How Singapore brand Aupen took the fashion world by storm: founder Nicholas Tan explains the creation of instant ‘It' bag the Nirvana – which boasts fans including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé
It's nearly 8pm on a Saturday night when I suddenly realise what the hype surrounding Aupen – the viral Singaporean bag brand that counts
Taylor Swift and
Olivia Rodrigo among its fans – is all about. Upstairs on the second floor of an intimate, albeit crowded, restaurant, I plop an Aupen purse down on a tiny dinner table, immediately taken aback by how it sits perfectly upright and looks so visually arresting in the process – built to stand up as much as it is built to stand out. Subtle but seductive – attracting attention without really asking for it.
Early fan Taylor Swift carries Aupen's Nirvana bag as she and Travis Kelce depart an SNL party in New York City, in October 2023. Photo: GC Images
That's exactly as Nicholas Tan, only recently revealed to be the brains behind the brand, would have it. When I first started seeing Aupen's arm candy on A-listers two years ago, no one even knew it was a Singaporean brand, let alone who its enigmatic founder might be. Since Aupen's official launch in late 2022, details surrounding both the brand and its founder's identity have been kept top secret. This is presumably to drum up interest in the bags themselves, but it also makes a point about what kind of brand Aupen is – in essence, one that generates buzz because it doesn't try to. Quiet marketing for quiet luxury, so to speak, operating solely on the basis of word of mouth, social media sleuths and the 'if you know, you know' mentality.
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Just a few days prior I had the opportunity to meet with Tan in Hong Kong to find out more about the man behind the mystery and discuss Aupen's meteoric rise to 'It bag' brand status. 'We wanted to create a silhouette that would be timeless and not focused on having logos,' he tells me casually, looking as cool and effortless as the bags themselves. 'Something simple and sleek, such that if a girl was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, she could just pop this on and make the entire … outfit immediately stand out.'
Nirvana bag in ash by Aupen. Photo: Handout
You can't put someone like Tan in a box. The former national swimmer for Singapore is tall, strikingly handsome and could easily pass for a model – yet another vocation Tan has dabbled in over the years – but surprisingly has no formal design training. In other words, he's completely unlike what many people had in mind for a brand so low-key and reserved, and also not the first person who'd come to mind when thinking of a fashion brand founder. That's perfectly OK with Tan, who appears content with and even excited to be doing things differently, proving people wrong, and setting new expectations for what a bag brand – and a proudly Singaporean one, at that – should do.
One of the golden charms that counterbalance the asymmetrical shape of the Nirvana bag. Photo: Handout
'When we design our bags, we want them to be sculptural,' he says, slinging Aupen's signature Nirvana bag – made in an asymmetrical shape with a golden, detachable charm acting as a counterweight on the slimmer end – over his shoulder. 'This is a little different from some bags that are crossbody, or just completely collapse. When you put it on the table, you can put it next to your coffee and take a photo.'
It's this kind of storytelling through silhouettes that first gave the brand near-instant global recognition – Tan proudly claims that all of Aupen's celebrity endorsements are purely organic, not paid for – and has helped make it a success in a segment usually dominated by the Louis Vuittons and Chanels of the world.
Tate McRae and Olivia Rodrigo, toting an Aupen bag, leave the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles after a Lakers game. Photo: Flash/Backgrid
'When I started I sent Aupen to everyone I knew,' Tan laughs, pointing out how Western countries and celebrities – not Singaporean or Asian KOLs – first made Aupen famous. 'I do think it has to do with the openness of the West – how they are more open to new ideas and brands.' Tan, who studied biology at Harvard, agrees that his time in the US allowed him to ponder and explore different career paths, fostering an ambitious mindset that led him to believe that anything and everything was possible.
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