The Editor’s Market flagship at Takashimaya Shopping Centre has shuttered for good

The space formerly occupied by The Editor’s Market is now hoarded

Opened four years ago to considerable shopper interest, The Editor’s Market’s flagship store at Takashimaya Shopping Centre has closed. A massive hoarding across the entire frontage greeted us this morning when we visited the mall. There was no announcement of what would come next. Just three weeks ago, the store was in the throes of a massive sale, and they were packing in the crowds. But there was no announcement, as far as we were aware, of their business in the mall closing down. Although onThe Editor’s Market Facebook page, visitors are told to “find our stores” in five other malls, the brand’s freestanding shops can currently be found in only two: at JEM and Tampines One.

That is a considerable reduction of more than 50 percent of their physical stores. When we asked the staff at Takashimaya Shopping Centre’s information counter, now almost obscured by a Dolce & Gabanna pop-up, when The Editor’s Market moved out, we were told that the store was “closed sometime last week. Many customers have asked us about that too.” The Singapore-based clothier did not make any announcements on their socials. One SOTD reader told us that she passed by the store two weeks ago and the “business was good”. Although not their customer, she said that she was surprised to see that “the shop was are boarded up” when she went to the mall for lunch days ago.

The in-mall directory at Takashimay Shopping Centre no longer identifies the space formerly occupied by The Editor’s market (top righthand corner)

We asked the guy who manned the information counter if the brand could have moved elsewhere else within the centre (brands are often offered alternative space by landlords, such as the Kim Robinson salon, which is now on the third level of TSC), he said, “I don’t think so”, helpfully adding, “customers also mentioned that their 313 store was closed. I checked and, yes, they are not there anymore.” Could the fengshui of this 8,000 sq ft corner of basement one of the mall be inauspicious, as some observers wondered. The unit was formerly occupied by Zara, which closed in 2021. When The Editor’s market opened in October of that year, we did think that it was rather audacious of them to take such a massive space.

The Editor’s Market did not start as such a big player as it now is. Their backstory can be traced to a stall in Far East Plaza in 2002. Back then, they were cheerfully known as Hula & Co. But as the business grew, they became The Editor’s Market in 2010, with a huge store in Orchard Cineleisure. Although now quite dead, Orchard Cineleisure was rather the hub where youths visited to shop for trendy fashions, and The Editor’s Market was one of the must-stops. Despite scant noticeable improvement in the design and make of their products, the brand seemed to have found for themselves a niche, especially among the young set who wanted something other than Love, Bonito. Their flagship store at Takashimaya Shopping Centre was visibly busy and blooming. Not anymore.