Carrying Singapore Forward: A Founder’s Reflection on Our Singapore Airlines Jewellery Collaboration
When Singapore Airlines first approached us in 2017 to create a jade jewellery collection for KrisShop, the brief was not simply to design something beautiful. They asked us to tell a story. One that could hold both the identity of Singapore Airlines and the spirit of Singapore itself. One that could travel.
At the time, we understood it as a responsibility and an opportunity to do what we had always done best: translating heritage into form.
Nearly a decade later, as the Batik Jade (2017) and Emblem Jade (2019) collections return for a brief moment, it feels important to reflect on what that trust meant, and why these pieces continue to matter.
When the Invitation Came
In 2017, Singapore Airlines invited us to create a jewellery collection for KrisShop. They wanted pieces that could carry meaning, that spoke to where Singapore comes from, and how it presents itself to the world. Pieces that could sit naturally within the Singapore Airlines universe, while still feeling unmistakably rooted in place.
At the time, I did not yet have the words for what we were creating. I only knew that we were trying to make something that symbolised home. I still remember tracing those first sketches by hand, watching the silver catch the morning light, the studio just beginning to stir.
2017. Early sketches of the Batik Jade Collection, where ideas of Singapore took form in silver and jade.
The Women Who Inspired Us
When we began sketching the Batik Jade collection, I was not thinking about global reach or commercial success. I was thinking of the women I grew up observing every time we flew. Women who carried themselves with ease and assurance, whose presence became one of Singapore’s most recognisable ambassadors.
They embodied what we hoped our jewellery could one day express: elegance, warmth, and most importantly, a sense of belonging that travelled with them.
The Singapore Airlines Sarong Kebaya, a timeless emblem of grace that inspired the Batik Jade motif.
Learning to Speak in Two Languages
After the Batik Jade Collection, our inspiration shifted from textiles to architecture and place.
For the Emblem Jade Collection, we turned our attention to the Peranakan tiles of Joo Chiat, a neighbourhood recognised by UNESCO for its cultural significance, and home to my family for five generations. These tiles carry layers of history through geometry and colour, woven into everyday life.
Peranakan tile geometry from Joo Chiat, interpreted through form and restraint.
Designing within Singapore Airlines’ brief, while drawing from a place so central to our own, sharpened our ability to tell two stories at once. It taught us how to honour another institution’s identity without losing our own, and how heritage can be expressed through proportion and structure rather than overt symbolism.
Through this collaboration, we learned that storytelling in jewellery does not require grandeur. It can live in alignment, finish, and the smallest considered details.
2019. The Emblem Jade Collection.
A Foundation That Endured
Looking back now, it is clear that these two collections shaped the foundation of our craft.
They defined how we approach symbolism. How we think about wearability. How we allow jade to behave naturally on the body. They taught us how to hold multiple narratives within a single piece, without forcing meaning. They were early expressions of what Choo Yilin would continue to become.
The Emblem Jade Collection, heritage carried through structure and proportion.
Returning With Perspective
In the years since, our craft has evolved. Our understanding of materials has deepened. That growth is reflected in the refined reissue of these four designs.
The essence remains unchanged, but every line and proportion has been revisited with greater clarity. Not to modernise them, but to honour them with the benefit of time and experience.
The Choo Yilin Batik Jade Necklace and Earrings, 2026. The refined reissue. The same designs, shaped by years of learning.
A Brief Return
These four pieces return now as jewellery that has already lived a life, and been shaped by everything we have learned since.
They carry the story of a collaboration rooted in trust. Of a homegrown global icon entrusting its narrative to a homegrown jewellery house. Of Singapore told through craft, and carried into the world. Revisited with greater clarity and care, they reflect not a return to the past, but a deeper understanding of the work itself.
From 30 April to 3 May, they return. Then, as they were always intended to do, they continue their journey with you.
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