Free Flowing

Fern Chua talks about her creativity, latest with The Balvenie and more collaboration

- Aaron Pereira

Batik artist Fern Chua is known for her wonderful illustrations, which can be seen on the items she designs for her label, Fern Batik Collective.

She started the business back in 2013, after delving into batik design as a form of physiotherapy, following a car accident. And what began as rehabilitation, eventually grew into a brand which champions our local traditional art.

By exploring unconventional tools to experimenting with different elements, Chua’s art comes to life via different inspirations and executions which boil down to her distinctive style and artistic interpretation at that particular moment.

Starting off with batik clothing collections, and then opening the brand’s first brick and mortar in 2019 at Bangsar, the label has come a long way since. Now it even produces bespoke lifestyle goods such as jewellery, accessories, and home decor items.

On top of that, Chua also runs workshops, and her skill has seen a number of other brands as well as organisations engage with her homegrown label.