As the founders of Le Petit Society and parents of two little girls, Robyn and Dylan’s lives are filled with all the excitement and pressure that comes with starting a new family and owning a brand created from scratch. This week, we took a chance between the official opening party of our new store – Le Petit Society “In Real Life” Concept Store and new collection launches to dig into our roots and ask Robyn and Dylan a few questions about the new store in town!

1. For the benefit of those who are new to the brand, what was your main motivation in starting Le Petit Society?

When we conceptualised Le Petit Society in 2012, we were not married then and had no kids, but we were frustrated by the lack of good quality and well-priced options when shopping for children's clothing for our friends and families. It didn’t make sense to us that most better known kids clothing brands were from the US or Europe when the manufacturing base was largely in Asia. We felt that there was a gap in the market and definitely room for Asian brands that offer the same level of quality and style, at a more competitive price.

Through Robyn’s frequent business trips to China at that time, we also learnt that China was in the midst of abolishing its one-child policy, which it did officially in 2015. We wanted to be positioned for this demographic shift.

Many things have changed since then. Being parents now makes us understand our business even better and Le Petit Society progressed along with our personal journey. What remains unchanged is our goal to create versatile and well-crafted clothes for children that journey with them from the moment they arrive in this world as newborns, to the time they step out as spirited young individuals. 

2. How do you get inspiration for your collections?

All our clothes are designed in-house. We have a team of designers who are trained in graphics, textiles and pattern-making, and our prints are mostly hand-drawn before they are transferred onto fabrics to be made into shirts or dresses. Each new style goes through various rounds of sampling and testing to ensure durability and comfort before making it to our store.

Inspiration for our designs come from a mixture of what our kids and our customers’ kids are drawn to, what we as adults like – so nothing too childish or cartoony – and what makes sense cost-wise as we want to offer clothing that are good value products.

3. Everyone is talking about the booming online business! What made Le Petit Society go the opposite direction and opened a brick and mortar store? 

Robyn - We asked ourselves, what if we could create a physical store that brought the digital and real world together, to create an all-rounded customer experience? One that bridges the gap between URL and IRL (In Real Life). This is what we have set out to do with our first store in Singapore's CBD area. 

Dylan - Our first Le Petit Society "In Real Life" retail store will be non-traditional and we strongly believe that it will be a norm for retailers in the future to provide a unified customer experience both for shopping online or buying in store. We want to bring the same high level of customer service that we provide online to new customers who will discover us in our first physical shop. They will find the same store return policies for both online or in-store, have the option to shop our entire catalog online even if the item is not displayed in the store.

We want to offer that exceptional convenience to however our customers want to shop. For example with the new physical shop, customers can also now buy online and choose if they want to pick up their items in our physical store. This way they save on shipping and also do not have to wait for their packages to arrive at their home and much less worry if they aren't home to receive packages. When they need to buy a gift, they can do so at our new store to customise their gift and we can help them deliver to their friends hassle free, anywhere in the world.

4. Why Singapore and how did you choose Downtown Gallery?

We were invited by OUE to view some spaces in their mall as they were looking for new brands with innovative concepts to add to the vibrancy of Downtown Gallery. As we embarked on our 5th year, we asked ourselves what we were missing as a brand and the answer was a physical store that brought the digital and real world together.

Above image: The "before" image taken on our first visit to the site in October 2016. It was an entirely raw space without any electrical wires, lighting or aircon ducts. The floor, walls and ceilings were all bare.

Above image: The "after" image taken in June 2017, a month after the store's soft launch.

We share the vision that the CBD area of Singapore will evolve to include more lifestyle and retail services over the years to come. It is also an area that we are both very familiar with coming from a finance background as this is where we used to work! Due to the international nature of the workforce here, the worldwide delivery services that our store offers is a lot more relevant because our customers can step into our shop at Downtown Gallery, as they may online, to purchase a gift and have it shipped anywhere else in the world. Delivery charges are the same both online and at our physical shop; for instance, we ship for free everywhere in Asia for purchases above SGD 100.

At Downtown Gallery, we do not carry excessive inventory or past season products. However, if a customer wishes to purchase something that is available online but unavailable at Downtown Gallery, we will deliver the item to their home or office without additional charges.

Last but not least, we have been expanding our offering for adult clothing, especially focusing on family outfits as well as maternity friendly clothing. Having a physical shop will allow our customers to try on these pieces before deciding if to purchase.

5. Take us through the thought process in designing the Le Petit Society IRL store.

The design of the store revolves around one of our brand messages, Party to Playground to Playpen, a message that resonates deeply within our brand as our clothes are often seen across different occasions, be it at a party or playground, and are all comfortable enough to sleep in! The layout of the clothes and merchandise in the store follow the themes of party clothes and accessories, casual street/playground fashion and baby clothes and toys.

For this concept store, we experimented with a new colour palette involving blue, salmon pink and copper tones. We also customised our own baby and kids hangers in rose gold plating as well as paper bags. We offer gift wrapping services with reusable gift boxes at the store (as well as online) but these paper bags are cute enough to hold gifts even without gift wrapping in a box!

6. Tell me more about what you love in the Le Petit Society IRL store?

Interactive space::

We created a “playpen” structure in the middle of the shop which serves as the exploratory playground space for kids. It has a little door/window that kids crawl through, and little bookshelves that serve as seats for little ones. We also brought in Chinese books to keep the little ones occupied and we plan to organise storytelling sessions within this space from time to time.

Buy online, pick up in store ::

We are loving these little “mailboxes” where online packages meant to be self-collected are stored, waiting to be picked up by our customers!

Brands We Love ::

We have been curating brands from around the world, so our customers have a greater variety to shop from other than clothing. With a physical space now, we brought in more brands that we love, this time round focusing on local brands. For instance, we now have jewelry for adults from Curious Creatures, teething toys and accessories from Annie + Alex, Chinese books specially curated by Flip for Joy and travel journals for both adults and kids by Travel Bandits. Other international brands we carry both online and in-store include Milk & Soda, Hubble + Duke, Fjallraven, Naif, Lil’ Creatures, Malaya Organics, White Moose, Sun Jellies, Esthex, Jellycat, Gold Frankincense & Myrrh and Pretty Brave.

7. What tips do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Don't try to turn your hobby into a business. Turn your business into your passion.

8. Can you let us in on some future plans for Le Petit Society?

In the digital space, we will be making our website more user-friendly for international customers by accepting more currencies including USD, RMB and HKD, on top of SGD. We have also been expanding our footprints internationally, with online stockists in Shanghai, Sydney and Greece.

In the physical space, we may start exploring a franchise model after we have created a blueprint of our first store at Downtown Gallery. We are currently also looking into stocking in brick and mortar shops in China and Indonesia.

Our dream is to see Le Petit Society clothing and stores across Asia one day!

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Le Petit Society “In Real Life” Store Details

Address: #03-10, Downtown Gallery, 6 Shenton Way, Singapore

Contact: 62246288

Opening Hours: 11 am to 7 pm Monday to Friday  

As we are still in the soft launch stage, the store is only open on weekdays for the time being. If you would like to visit over the weekend, please drop us an email at

[email protected]!