No Place Like Home

If you’re looking to host the perfect locavore dinner party, seek out these five brands offering tableware, fine cutlery and kitchen accessories that are part celebration of Singaporean iconography, part oh-so-pretty conversation starters.

- Kenneth Lee

ONLEWO

It’s tempting to dismiss table runners as frivolous objects, but they play an important part in dressing up your dinner table by adding colour, texture and, in this case, a touch of local heritage. Onlewo’s range of table runners (from $125) feature unapologetically oldfangled designs with recurring Peranakan motifs (read: spoons, flowers and more) as well as nostalgic movie stubs of yesteryear.

onlewo.com

ONG SHUNMUGAM

Founder Priscilla Shunmugam grew her eponymous fashionwear label, Ong Shunmugam, in 2019 with the Suvarnabumi homeware line. She has moved from show-stopping modcheongsams to ceramics, and most recently, rattan – which served as her muse during lockdown in London last year. One of these oeuvres is the humble dining chair ($599). It’s a regional interplay of materials – Malaysia-harvested natural rattan for the frame, synthetic Indonesian rattan for the hand-woven seat featuring an indigenous Iban pattern, and Chinese jacquard for the cushioned backrest.