The Mom-Trotter

An entrepreneur with a finger in almost every pie and a new mom, Charlotte Chen is also a seasoned globetrotter.

- Jessica Chan

Charlotte Chen grew up surrounded by fashion. Her late mother was Hong Kong fashion designer Rowena Yu, while her father was in the garment business. It made perfect sense for her to give up her investment banking job to satisfy her creative streak to co-found Spottly, a photo-based travel app that allows fellow travellers to see the world as she and her influencer friends, like Earn Chen, do. Not only did Spottly earned the title of Best New App across 15 countries on iTunes, it became the stepping stone for her next venture, Empyr+co; the consultancy helped luxury brands, including The Hour Glass and Tod’s, attract younger, more tech-savvy customers. Her success caught the eye of Dior Cosmetics and Pernod Ricard in Hong Kong, who engaged her to manage their product launch campaigns.

Today, the 34-year-old fronts Everyday for Every Body, her brand of non-toxic personal care products. But it was last year when she took on the biggest project – motherhood. However, she still finds time for travelling, whether it’s a ski vacation to Hakuba or a holiday spent sauntering through the streets of Brooklyn in her trusty Sacai jacket.

You were just in Hakuba for a winter holiday with your family. Tell us more. 

We stayed at Hakuba Goryu Snow Resort for its more advanced ski courses, but also drove to Hakuba Happo-One Winter Resort near Mount Karamatsu. It was a three-and-a-half-hour car ride from Tokyo and worth every second. The skies were painted a beautiful, cloudless blue for the entirety of our trip.