Risis turns 50: How the Singapore heritage jewellery brand is evolving for a new generation

The Jubilee Capsule that changes how you think about gifting jewellery

The RISIS Jubilee Capsule Series arrives at the brand's 50th anniversary with a clear ambition: to reimagine 50 natural orchid species across a succession of limited-edition drops, where art, nature, and goldsmithing craft converge. The inaugural chapter, named ROOTS, is exactly what the title promises. It returns to the origin of a brand built on one quietly extraordinary idea: that a living flower, preserved at the peak of its beauty and encased in 24K Swiss Gold, could become something you wear for decades.

Two pieces anchor the ROOTS drop. The Cattleya Orchid, encapsulated in 24K Swiss Gold and Palladium, functions as both a bag charm and a brooch, making it a genuinely versatile piece for the woman who switches between dressed-down and formal. The Dendrobium Dual-Bloom Orchid Brooch takes a single stem and doubles it, mirroring the flower's natural patterning in a design that is clearly jewellery rather than keepsake. Both pieces carry the defining quality of every RISIS orchid: because the flower is real, no two are ever identical. The natural speckles, the vein markings, the asymmetry of a petal, all of it is locked inside the gold, exactly as it grew.

How RISIS got here: fifty years from SISIR to Swiss Gold

RISIS was founded in 1976, and its name is the word SISIR spelled backwards, a reference to its scientific and industrial origins. The brand's tagline, "Design by Nature, Perfected by Man," captures the core proposition that has not changed in half a century: proprietary technology that preserves organic material, orchids in particular, in precious metal plating. Singapore's national flower is an orchid, so from the beginning, RISIS had both a craft story and a national identity story to tell.

For most of its history, that story was told in airport terminals and hotel gift shops. RISIS was a trusted souvenir, the kind of gold-dipped brooch a visitor bought to prove they had been to Singapore. It was a positioning that worked for decades but left the brand stranded as retail habits changed and a new generation of buyers started looking for jewellery with cultural depth rather than just cultural proximity.

The pivot: Verene Ng and the case for wearing it yourself

CEO Verene Ng, who took over during the pandemic with a background in finance rather than jewellery, saw the brand's souvenir identity as both its biggest asset and its most urgent problem. "Risis is an established brand so it was challenging to reposition it to be relevant and compelling to today's women," she has said. "I wanted to shake off consumers' preconceived notions that Risis was just a gifting brand and to get more women to see themselves wearing our pieces themselves."

The pandemic, paradoxically, created the opening. "Challenges were huge at the start of Covid-19. But my team and I took the opportunity to refresh the Risis brand and deepen our expertise, as we saw a window of opportunity to pivot our efforts into e-commerce," Ng said. What followed was a series of designer collaborations that repositioned the gold orchid not as a memento but as a fashion object. RISIS partnered with four Singapore designers to reinterpret its Iconic Orchids collection: Elyn Wong of Stolen brought her minimalist, fluid aesthetic to a statement ear cuff and a transformable necklace featuring the Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid. Bag designer Goh Ling Ling recast the Vanda Limbata orchid as the guiding needle of a compass medallion. Sylvia Lim of Triologie wove Peranakan motifs into her Phalaenopsis Cornu Cervi pieces. And Singapore couturier Goh Lai Chan used intricate latticework, inspired by his own garden, to frame the Ascocenda Sagarik in a bangle and ring.

In 2024, the brand launched the Spring/Summer collection, titled '1974', at TMW Gallery on International Women's Day, cementing the shift from souvenir calendar to fashion calendar.

Choosing the right piece: what each orchid says

If you're gifting to someone specific and want the piece to feel considered rather than generic, the orchid species is the detail that does the work. RISIS has built a personality framework around its four signature blooms:

• The Phalaenopsis Cornu Cervi carries the spirit of creativity and adventure, making it the right choice for a mother who is still building something, still curious.
• The Vanda Limbata speaks to sophistication. It is the orchid for the woman who already knows her style and wears it with quiet confidence.
• The Vanda Miss Joaquim, Singapore's national flower, is associated with femininity. It is the most culturally loaded of the four and the one with the deepest resonance if the recipient has a personal connection to Singapore.
• The Ascocenda Sagarik is the glamour orchid: a piece that signals occasion rather than everyday wear.

For Mother's Day specifically, the ROOTS capsule pieces work because of what the word "roots" actually means in a family context. A Cattleya Orchid brooch given this May is one your mother will still be wearing in twenty years, at which point it becomes something she passes down rather than something she replaces.

The Janice Wong collaboration: when jewellery meets pastry

The ROOTS drop includes a collaboration with Janice Wong, Singapore's celebrated pastry chef, that bundles the Cattleya Orchid bag charm and brooch with exclusive Wong-designed chocolates. It is an unusual pairing, jewellery and confectionery, but it makes sense as a gifting format: the chocolates create an immediate occasion while the piece itself lasts indefinitely. The two elements also share a logic: both are about the transformation of natural material into something rarefied through skilled technique.

Going global: from Paris editorial shoots to worldwide shipping

RISIS's 50th year has included the brand's first foray into the French market with a Paris pop-up. "This pop-up marks our first foray into the French market, and serves as a meaningful way for us to understand and connect with the local audience. The French have a deep appreciation for craftsmanship, heritage, artistry, and values that are at the heart of everything we do," Ng said. The result was immediate: French stylists requested pieces for editorial shoots, which is a different kind of validation than airport sales volume.

For buyers outside Singapore, RISIS ships worldwide through its official site. The brand also offers bespoke services, which have expanded to include custom wedding rings. If you are looking for a Jubilee Capsule piece specifically, the ROOTS drop is available now; subsequent capsules across the series will feature further orchid species, though release timing has not been confirmed publicly.

Why this anniversary matters beyond the milestone

Fifty years is a long time for any brand to survive. For a brand built on preserved flowers, there is something fitting about the durability. Ng has framed RISIS's edge in precise terms: "Being a Singaporean brand gives us an edge as our designs are inspired by local heritage that no other global brand can emulate." That is not marketing language; it is literally true. The technique, the botanical sourcing, the cultural context of the orchid in Singapore, all of it is specific to place and cannot be replicated elsewhere.

That specificity is also what makes a Jubilee piece a meaningful gift rather than a luxury placeholder. The ROOTS capsule was designed to commemorate an origin. For the woman in your life who has her own origins worth marking, that framing lands.