now.
What was the outcome of the business?
Based on the way we position our brand, our operations and such, we are quite happy with how it turned out. Although the brand isn’t big in the market, we manage to reach out to our targeted audiences and that’s how we wanted it.
Were there sufficient support from the masses to “rep” your products?
There were a good handful of supporters repping our brand. We didn’t really want everyone on the street rocking our stuff. We still want the brand to be curated and sharing it with like-minded people. But unfortunately, it isn’t sufficient for us to run the business on a full – pledge basis.
Who were your greatest influences?
I guess I’m the greatest influence for GESEHO. It’s a very personal thing. Whatever that inspires me will be reinterpreted and presented in GESEHO.
The concept behind the brand.
Our brand takes on the daily work in the garage as a metaphor to craft and shape our local street culture in streetwear aspect. Keeping the idea of individualism in mind, GESEHO continues to make clothing for those who share the same philosophy.
Is Visual Terrorist a subsidiary project made up recently?
Visual Terrorist existed way before GESEHO started. We were on it during our days in the United States. The project started right after the 9/11 incident and it had it’s own stories to tell. Check out www.visualterrorist.com.
How do you think you’ve contributed to the Singapore Streetwear culture?
Here are my two cents opinion: Just with our brand alone, it won’t be making any impact on Singapore’s streetwear culture. To establish our local streetwear culture, we need everyone coming together as one to build it. We see a lot of local brands come and go throughout the years. Every brand is fighting their own battle for sustainability. Without a community of brands standing together, we won’t see a culture and needless to say, we don’t have sufficient supporters for local underground brands. Many will probably fall back into the hype just to fit in with the current trend and their gang of friends.
Lastly, any shout out?
We can’t stress this enough. Calling out to all local streetwear brand owners and young thugs who want to start a brand but not knowing where to start, reach out for one another. No brand alone will be able to conquer the local market and claim the “culture”. Unless you got tons of money to buy themselves a “culture”.
https://www.instagram.com/visualterrorist/
https://www.instagram.com/geseho/
(As the Covid 19 situation is still taking place, we’ve decided to do this in an E -Interview format instead of filming it.)
All photographs by GESEHO.
Interviewed by Ogy One Kenobi
SUAVE CARTEL MEDIA Original Series “BEHIND THE BRAND”
suavecartelmedia.com 