Necessity is often said to be the mother of invention, but for bridal designer Celest Thoi, it’s also the mother of creativity. She went into the bridal business when she couldn’t find a gown she liked for her own wedding.

“I had three weddings,” she says, stressing they were all to the same man. “My husband is from Malaysia but grew up in New Zealand while I’m from Singapore so we had a wedding in all three places,” says Thoi in her bridal showroom, a glittering and white fabric festooned space in a quiet corner of the labyrinth Publika in Kuala Lumpur. “Getting married inspired me to fall in love with the whole bridal industry.”