He may be CEO of FJ Benjamin Singapore now, but everyone will remember Douglas Benjamin as the man who put Raoul on the global fashion map.

It began with a couple of expensive shirts he had bought from London. After a while, they started to look like they had been “washed in the same machine as the forks and knives”. Answering the call of men everywhere for decent-looking, reasonably priced shirts and ties, Douglas Benjamin went on a mission to launch Raoul.

The brand started with a quiet store at Millenia Walk. Now, it’s in prime locations in Ngee Ann City, Paragon and more. It’s proudly traded on high streets in over 20 cities around the globe, including all the fashion capitals – New York, London, Paris and Milan. The world, it seems, is taking notice of Raoul.

As successful as the business is now, Douglas still had to shake off the sticky, negative “made-in-Singapore” cast that plagues local designers.

“Someone in the industry actually told me to be careful about that because we were still a local brand after all,” he says in relation to Raoul’s now-higher price tag. “What on earth was that supposed to mean? Are we supposed to sell only $40 items forever? We’re not just doing cotton shirts now – we have silk dresses and woollen pants at $200 and full suits for $700. That’s real value.”

Douglas doesn’t see the business as a job. It’s his life, he proclaims. Once in a while, though, thoughts of an idyllic life by the beach where Blackberrys don’t exist do enter his mind; a life unburdened by the pressures of running a business.

“I joke about this sometimes: If I knew how much work this would be, I would have just stuck to my little men’s shop selling shirts and ties. But I would never have been happy.”

Who would’ve thought the super-luxe croc skin Birkin originated from a local tannery?

The reek of salted fish is overwhelming, but the two craftsmen in the room are oblivious. They hunch over a pile of crocodile skins, fussing over every piece to search for defects.

They finally uncover a hide with a tiny nick near the spine. There isn’t much of a discussion; into the reject pile the entire skin goes. The standards here are exacting. They must be, for these hides are, after all, destined to become Birkins.

Its nondescript Defu Lane premises betray little of Heng Long International’s status as one of just five top-tier crocodilian leather tanneries in the world. It is, in fact, one of only two “independents”; Hermes and Gucci own the remaining three.

As pedestrian as the company may seem, luxury brands such as Franck Muller, Louis Vuitton and – interestingly enough – Hermes depend on Heng Long to supply up to two-thirds of the crocodilian leather used in their handbags, shoes and watch straps.

There’s a certain amount of trust for the world’s biggest luxury brands to place in a Singaporean firm – one that Heng Long managing director Koh Chon Tong seeks to maintain.

“Anyone can learn to operate a machine to tan the skins,” says Koh. “But the finishing is an art. Why you don’t dry a skin completely, how to soften it – it’s all about feeling.”

And it’s a feeling that takes years of experience to cultivate. “It’s still a business built on relationships,” says Koh. “There are suppliers who won’t sell to higher-paying tanneries because they’d rather sell to us.”

So the next time you mull over that Gucci briefcase or slip on a pair of Stefano Riccis, you’ll know it just might have started out right here on our little red dot.

Pierre Corthay is kicking up a storm in the world of men’s bespoke footwear.

One day, a man – French, late 30s or early 40s, neatly dressed – walked into Pierre Corthay’s atelier at 1 Rue Volney in Paris and placed an order for a pair of €4,000 (S$7,000) bespoke shoes.

Five years later, he came back for a second pair. Striking up a conversation with Corthay, whose exquisite made-to-measure shoes attract the well heeled, the man revealed he was a school bus driver from Grenoble. “Imagine that!” exclaims the affable Corthay. “He’s so crazy about shoes, he would save up for a whole year and travel 480km just to get one pair. He’s bought a pair a year from us for the last few years. He calls them ‘personal investments’.”

No surprise, as the 48-year-old bottier is one of an artisanal elite considered the best men’s shoemakers in the world. Among them are familiar names like John Lobb and Alessandro Berluti (whom Corthay considers his peers) as well as the lesser known Stefano Bemer and Silvano Lattanzi.

Corthay got his big break after fashion doyen Suzy Menkes of The International Herald Tribune wrote an article on him. He attracted the attention of the Sultan of Brunei, whose initial order of 45 bespoke pairs eventually ballooned to about 140 over two-and-a-half years.

Today, Corthay’s clients, aged from their 30s to their 60s, run the gamut. But “they’re all connoisseurs”: from bankers, businessmen and lawyers to celebrities, “crazy artists and shoe lovers”, star chefs like Guy Savoy and even film director Roman Polanski.

The demand for bespoke is growing, Corthay says. “I think that, in a world crazy for technology, you instinctively turn back to tradition,” he says. “It’s happening not just with shoes, but also with cuisine, architecture, watches, cars and so on. People get more pleasure out of quality.”