In 2015, Yoyo Cao had more than 94,000 Instagram followers. She had just shown her second runway collection for Exhibit at Singapore Fashion Week. The label began as a way to sell clothes in her own shop, and Instagram helped make that happen.
Her path from shopkeeper to street-style regular to designer shows how a social media account can become a business. It also shows what can happen when the work gets too big.
From shop floor to Instagram feed
Cao’s foray into fashion began in 2010 when she opened Exhibit, a multi-label store in Far East Plaza along Orchard Road. Elle Singapore gives 2012 as the launch year, so reports differ on the exact date. In 2015 she said she had funded the shop from her own savings. She was a business graduate at the time, and she had spotted a gap between very cheap and very expensive clothing.
Social media came in gradually. Speaking in 2015, she said she began with a Facebook page that showed shoppers how to mix and match the shop’s pieces, using photos taken in the store. Instagram came later, at first as a personal account. Her first outfit post drew hundreds of likes, and she realised it could also be a marketing tool.
She later recalled to Elle Singapore that when she posted a photo wearing looks from Exhibit, people would walk into the store, show her photo and ask for the same pieces. She promoted the boutique by posting cleverly styled outfits on her Instagram.
Building the Exhibit label
Cao said in 2015 that she had always planned to make her own label but felt too young when the shop opened. She launched the label under the same name in 2014. By 2015 she had replaced the South Korean brands she once stocked with her own designs.
The AW15 collection, shown at Singapore Fashion Week, featured flared trousers, off-shoulder dresses and monochrome pieces with tulle and pom pom details. She described the clothes as being for confident women. Her stated aim was to inspire women to dress simply but powerfully.
She was self-taught and worked with a team of designers. Phoebe Philo’s work at Celine was a reference point for the simple but detailed look she wanted. The first collection sold out, and pre-orders came in for the second. In 2015, prices ran from S$89.90 for a top to S$239.90 for a maxi dress, and the clothes were made by a manufacturer in Singapore.
Street style and the front row
By 2015 she was a regular in street-style coverage. That March, she was voted one of the Top 10 Best-Dressed People from Fashion Month on The Cut. She was also an ambassador for L’Officiel Singapore, which sent her to cover major shows abroad. She said watching those shows taught her something even without meeting the designers.
Her own designs began to turn up in those photographs. One of her first pieces to be photographed was a pair of black overalls, worn to the Issey Miyake show in Paris in 2014. She said the attention made her feel she was doing something right, and she was planning an e-commerce site to answer international enquiries.
The personal side of the account
In the 2015 interview she described Instagram as a portfolio for her work, which is why it had to look polished. She used Snapchat for a looser, sillier side, including doodles. She said her minimal style came from being straightforward, and that she could dress boyishly one day and girlishly the next. She usually built an outfit around one item, such as a pair of trousers.
She credited her parents for her interest in clothes. They took her shopping often and taught her to judge fabric. On skincare, she said she had read widely since her teenage years and kept her make-up light. She also admitted to being careless and often leaving things behind when she left the shop.
Where she went next
Her following kept growing. She became the first digital influencer to appear on the cover of Elle Singapore. That was reported in the years after the label’s launch, and the magazine put her on its cover again in April 2024.
Exhibit did not continue as a full-time business. Elle Singapore reports that she closed the shop in 2019, exhausted from juggling her roles as influencer and designer. Tatler Asia later noted that the label had been put on hiatus, with plans for a rebrand in the future. She decided to stop what she was doing at Exhibit and focus on her influencer work.
She has since moved into beauty with ROMI Beauty. She told Elle Singapore that some of its customers were once Exhibit customers. Her social media platforms remain central to her career. A 2025 profile in Mega describes a platform that grew from casual content around her boutique to more than half a million followers.