Fear, rest, repeat: How motoguo rebuilt itself

Just before work was due to begin on its Spring/Summer 2024 collection, the Malaysian label motoguo stopped. All three co-founders fell seriously ill, and some were hospitalized one after another over a few months. Their bodies, as they put it, made the decision for them. motoguo’s return came at Shanghai Fashion Week in March 2026. Co-founded in 2015 by creative directors Moto Guo and Kinder Eng with business partner Jay Perry Ang, the label showed its Fall/Winter 2026 collection in a showroom as part of the Shanghai Fashion Designers Association’s Creative Talent Program. Alongside it, the founders staged an exhibition titled “We Eat Fear for Breakfast!” in the Somekh Building. The label won the Future Force Award at the association’s inaugural New Wave Fashion Awards, which are backed by Dior and Moncler. Future Force was the second of three top prizes, behind the Visionary of the Year award won by designer Feng Chen Wang (王逢陈), and it came with a cash prize of 100,000 RMB ($13,793). A decade earlier, in 2016, motoguo had become the first Southeast Asian label named a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize. Called “Coming Soon,” the Fall/Winter 2026 collection is about anticipation. Eng drew on the 2006 road-trip comedy “Little Miss Sunshine,” and Guo told CNA Luxury that affirmation quotes run through the clothes. Grazia Malaysia described the gingham-checked lineup as an off-duty wardrobe for the Sailor Guardians, the heroines of the Japanese manga and anime series “Sailor Moon.” Seven months later, the label took its Spring/Summer 2027 collection, “The Alphabet,” to buyers at Tube Showroom, a multibrand wholesale space, during Shanghai Fashion Week. The showroom’s Spring/Summer 2027 sales campaign ran from October 9 to 14, and its ready-to-wear roster put motoguo alongside Chinese labels including Shushu/Tong and Jacques Wei. In one look that Eng shared on Instagram, a dress pairs a blue bodice and red puff sleeves with a yellow skirt. During the break, existing retail channels kept motoguo trading while the founders tested selling past seasons directly to customers. Between 2015 and 2019, the label had grown via wholesale, as orders from international stockists brought a young Malaysian brand customers it might not otherwise have reached. Some of those stores have since closed, and the founders now run wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales side by side. Their approach to China has changed too. The founders credit the market with a key role in the label’s growth, but after the pandemic, they said, the pace there had them chasing new opportunities before checking whether they had the capacity to deliver. Now they approach it more selectively, weighing what each opportunity does for the brand’s profile against what it adds commercially. In the interview below, the three founders answered Jing Daily’s questions jointly, covering the burnout that forced the break and what they would build differently if they were starting over. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. JD: Was there a single moment when motoguo’s founders knew they had to stop, or did the pressure of the fashion calendar build gradually? M: For years, we moved from one collection to the next, chasing deadlines, fashion weeks and opportunities. Keeping the brand moving left little room to ask where it was headed, or what the constant pressure was doing to us. Taking a break was a hard call after so many years of building something together, and the real wake-up call came just before we were due to start Spring/Summer 2024. All three co-founders fell seriously ill, with some of us hospitalized one after another over a few months, and our bodies seemed to make the decision before we could. That was when we realized that forcing another season for the sake of it served neither the brand nor us, since people behind a brand that could barely function cannot expect that brand to thrive. We used the time to re-center, physically and mentally, and to recover away from the fashion calendar’s constant pressure. That space let us reassess the business structure we had built, asking what worked and whether our way of operating could hold up long term. The break was about more than rest, since we wanted to make sure that our return would break the cycle [that stopped us] in the first place. JD: After years of nonstop collections, which part of the two-year break proved hardest for motoguo’s founders — the pressure on the business or something more personal? M: Probably a little of everything, since fashion makes you feel behind the moment a new collection stops coming. Another collection, another emerging designer, another brand doing something exciting, so the fear of fading or being forgotten came naturally, especially in an industry thriving on what’s new and what’s next. For sure, financial realities stayed in view, since responsibilities continue during a break. Even as the team stepped away from the seasonal calendar and new collections, motoguo kept operating. Retail channels kept the brand running while we explored the direct-to-consumer market, revisiting past seasons and testing new ways to present and sell existing pieces. That period let us watch how customers responded outside the usual seasonal cycle and understand our products and customers from a fresh perspective. On a personal level, we had to rediscover who we were beyond the constant cycle of collections. Life had revolved around motoguo for so long that stepping away meant learning to exist without constantly thinking about what to create next. We came to see the break as a different pace rather than a pause, one that let us focus on parts of the brand overlooked in the rush to produce something new. JD: What made it clear to motoguo’s founders that the time was right to return, and how did the label know it was ready? M: Honestly, we never felt completely ready, and waiting for everything to be perfect would’ve kept us on that break. In fact, what changed was a growing excitement about creating again, since we had ideas we wanted to explore and stories we wanted to tell, free from any deadline or fashion calendar. Readiness came when the excitement of creating something new began to outweigh the uncertainties of returning. So we returned with a clearer idea of the questions worth asking, even if the answers were still taking shape. Perhaps most important, we wanted to create again for the love of it, not because we had to. JD: Which business fundamentals slipped while motoguo’s founders focused on producing collections, and what has the team done to fix them since the break? M: Small independent labels can pour so much into the creative side that everything else slips, and we were no different, constantly developing collections, prepping shows, managing production and filling orders. Much of our business infrastructure grew as we went, shaped by necessity rather than careful planning. We came to see that key fundamentals, from financial planning and production management to inventory control and overall operations, had gone without the attention they deserved. In our earlier years, we reacted to opportunities and challenges as they came rather than planning ahead, and while that spontaneity worked creatively, it made for an unsustainable business. Chasing what came next often pulled our eyes away from what was happening behind the scenes. Today, we plan production quantities, cash flow and operational capacity around what the business can realistically support, and we choose opportunities more selectively, so that both ambition and resources stay balanced. We don’t say that we’ve magically fixed everything, as we’re still learning, but creativity and business belong in the same conversation and need to support each other for motoguo to keep growing in a meaningful way. After all, a good business needs more than a good collection, a lesson we wish that we’d learned a little earlier. JD: With some former stockists closed and direct-to-consumer sales under test, how different does motoguo’s business feel from its wholesale-led years between 2015 and 2019? M: Again, we’re learning to run a fashion label all over again, just with more experience and hopefully fewer questionable decisions. Between 2015 and 2019, wholesale was shaping how we understood the business, since buyers from international stores gave a young Malaysian label visibility, credibility and access to customers we might never have reached otherwise. The retail landscape is changing tremendously, since some of our old stockists have closed, consumer behavior is shifting with a new generation of shoppers, and earlier customers have naturally moved on to different tastes and lifestyles. Not to mention, watching long-established retailers shut their doors after the pandemic was frightening, and it made us realize how quickly things can change, even for businesses we once thought untouchable. So we’re finding that the same business model calls for a fresh approach as we return. Our downtime let us explore the direct-to-consumer market more seriously, and that experience is proving eye-opening, since we’re now understanding customers directly rather than relying on buyer feedback and orders, observing what people are drawn to, what they actually purchase and how they engage with past collections outside the seasonal retail cycle. That same process is showing us how different generations connect with motoguo and how we’re reaching new audiences while keeping the ones who have supported us over the years. We’re learning to appreciate data while keeping it in its place, using sales patterns as a guide without producing whatever the numbers suggest, since that approach would strip away the unpredictability and experimentation that give motoguo its character. Overall, finding a healthier balance between creative instinct and commercial understanding becomes the goal, something we gave too little attention in our earlier years. We’re keeping wholesale and the relationships we’ve built, while learning that a fashion label can reach its audience in more than one way. JD: China played a key role in motoguo’s growth, but its post-pandemic pace was hard to manage, so how are the founders matching demand with capacity? M: China has played a key role in motoguo’s growth, and we’re grateful for a market that keeps giving us room to experiment, collaborate and connect with an audience that genuinely appreciates our work. Also, China moves incredibly fast and stays fiercely competitive, since the post-pandemic pace kept accelerating and we were often chasing new opportunities before weighing whether we had the capacity and resources to manage them well. As a young label, we said yes to everything, but choosing our battles matters as much as taking chances. So now, we’re approaching China more selectively, weighing brand visibility against commercial growth, since understanding both helps us invest time and resources where they count. Thus, we’re keeping our ambitions and building a healthier balance with China, one where creative exploration and business support grow together. We’ve come to understand that opportunities serve different purposes, and we can choose which ones to pursue. JD: Before the hiatus, motoguo worked to a nonstop seasonal rhythm, so how does each founder define success for the label today, and what has changed? M: Earlier, success meant milestones like international stockists, fashion week shows and industry recognition, and coming from Malaysia, every opportunity validated the unconventional path we were building. Naturally, we kept chasing new markets and collections, so focused on how far motoguo could go that the business and its people sometimes grew at a different pace. Our definition of success has shifted, and while the ambitions remain, we’re more aware of what keeps them alive. Moto Guo: For me, success is about finding a healthier balance between creative freedom and commercial sustainability. In the earlier years, I was pushing creative boundaries, experimenting with ideas and constantly challenging what motoguo could become. Such a curiosity still drives me, though I now see that creativity flourishes on a strong business foundation. The goal today lies in ideas, translated into products, connecting with customers and growing the brand, all that could support my imagination and let me keep experimenting without constantly pressuring the business. Kinder Eng: Success is about continuing to evolve motoguo’s design language while finding more thoughtful and sustainable ways to bring those ideas to life. I see the creative process as extending beyond a beautiful design into how something is developed, produced and eventually experienced by people wearing it. So after years of translating our more ambitious ideas into reality, I have a strong appreciation for balancing experimentation with practicality, while keeping the details, humor and craftsmanship that make motoguo recognizable. Jay Perry Ang: Success means building a business carrying the brand’s creative ambitions for years to come. I used to measure growth by visibility, international recognition and how many opportunities came our way, and now I’m also weighing the value behind them: the partnerships worth building, the customer relationships worth deepening and a structure that lets us grow at a pace we can sustain. The commercial side of motoguo now actively feeds the creative side rather than simply keeping it alive. M: Across our different roles, we share the same ambition: to keep creating work that excites us while building a brand that stands on its own, creatively and commercially. Certainly, awards and international recognition still excite us, though we’ve learned that they work best as part of a wider measure of success. Success, for us, means making work that feels like us, reaching people who value it and building a business that keeps us energized. JD: How did returning to Shanghai Fashion Week through the Creative Talent Program in 2026 compare with showing the Spring/Summer 2020 collection there in 2019? M: Returning to a familiar place felt very different this time. Back in 2019, reflecting on our Spring/Summer 2020 collection in Shanghai, we were pushing ourselves further, creating bigger experiences and riding the momentum, often looking toward the next opportunity instead of appreciating how far motoguo had come. Coming back after two years felt like starting over as new designers, though this time we brought more experiences, a different perspective and plenty of useful baggage. Undeniably, nervousness came with the return, since the industry kept evolving while we were away, though the excitement of sharing our work again after reassessing the brand felt incredibly rewarding. We’re hungry to show our work, though the motivation shifted from proving motoguo still mattered toward rediscovering the excitement of creating and sharing something we believe in. Joining the New Wave Fashion Awards let us reintroduce motoguo with a renewed creative and business perspective, opening a new chapter that keeps the same spirit while carrying a clearer sense of direction. Back in 2019, we were excited about how far we could take motoguo, while this time we’re excited about how much more we still had to explore, and more grateful for the journey itself. JD: How did the ‘We Eat Fear for Breakfast!’ exhibition come together, and what did winning the Dior- and Moncler-backed Future Force Award mean for motoguo? M: “We Eat Fear for Breakfast!” has always captured a certain attitude within motoguo: playful, a little absurd and slightly overconfident, the same spirit behind our other line of “Be dangerous! It’s careful out there!” Beneath the humor lies something personal, since fear has always been part of our journey, from failure and financial uncertainty to creative rejection or simply not knowing what comes next, and as an independent label, we’ve spent years navigating uncertainty and taking chances. However, we chose to embrace those fears and turn them into something imaginative, building a universe around “We Eat Fear for Breakfast!” and treating fear as fuel for curiosity and humor. The concept let us revisit the whimsical storytelling, exaggerated characters, nostalgic references and twisted humor behind motoguo, creating a world playful on the surface while carrying a personal narrative underneath, reflecting our own journey of confronting uncertainty. Winning the Future Force Award felt incredibly encouraging, especially on a platform backed by Dior and Moncler, and we were genuinely grateful for that international recognition as a Malaysian label. The timing made the award especially meaningful, since after two years of questioning, reassessing and rebuilding, it reassured us that an audience still exists for this work and that we can keep evolving without losing the spirit of motoguo. Also, the award feels like encouragement rather than proof that we’ve figured everything out, and at the same time, the past few years taught us to approach growth and recognition with care and to keep external validation in perspective. Even [though] the award mattered, our bigger takeaway was more about realizing that we could return on our own terms, keeping the same imagination, humor, curiosity, with a better grasp of what sustains them. Overall, we’re still shaping the next chapter, with more challenges certainly to come, though we now have a better appetite for fear.

Fear, rest, repeat: How motoguo rebuilt itself

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Fear, rest, repeat: How motoguo rebuilt itself

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance