He’s never without a tie and blazer,” says Maranda Barnes of her husband and TWG Tea co-founder, Taha Bouqdib. “I’ve only ever seen them serious,” whispers an executive of Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang, the husband-and-wife team behind Banyan Tree. “Hardly anyone has been able to convince him to wear anything other than what he wants,” laughs Ling Fu, wife of Soo K Chan, the founder of architectural firm SCDA. “She prefers a stronger make-up look, not one that’s too feminine or girly,” highlights Skin Inc founder Sabrina Tan’s PR person—comments that hinted to the no-nonsense attitudes of the head honchos leading our cover story for this issue, and which the Singapore Tatler team took very seriously. But, these initial impressions of severe individuals quickly dissipated as our photo shoot with the five entrepreneurs progressed.

Everyone showed they were game to step out of their comfort zone, with an all-white outfit and a mix of fun and spontaneous poses. Taha swung a TWG Tea teapot over a shoulder like a blazer, Soo took a bite out of a red apple; Sabrina, too, dropped her usual power-woman front to flash an impish smile. And with Kwon Ping and Claire, it was a whirlwind of humorous moments that went from them excitedly sharing about their grandson’s recent one-month celebration, to Claire posing with her head on Kwon Ping’s shoulder and him quipping, “She never does this.” So while work is work for these respected entrepreneurs, they know it also never hurts to let their hair down once in a while—and we love that they did it on set for Singapore Tatler!