Singapore’s undeserved reputation for being dull is, mercifully, mostly behind it. Anyone who has visited recently will have seen those long-promised green shoots of growth and sophistication bearing lush fruit in everything from hospitality and design to entrepreneurship. Plus, doesn’t being safe, steady and predictable seem rather appealing today, given the fractious global backdrop?
 
But there’s a thorny issue that still threatens the country’s success. Having finally achieved the cultural and creative cachet it craved, Singapore’s budding restaurant, retail and hotel scenes had a slower-than-hoped-for Q1. Rent rises from private developers and landlords are now fast outstripping what smaller businesses say that they can comfortably afford.

When good businesses on tight margins go under in a squeeze, it’s often the neighbourhood that pays the price. Once-thriving Tiong Bahru has lost some of its former lustre and you only need to look as far as the sad closure of the Thambi Magazine Store in Holland Village to see how one lively independent operator – of more than 80 years’ standing – can unite and delight an area, then leave it wanting when it’s gone.
 
The issue of peaking rental prices was unavoidable among the people I spoke to on a recent reporting trip with our Asia editor, James Chambers. One Singapore-based owner of a Japanese clothing brand told us about staging a trunk show in Seoul to test the market as costs soared at home. Two others in the hospitality trade spoke of upcoming trips to Jakarta to scope out spaces where their money could go further (both near Plaza Indonesia, if you’re looking yourself).

Luckily, some solutions are close at hand. Our trip to New Bahru – a handsome school-turned-shopping precinct – is a lesson in what decent, walkable, human-scale design that brings local brands together can do for footfall (plenty). Owned by The Lo & Behold Group, the space’s 40 or so tenants include a great bookshop, a spa, restaurants, multi-brand stores and places to drink that offer daylong allure. It’s a blueprint for designing a destination from scratch and keeping the creatives close. A much-anticipated phase two opens next year.

Over dinner at Marcy’s on Duxton Road I discussed the matter with the seafood bistro’s owner, Goh Tong Hann, who returned to his native Singapore after a stint in New York and is now patiently building a small but influential F&B outfit called Pleasurecraft Group. While he insists that his success has been a matter of luck, Hann has also demonstrated a handy resourcefulness. Rather than forking out for expensive refits, for instance, he has put his talents into designing the restaurants (see Chinese restaurant Maggie’s for a flavour) and has quickly pivoted on concepts and spaces that weren’t working. It’s a post-pandemic success story among all too many less fortunate ones.
 
To see where rampant price inflation leads, you need only wander through one of the umpteen over-air-conditioned malls stuffed with samey international shops that have little in the way of personality. If Singapore wants to remain an exciting place to eat, drink and shop – and end the lazy chatter about it being boring once and for all – then it can’t afford to overlook the cost conundrum. It’s the city’s vibrancy that will suffer if rents continue to rise unchallenged.
 
Fehnert is Monocle’s editor. For more on the New Bahru development, read our report here. And for tips to help you get the most out of your stay in Singapore, read our City Guide.

Over the past decade I have attended my fair share of conferences while making The Urbanist podcast (writes Carlota Rebelo). But this week’s event in Rotterdam was the first that I’ve been to where attendees, speakers and organisers stripped off next to each other. No, it wasn’t that kind of event – rather the inaugural Swimmable Cities Summit, which opened with a splash in the Rijnhaven, one of the oldest ports on the Nieuwe Maas river and one that has been transformed into a floating public square.

Over three days, some 200 people from 30 nations came together to discuss how swimming could help to improve people’s quality of life. “By the time a city is swimmable, it is more climate resilient, healthier and more equitable,” says Matt Sykes, co-founder of Swimmable Cities. “The right to swim is deeply connected to the wellbeing of future generations.” The event was a powerful reminder of the role that water can play in breaking down barriers in urban settings. Once you dive in, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an elected official or a schoolchild: you’re all treading the same water. As attendees returned to dry land, it was clear that any previous inhibitions had been washed away and bonds had started to form. 
 
Want to dive in? Pick up a copy of ‘Sun & Swim: A Monocle Guide’ today. Or watch Monocle’s film on a day spent with swim club Flussbad Oberer Letten in Zürich.

The Arabian Gulf was wide awake on Monday night as shaky footage of Iranian missiles over Qatari skies filled our screens (writes Inzamam Rashid). While it was one of the politest acts of aggression ever witnessed, the region’s centres of commerce, from Doha to Dubai, are rightly concerned. Iran had launched a carefully telegraphed barrage of missiles at the US military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar – home to some 10,000 American personnel – in retaliation for Washington’s strike on three of its nuclear sites over the weekend. Doha had been given advance notice and residents knew that something was coming when the country’s airspace was closed and the US and UK embassies told all citizens to remain indoors. Then, a spectacle unfolded in the sky: striking and surreal but ultimately bloodless.

The mood in Dubai is a little more introspective today – not tense or fearful so much as eerie. There’s the usual rush into the financial district; bookings for brunches and beach clubs haven’t been cancelled; the school run continues. But people are walking a little more slowly and perhaps even speaking a tad more quietly. Everyone was glued to their phones last night because, this time, it felt different. It was right above us. 

In Doha, I’m told that the mood is less serene. Flights are resuming but the city remains on high alert – and it must. The Qatari government is balancing too many delicate relationships – with the US, Hamas and Iran – and now dealing with the prospect of incoming missiles. Qatar has played the middleman better than most countries over the years but the best middlemen know when things are getting too hot.

To read the full article, click here.

A decade after launching his Tokyo-based brand, Auralee, Kobe-born designer Ryota Iwai is hitting his stride (writes Fiona Wilson). Auralee has earned a reputation for its masterful use of colour, meticulous tailoring and quality. This is elegant, modern luxury – all made to Iwai’s exacting specifications. With stockists around the world and a flagship in the Japanese capital, the label is now attracting global attention. Auralee has also become a fixture on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar; its runway show at the Musée des Archives Nationales last night was not to be missed.

Tell us about the new collection.
You’ll see a variety of leather items (including suede and smooth leather), premium wool and cashmere, along with garment-dyed and garment-washed pieces. The brand’s signature sophisticated heather tones and mustard yellows are part of a colour palette that shifts from the heavy hues of winter to lighter, brighter summer colours.

How does it feel to be returning to Paris on the established calendar?
I always feel nervous and a bit anxious. But having worked on the show for six months, I’m excited about how it will come together. The French capital is still the centre of fashion. Paris Fashion Week is the most global and well-attended event of its kind, so I feel that it is the best place for us.
 
Any key pieces that define the collection?
Cashmere suits and shirts, hand-sewn coats, silk organdy skirts and dresses.

To read the full interview with Iwai, click here.