Our annual GRAZIA Game Changers initiative celebrates bold ambition and fearless innovation. These are the people reshaping industries, communities, and culture—one daring move at a time.
Ahead, hear from Eileen Goh—as the chief creative officer of fashion footwear brand DMK, her story is one of choosing the less trodden path, and doing it in style and comfort.
What inspired you to pursue this path?
I didn’t set out to enter fashion; I grew up inside it. But I stayed because I saw what women had been conditioned to accept. My parents started DMK in 2000 to solve a very real problem for Asian women with wider feet: finding shoes that actually fit and still look good. Even the name, Dormika, came from our Chinese roots. Written in Chinese as 多蜜佳, the characters symbolise abundance, sweetness and positivity. They wanted women to feel good in what they wore.
As I grew older, I started to notice a pattern. Women were still choosing between looking good and feeling good—not just for shoes, but in many aspects of life. That was when it clicked that we aren’t just selling fashion footwear. We’re addressing a trade‑off women had been taught to accept: that beauty comes with discomfort. It changed how I saw the business; not just as a fashion brand, but also as a platform that can impact how women experience everyday life.
Your work has reshaped the landscape of the fashion industry. What motivated you to challenge the status quo?
The fashion footwear industry wasn’t designed with real women in mind. There’s a lot of emphasis on aesthetics, but very little accountability for how things actually feel in real life. Real women don’t live in photos. They’re walking, working, commuting, and standing for hours, so that disconnect never made sense to me, especially as a woman. For me, challenging the status quo wasn’t about being bold; it felt like the only logical thing to do, and right for the community.
And beyond that, I kept coming back to one question: why stop at just selling products as a fashion brand? That’s what led us to rebuild our mission in 2020—to support women to look and feel good in their everyday lives, even beyond fashion. Since then, we’ve focused on building a community around that through events, partnerships, and social initiatives that support women beyond just what they wear.
Real women don’t live in photos. They’re walking, working, commuting, and standing for hours.
Have you ever faced a moment of self-doubt? How did you push past it?
I don’t think self-doubt ever goes away. You just stop letting it decide for you. I felt it a lot, especially since our rebrand. What we did wasn’t a small tweak to DMK, it was changing the direction of a 20-year-old business in the middle of a pandemic. There’s no playbook for that. Even today, we are still constantly trying new things, from products and campaigns to social ideas and brand partnerships.
The reality is that self-doubt or having imposter syndrome usually just means you’re doing something new, not something wrong. So instead of asking myself if I’m confident enough, I push past the self-doubt and ask myself: “Is this aligned with DMK’s mission?” Confidence isn’t a trait. It’s a skill that you build by showing up before you feel ready.
What does success mean to you, and has that definition evolved over time?
To me, success only counts when it feels right on the inside, too. I used to measure success in business by growth in recognition and numbers. Now, it’s much more internal. It’s whether what I’m building is meaningful for the community, even if it’s not loud or seen, and also whether I can still stand by what I’d built 10 years down the road. That shift also changed how I measure success in leadership. It’s not about being liked, it’s about uplifting the team—developing their skills, shaping how they think, and helping them grow into the best versions of themselves. Just as importantly, it’s also about ensuring that they’re aligned with DMK’s mission and taking pride in what they build.
What’s a system, standard, or stereotype you hope to completely rewrite?
Women have been conditioned to tolerate discomfort, and expecting or wanting anything more is seen as “too much”. You see it everywhere. In fashion, in society, in how women present themselves—the idea that looking good has to come at a cost. But with technological advancements, that trade‑off between looking and feeling good shouldn’t exist anymore. I hope to shift what women have been told is normal, and show that they can look and feel good without being made to feel like they’re asking for too much.
What’s next for you? How do you plan to keep changing the game?
Growth, for me, is about going further while staying true to our mission. While we want to expand beyond Singapore, our key focus is to scale our impact. We’re also becoming more intentional about how we support different segments of the community. This year, we’re focusing on mothers. Mothers give so much of themselves, and we want to create moments that bring them back to themselves as women. For example, this year, in partnership with Thomson Medical, we will be supporting 8000 mothers through the Thomson Medical Mommy’s Bag. We are also building other initiatives at DMK, so stay tuned! I believe that if we can remind women they can still look good, feel good, and feel like themselves—even through their biggest life changes—that’s how we keep changing the game.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photography Joel Low
Creative Direction Kelly Hsu
Styling Marisa Xin
Hair Sveta Klyn/The Suburbs Studio, using Goldwell
Makeup Kat Zhang/ The Suburbs Studio, using Armani Beauty
Producer Cheryl Lai-Lim
Photography assistant Eddie Teo
Fashion assistant Nur Hazwani
