Vision, Mission, and Value
Vision: Where there are children, there is les enphants.
Story
les enphants was born in 1971. In many ways, this company was my father’s firstborn child. After working a number of years in the Human Resources department of a large corporation, my father thirsted for more – more autonomy, more creativity, more meaning. He was then 26 and approached his pediatrician mother for advice. She described to him the everyday moments of her job, caring for children who were ill or receiving vaccinations, establishing relationships with the parents and caregivers who brought them in. But children only needed to see the doctor 15% of the time; there was still 85% of the time in children’s everyday routines that represented the myriad of different needs to be taken care of. Here was an opportunity, she pointed out, a niche market that was, until then, still unfulfilled.
The first les enphants shop opened on Nanjing East Road in Taipei. There was a Yamaha music store upstairs, where grandparents and mothers would bring their children after school and on weekends to attend music classes. At first, the shop was filled with beautiful children’s wear imported from Europe, Japan, and the United States. There was no other shop like it; customers visiting from the south would often take off their shoes upon entering the store. Very quickly, my father realized that depending on foreign production was not a sustainable way of doing business, so he moved production back home. In the beginning, les enphants’ “factory” was a single sewing table at the back of the shop, where a small team of tailors made clothing for the house brand. The idea of les enphants was borne out of my grandmother’s keen observation about children and all the ways in which their specific needs could be met. Its nascent, modest beginnings from that one shop on Nanjing East Road quickly grew to include multiple chain stores, department store outlets, and franchises all over the island of Taiwan, and then in China, as well as parts of Southeast Asia. My father has always been an entrepreneur, but he was never just growing a business, but expanding upon the idea that les enphants was “committed to children,” and that the business could provide for children in every way possible, so that their parents could be free to “let children be children.”
My mother was also one of the founding members of the les enphants team, working as its design consultant. Every season, she traveled to Europe and Japan to collect ideas and inspiration for the following season. Even when traveling on family and personal trips, she was always combing local markets for inspiration. In a Chinese antique shop one year, my mother chanced upon a century-old child’s hat embroidered in exquisite detail, adorned with stories and symbols of faith and good luck. The tiny hat was the embodiment of a mother’s love for her child. In those fine, colorful strands of thread, my mother easily imagined a pregnant woman in rural China, sewing her hopes and dreams onto this little hat, working tirelessly by candlelight. Thus began my mother’s collection of Chinese textiles from the 19th and mid-20th centuries – hats, shoes, bibs, purses, baby carriers, and bedding. The expression of a parent’s love for her child woven into the threads of an article of clothing is at the very heart of les enphants’ core business. The tie between parent and child – as in the physical straps of a baby carrier – exemplify that space where les enphants exists.
les enphants has never been about chasing the latest trend, but providing its customers with products of the highest quality and bringing these products to them through warm and personal service. And more than merely selling products, my father created the business as a service to help fulfill parents’ needs for their children. When he was young, my father yearned to provide something that was meaningful and sustainable. For him, business was never about numbers, but about building and maintaining relationships, and being a responsible and empathetic member of each community les enphants is a part of. Just as his pediatrician mother spent most of every patients’ visit getting to know the children she cared for and the family environment from which they came in order to better serve their needs, my father aimed to create that same atmosphere of community and care in any les enphants store.
For this is the les enphants story – it is about helping to preserve the innocence of childhood within the protective cocoon of parenthood.
Brenda Lin
Director
Corporate Social Responsibility Division Assistant Vice President