Southeast Asian fashion brand Love, Bonito has opened its first pop-up store in the U.S., opting for New York City to make its American physical retail debut.
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Located in SoHo, the new Love, Bonito pop-up looks to bring Southeast Asian style to women in New York, signifying a major step towards the Singapore fashion brand’s global expansion outside of Asia.
The New York pop-up comes three years after Love, Bonito’s international website debut in 2019. In 2022, the brand experienced strong organic traction and achieved 60 percent growth, solely from online orders.
“Over the years, we have mastered the fit for the Asian female and successfully replicated this across various clothing lines to offer women apparels suited for varying seasons in life. As the business grew, we saw increasing momentum from the U.S. and we knew that we had an untapped and meaningful opportunity to explore,” said Dione Song, CEO of Love, Bonito.
“Today, we’ve come full circle and are right here in the U.S. to serve the under-represented diverse, Asian-American community. This forms part of our larger strategy on the international expansion front, where we hope to provide customers in our high-growth markets the experience of being in a Love, Bonito store.”
Founded in 2005, Love, Bonito started out as a digitally native blogshop BonitoChico, on a Livejournal platform selling pre-loved apparels. In 2010, it rebranded to Love, Bonito, and expanded to neighbouring countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia. In 2017, the brand’s first brick-and-mortar store was launched in Singapore and since then, it has expanded to 18 physical retail stores across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. In addition to its physical stores, it currently ships to 20 markets internationally.
Looking ahead, Love, Bonito said it aims to double down on its omnichannel expansion in key markets namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong, and perform further market research for delving deeper in the U.S. and the Philippines retail landscapes.
The Love, Bonito New York pop-up is open now and will run until December 31.