From mum of three to mumpreneur: How Suhana Ab built Singapore kidswear brand Maison Q for modern families

It was an ordinary morning in late January. At her desk in the Maison Q office in Tannery Lane, founder Suhana Ab, 45, was preoccupied setting the day’s agenda and getting her ducks in a row. Then came the email from Enterprise Singapore and CapitaLand.

“We are excited to announce that your concept has been chosen as the Winner of the Retail Maverick Challenge, and will be moving forward to implementation!”

Suhana did a double take. Did she really win? For Suhana, the emotions that washed over her were a mix of disbelief, excitement, relief, and pride. A dopamine hit if ever there was one.

Maison Q, her 10-year-old reversible kidswear brand, had just beat out more than 200 retailers to clinch the inaugural challenge’s top spot. Designer toymaking brand Mighty Jaxx was also named a winner. The open competition, launched in June 2025, sought to identify local retail brands with innovative store concepts. 

According to a joint statement released by Enterprise Singapore and CapitaLand, the two brands stood out for store concepts that offered immersive designs, customer co-creation experiences, and the innovative use of digital technology.

“What we wanted to do was to transform traditional retail from something that is transactional to something that is more experiential,” Suhana, a mother of three, told CNA Luxury. “That was in our deck, our pitch, and what we presented [to the two bodies].”

Winning the challenge came with tangible support, including a year’s rent-free space – in Raffles City, no less – and funding from Enterprise Singapore covering up to 50 per cent of setup costs, making it an especially compelling opportunity. 

But the real story wasn’t the win. It was everything that came before: The sleepless nights, the curveballs, the problem-solving, the grit, the stubborn decisions involved in quietly building a brand from the ground up.

“We presented sometime in October. It was in between two of my major [sales] events. The amount of stress I endured!” Suhana recalled. “When I walked into the boardroom, it was very intimidating. There were all these C-Suites and heads of departments. And they asked really difficult questions.

“It made me think about all my insecurities about the business, but they were very valid questions, because if you’re giving somebody that opportunity, you need to be in the know.” 

After the first presentation, her husband and business partner Fadhil Abdat – not one for easy praise – told her she had done a good job, which felt like a quiet win in itself. “I thought, okay, we did alright. I’ll leave the rest to God and just try,” Suhana said. 

When she was called back for a second round, she went in with a sense of calm acceptance. Whatever happens, happens. But she made it past both rounds and landed in the winner’s circle.

WHAT TO EXPECT AT MAISON Q RAFFLES CITY

Suhana described her upcoming store at Raffles City with a mix of excitement and nerves – a milestone that feels both exhilarating and daunting as Maison Q’s first proper brick-and-mortar space. It’s something she had long wanted, though her husband had previously been hesitant, citing the high cost of rent in Singapore. 

This time, however, the opportunity was too compelling to pass up, and, as she puts it, left little room for hesitation. 

The brand is known for its signature reversible clothing that offers two designs in one, providing “double the fun and twice the mileage”. Known for bold, whimsical prints and high-quality craftsmanship, the brand focuses on sustainable, comfortable clothing produced at their own family-owned atelier in Indonesia.

When the Raffles City store opens in mid-September, it will feature a reversible bar where customers can customise their own garments by selecting from the brand’s style library and making small adjustments to the fit and design. 

Alongside this, the store will introduce a made-to-order T-shirt concept, allowing customers to choose from a library of prints and have them produced on the spot. This is a more sustainable approach that avoids overproduction.

The space will also feature interactive installations, where visitors can experiment with the brand’s extensive design elements to create their own prints on postcards or other stationery, extending the experience beyond fashion into something more playful and creative.

Through this core concept of co-creation, Suhana ultimately wants her customers to forge memories and deepen their bonds. “I want people to feel a sense of unity, closeness, and love, because as a parent, I feel that childhood is so fleeting. I want to give families something to hold on to for just a little longer.

“If your kids are sitting on your lap and creating an outfit of their own – maybe even a matching family outfit – that’s a very precious memory,” she said.

Such initiatives are key to building a brand with longevity. While the apparel and accessories already carry strong emotional resonance, layering them with memory and experience deepens that connection. By creating a more meaningful bond between customer and brand, Suhana is ultimately building a more enduring relationship.

Maison Q wasn’t built overnight, nor from a grand masterplan; it unfolded in real time, guided by the rhythms and realities of motherhood. What emerged wasn’t a response to trends, but to a lived experience – a deeply personal understanding of what children need, and what parents quietly look for but rarely find.

“You know, kids grow out of clothes so quickly, right? So I wanted to create something that could last a little longer, something that is well-made and could be passed down to a sibling,” she explained.

FROM EDITOR TO MUMPRENEUR

Before Suhana became an award-winning retail maven, she was an editor at a society magazine, a role that shaped her sensibilities as a storyteller and visualiser. But it was also a position that put her in contact with luxury brands and Singapore’s high society – a privilege she knew she would have to forsake when she ventured into retail. 

“I was terrified of leaving [the magazine] because I was in such a comfortable position,” Suhana admitted. “Once I started my business, I knew I would be on ‘the other side’.” 

When she first launched Maison Q, Suhana didn’t pay herself – something quite normal for founders. Her employees would get paid first, as would her helper, who held the fort at home. Whatever profits generated were channelled back into the business. Suhana has never had any investors or backers, but the business has always been profitable. 

An early win came when multibrand retailer Motherswork agreed to stock the brand. Suhana was thrilled. She had no formal background in fashion or retail, and certainly wasn’t an influencer or anything like that. But Motherswork founder Sharon Wong was willing to take a chance, and offered to stock the pieces on a trial basis. 

At the time, Suhana’s collection was modest, made from off-the-rack fabrics and built around curated prints, rather than original designs. But the response was encouraging: Despite taking up only a small space in the store, the brand performed well. For Suhana, it was a signal that she was on to something.

“Back then, the support for local brands was not like it is now,” she lamented. “Customers used to associate us with being of lower quality. But it’s not true, because we put in a lot of resources to create premium quality products.” 

She is particularly proud of the technical craftsmanship behind the brand, crediting her production team in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, three hours drive from Bandung, with whom she has an exclusive partnership. The complexity lies in details like reversible garments, where each piece must function seamlessly on both sides, right down to closures so discreetly concealed that even she sometimes struggles to tell where they are. 

In the wake of her success with Motherswork, other retailers soon came knocking. It was then that she hired her first employee, a designer, and started to attend kidswear trade shows, while simultaneously approaching retailers and stockists in Malaysia. 

Fast forward to the present, Maison Q continues to hit new highs. In late 2024, the brand teamed up with The St Regis Kuala Lumpur to offer a Butler Bear Family Staycation package. The package featured the hotel’s teddy mascot, Butler Bear, in themed rooms, complete with bespoke teddy outfits, matching bedding, and even play tents – all in Maison Q printed fabrics.

Kids could enjoy a Style the Butler Bear experience, while families could dine at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant – all decked out in Maison Q fabrics, of course – as well as pick up limited edition merchandise at the hotel’s gift shop. 

Suhana shared that the collaboration felt surreal, beyond her wildest dreams. Having long suffered from imposter syndrome – an outsider entering the retail realm – it gave her the confidence boost she had always yearned for. “I didn’t expect it...but I think with [the St. Regis] association, it really positioned us as a brand that created things that are refined and elegant.”

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Being a mother of three kids – Arissa, 13; Omar, 10; and Eissa, 6 – no doubt influenced Suhana when conceiving Maison Q’s product lineup. “Comfort always comes first. If, for example, the fabrics feel ‘scratchy’ against the skin, forget it. My kids won’t be comfortable.”

But motherhood isn’t the sole driving force behind her inspirations. A lot of ideas stem from Suhana’s own childhood experiences, both positive and negative. Sometimes it’s as simple as adapting a memory of ice cream into a concept for a gelataria cart, where customers can make their own frozen treats with a felt “cone” and printed fabric “ice cream scoops”.

Other times, ideas come from repressed desires. “When I create things for the brand, I’m giving kids the things I never had,” Suhana shared, citing Maison Q’s collection of princess dresses as an example. “When I was a kid, I told my mum that I wanted a princess dress, imagining it to be a typical Cinderella-style dress with lots of tulle.

“My mum brought me to my aunt, who was a tailor, to make it. I was very excited to see the outcome, but it was not what I had expected. I didn’t say it out loud, but from the look on my face, you could tell. My aunt’s interpretation and mine were very different. That’s why I created this collection, so that little girls can feel elegant and princessy, but not overly so.”

Suhana and her husband have been married for 20 years, and they have been business partners for half that time. As with any couple working together, they face their own set of challenges when it comes to drawing the boundaries between domestic and professional life.

For example, Suhana has tried implementing a no-work talk rule during mealtimes, but hasn’t had success. “He’s constantly talking about the business – in the car, at the dinner table, when I’m about to fall asleep… give me a break, man!” she recalled with a laugh.

To vent her “frustrations”, Suhana has taken to social media. Her skits and mini-rants make fun of her own plight. “He doesn’t have social media, so I’ll record him secretly and post it on my own socials for my friends to have a laugh.”

That said, Suhana recognises the tremendous impact her husband has had on Maison Q, particularly on the business development front. “He’s the strategist,” she said. “He’s the one who really pushes us to do new things. I want to do a lot of things, but he has the spirit and tenacity to make those things happen.”

As for advice for other mums who are sitting on a business idea, Suhana had this to say: “I encourage them to do it. I think it’s better to tell yourself that you’ve tried. I try not to make excuses for my kids, like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this because, for example, my son needs more attention in school’.”

Suhana also defaults to something a friend once told her: “As a mum – or even as a person in general – you can have everything, but just not everything at the same time. I thought that was very true. Rather than trying to balance all the roles and responsibilities of being a mum and starting a business, I just told myself to give it a chance and see where it goes.”

A WORTHWHILE PURSUIT

Now, 10 years on, with a prestigious retail award under her belt, a new permanent store in the works, and a distribution network that spans Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia, Suhana can finally quell the lingering doubts in her mind.

Does she still get excited when she sees one of her products “in the wild”? Yes. “The makcik (auntie) in me still gets excited. Once, when I was at [the now-defunct] Popular Bookstore in Parkway Parade, there was a girl in front of me in the cashier queue. I remarked that she was wearing a nice dress, and asked where she got it from, just to see her reaction,” Suhana recounted. 

For Suhana, it’s this – and other customer interactions over the years – that make all her efforts worthwhile. “Some of my customers have become friends. They introduce themselves and come to support us. I really appreciate these connections. It’s not something that I take for granted, because there’s so many brands out there that they can choose from, but the fact that they chose us is not lost on me.”