Chelsea Scott-Blackhall Set To Take On The World

She pounded the pavement for years before her fashion brand hit Hollywood’s red carpet, but Dzojchen founder and designer Chelsea Scott-Blackhall always knew her label was destined for stellar heights. Melainne Chiew gets the story

- Melainne Chiew

Chelsea Scott-Blackhall is riding on a high. While her fashion brand Dzojchen has had a presence among the Hollywood crowd – dressing the likes of Johnny Depp, and Lenny and Zoe Kravitz, to name a few – it was Black Panther lead actor Chadwick Boseman who brought a new buzz to the label when he showed up at the Asian premiere of the film in Seoul last February in a Dzojchen embroidered kimono-style suit, and subsequently in a Dzojchen bomber jacket on the February cover of Time magazine. A slew of other celebs have since stepped out in Dzojchen: rising star Michael B Jordan, singer-songwriter Janelle Monae, model Sofia Richie, actresses Anne Hathaway and Priyanka Chopra... the list goes on.

But even before the celebrity endorsements, Chelsea always firmly believed her label would get somewhere. Launched in 2012, Dzojchen (pronounced “doh‑jen”) was first iterated as a denim brand, reflecting Chelsea’s personal passion for the fabric and its versatility. She started incorporating fabrics of exceptional quality into her designs, evolving the label into a line of luxury menswear and womenswear. “When you bootstrap a company, you have to build within your means. Denim was something I understood, and had an opinion and a vision about; I saw it as a good place to start. When we had the means to expand, we did,” explains the Singaporean Eurasian, who turns 37 next month.

“Having earned our stripes and learned many a hard and harsh lesson in this industry, I took the plunge and restructured Dzojchen into a luxury label in 2018. That meant a full clean-up of our distribution and a price restructure, positioning us alongside brands such as Haider Ackermann, celine, The Row, Tom Ford and Balenciaga. This worked in our favour, and we started to dress stars last year, and some, such as Ryan Gosling and Blake Lively, even contacted us to produce custom designs.”