Elyn Wong, 40, Founder and Fashion Designer of Stolen

As the founder and creative director of home-grown fashion label Stolen, it’s safe to say that Elyn knows how to make a woman feel beautiful.

“The Stolen woman is is an extraordinary species. Beautiful in her simplicity, yet complex in her unmistakable allure. My pieces reflect this, as they juxtapose the curves of a woman’s sensuality with geometric architecture, depicting her strength,” she explains.

Her daring aesthetic, which includes sexy backless dresses that have become Elyn’s signature, has attracted a steady stream of fiercely loyal fans; and what began as a pet project for Elyn in 2007 has slowly but surely grown beyond the boundaries of Singapore.

A graduate of Visual Communication and trained in graphic design, Elyn actually got her start in the advertising industry.

“I was in the advertising executive for 16 years and I never, ever imagined myself in fashion,” she confesses.

“The reason I started the label was because of my insecurity. As a creative person, I also felt that even though I was in advertising I should be able to create anything. So I challenged myself to design a fashion line.”

What began as a challenge quickly turned into a passion for Elyn as she married garment construction with architecture and installation art resulting in home-grown fashion label, Stolen.

The brand, which turns 10 this year, has come leaps and bounds since its inception.

With stockists in the US, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Kuwait, Stolen also had the distinction of participating in TMRW, a showcase featuring emerging designers from around the world during New York Fashion Week in the spring and summer of 2014.

“Just getting into this showcase was one of my proudest moments as a designer,” she confides.

“It’s highly, highly curated and I had to go through three to four rounds of screening. So to be one of only 20 brands of emerging designers, featured from around the world, meant I was doing something right.”

Other accolades include being handpicked as the only representative for fashion from Singapore participating in Singapore: InsideOut – an international travelling showcase to Beijing, London and New York, and being selected for the Tiong Bahru Heritage Trail, where the label was commissioned by Singapore’s National Heritage Board to design a limited edition tote bag.

Words to live by: “Don’t overthink. When you think too much about how things are going to pan out, that’s when fear sets in.”

Next up: “My vision for Stolen is to push the brand as a product of art and fashion, and to demonstrate to Singapore’s fashion industry that this initiative can be achieved.”

The Great Women Of Our Time 2017 is proudly presented by Lancôme.