For the co-founder of Margo & Smith, wear is not a flaw but history

Luxury, in Salina Chai’s view, is not about acquisition but preservation. She founded Margo & Smith because she was frustrated with the state of leather care in Singapore — the kiosk cobblers, the bag spas promising miracles in 30 minutes, and the lack of reverence for materials meant to last.

A bag collector herself, she wanted something different: consultations like fittings, swatches laid out like a couture atelier, conversations that valued patience over profit.

The experiment was intimate. Her partner, a shoemaker schooled in bespoke craft, began restoring her own collection with the same seriousness he applied to Mason & Smith, his shoe atelier.

The transformation was undeniable, and soon friends began passing her their own pieces. What had started as a private repair became a philosophy — that restoration could carry the same aura as a maison. 

With her background as a digital fashion creator — a decade of runway shows, backstage fittings, press previews — Chai already knew that narrative was as important as technique. The challenge was to translate fashion’s language of refinement into a craft often dismissed as utility.

The atelier has a rule: no task is divided. There are no stations marked “cleaning”, “colouring”, or “repairs.” One artisan sees a project through from beginning to end. This, Chai believes, is the only way to preserve accountability and eliminate the small miscommunications that slowly erode quality.

More importantly, it allows the craftsperson to inhabit the object — to understand its creases, its weight, its patina — and to return it whole.

This is neither efficiency nor scale. It is precision. “My partner’s commitment to continuous learning ensures our methods evolve with global best practices,” she says. But technique is only half the story. What she instils is a way of thinking: that whether it’s a sentimental keepsake or a branded icon, the piece must leave the atelier carrying dignity.

Choreographing survival

That insistence — on proportion, on presence, on design as philosophy — mirrors AVATR’s idea of “Future Elegance”. Just as the AVATR 11’s body is defined by balance rather than bulk, Margo & Smith is anchored by the belief that refinement cannot be disassembled into parts. But philosophy, however elegant, must still reckon with the practicalities of place.

Singapore is not a gentle stage for ateliers. Rent rises, manpower thins, habits shift with dizzying speed. For Margo & Smith, survival meant consolidation: merging both brands into a single physical outlet while allowing each to operate under its own identity.

What began as a defensive manoeuvre revealed an unplanned advantage. Mason naturally drew men, Margo resonated with women, and together their clientele became broader, richer, and more diverse.

Chai describes this less as strategy than as choreography — adjusting steps in response to an unpredictable rhythm. She credits her years in fashion for this instinct. Immersed in the storytelling of designers and maisons, she learnt that brand survival was never about brute scale but about maintaining clarity of narrative, even when the setting shifts.

The consultation process at Margo & Smith reflects this. Clients are guided as if through a salon, not a service counter. Restoration becomes less about repair than about recognition — the acknowledgement of what an object has carried, and what it might yet become.

The future of care

Today, partnerships with maisons have already begun, whether through after-sales services, events, or masterclasses. Chai treasures these opportunities, yet insists on independence. To belong entirely to a larger system would be to compromise the freedom to innovate, to experiment, to protect their artisanal philosophy. Independence, in her eyes, is less about control than about integrity.

Looking forward, she speaks not of scale but of purpose. “Our mission is to preserve the stories embedded in every luxury item and to showcase restoration as an art form in its own right,” she says. It is a modest ambition in numbers but a radical one in spirit.

Restoration is, after all, an act against disposability. It insists that objects can be renewed, that care itself is luxury.

The vision is not of endless ateliers in every city but of an ecosystem — a community that values craftsmanship, partnerships that respect independence, and a culture that sees leather restoration as an extension rather than an afterthought.

In this way, Margo & Smith aligns itself with a broader philosophy of luxury: that true presence is not about expansion but about refinement, about being deliberate enough to leave an impression that endures.

Chai’s work is less about saving bags than about saving meaning. Each polish, each stitch, each recolouring is a refusal to let time erase memory. It is a philosophy that mirrors AVATR’s design language — where proportion and presence matter more than sheer scale.

And in that quiet defiance lies her greatest clarity: that luxury, when treated with intention, can be a way of seeing as much as a way of keeping.