How Ong Shunmugam celebrates Southeast Asia’s heritage, culture and textiles in its designs

Did these places inspire you when you were founding your brand?
Ong Shunmugam is a project about bringing heritage from the past into the future, so it is beyond [any particular] time or place. But if there’s any place that merges the cultural and historical nuances across Asia and Asian diaspora, it’s likely to be Malaysia or Singapore. They both struggle with not just post-colonial identities but also with immigrant societies that keep evolving. I wanted to create a label that’s sensitive to these complexities, and I’ve had the…