In a small little post on Instagram, the Japanese clothier hinted that it’d be back on our island. This time, will it stay?

The one post an hour ago on a new Instagram page, beams_singapore, showed an image of a red pack of tissues. On it was a textual graphic in white that read: “Choped by Beams”. They got the colours right, and the message too. This is one of Japan’s most popular fashion retailers communicating with us in both our visual and textual lingo, capturing that specific intersection of Japanese efficiency and Singaporean territorialism. In the comment section, it cheekily asked, “Mind if we take a seat? Hello from Tokyo.” On the page’s bio, it says, “See you soon.” Nothing ambiguous about that. Beams will be back. Exactly when we don’t know, yet.

This won’t be the first time Beams returns. The clothier has an on-again, off-again relationship with our city-state. Beams debuted in Singapore in 2014 at the long-closed Kapok (a Hong Kong multi-label retailer) in the National Design Centre, Middle Road. It was a one-month pop-up and then it was no more. But the line did not entirely exit our island. The menswear store Colony Clothing at UE Square continued to carry the brand. We can’t say with certainty if it was a permanent arrangement. But the Japanese-owned, Singapore-based stockist did bring Beams back in the form of another pop-up at Takashimaya Shopping Centre in 2019, just before the COVID pandemic struck.

We don’t remember Beams as a pop-up or freestanding store since then. Since 2014, they did and still have their own retail space in Bangkok, the first Southeast Asian city to host the brand. It was opened in conjunction with The Mall Group, operators of EmQuartier and Paragon. The question that keeps lingering in our minds: why does Bangkok get Beams and we don’t (just as they have the sneaker store Atmos)? What does it say about our city as a shopping paradise that we keep telling ourselves that we are? For now and fans of Beams, its comeback is the shot of espresso this decaf retail scene desperately needed.

Screen shot: beams_singapore/Instagram