By Leha Rajamanickam
Chloe was the first person in her family to graduate from university, a scholarship she landed almost by chance, guided into public relations mostly because a consultant told her she “liked to talk.” Growing up the youngest, and by her own admission the naughtiest, in a household where higher education was unfamiliar territory, she left Johor for KL not fully knowing where it would lead. It wasn’t a decision her family stood firmly behind, but she went with it anyway, to challenge herself.
She’ll be the first to tell you she didn’t have some grand plan either. “I don’t like being tight with something. I kind of want to become a carefree person,” and that’s Chloe for you. Today it’s led her somewhere no one, including Chloe herself, quite predicted: running a small studio full of colour, polymer clay, and homegrown Malaysian charm.
Chloe spent close to a decade building a career in retail and fashion. She started out as a normal working employee at a boutique for eight years, learning the ropes of stock and inventory, before moving on to a personal assistant role, where she picked up costing, supplier sourcing, and the operational know-how that would later become the backbone of Theory 13.
It was a good run, but somewhere along the way, the corporate path started to weigh more than it gave back. Chloe won’t dwell on it. She describes it simply as a chapter that taught her what she didn’t want.”I was still young, and I had so many things to see and explore.”And just like that, the opportunity came. Chloe left her job without turning back.
Finding Her Hands Again
The turning point came from an unlikely place: a polymer clay workshop she stumbled into on a friend’s suggestion, with, by her own admission, zero art skills. “I can’t even draw a straight line. My first piece was so ugly.”
But something about the process, shaping colour with her hands and losing track of time completely, gave her a kind of focus she’d never felt at a desk job. “I never had that feeling before. It was so good.”Still, Chloe didn’t realise how much warmth it could bring into her life. At least, not until her personal assistant job began weighing on her emotionally, more than she could carry, that she finally reached her limit. The moment she saw a notice for a competition offering a small retail space, she left the job behind, and clay art came right over as a saviour, ready and waiting. “Once I got a chance from Kedai KL, I immediately moved on.”
Kedai KL had opened up a competition, with the space at MAHSA Avenue as the prize for winners. The moment Chloe saw it, she stepped up, entered, and left her job behind. There was no hesitation in pursuing it as a real business. It simply felt like the obvious next step.
The Duo Behind The Clay
Theory 13 started as a two-person idea. Chloe and her former colleague, Maxx, brainstormed a business they could run with almost no capital. Earrings made sense, being small, low-cost, and playing to the clay skills Chloe had just picked up. There wasn’t much second-guessing.
“When you’re young, you’re brave enough to do everything.” They won a tiny 200-square-foot space through a competition in March 2020, no budget for renovation, just an empty room and an idea. Three months later, Malaysia went into lockdown. “No one can come out. I have to survive,” Chloe said.
It’s a moment she doesn’t sugarcoat, but it’s also where Maxx’s presence in the story really shows. While Chloe navigated the shutdown, Maxx held down her day job and helped keep the business afloat from the sidelines. The lockdown months, rather than stalling them, became practice time. “Once it becomes hands-on, you know how to do it, you know how to solve problems. You really need to go through a lot of different patterns before you can make something nicer.” There’s been no outside investment along the way, just personal savings, credit cards, and two friends figuring it out together.
If there’s one thing that makes Chloe’s work instantly recognisable, it’s colour: bold, saturated, sometimes downright unexpected combinations. She’s not shy about having strong opinions on this. For Chloe, colour isn’t decoration; it’s mood, translated, whether she plans it that way or not.”I follow my mood. When I’m moody, you can see it in all my colours.”
One moment stuck with her: a customer once bought a piece made from a dull grey blend Chloe had mixed almost without thinking, during a low point of her own.”I asked her, are you very moody now? She said yes. That really amazed me, that colour can connect people with the same feeling.”
She rarely leans into sad colours for long, though; it’s simply not her style.”Life is hard enough already, why make it even harder? I have to make something uplifting.”
Why “Theory 13”
The name is built on Chloe’s own life philosophy: plus, minus, multiply, less a brand name rather than a formula she’s worked out for herself over the years. “In life, some people come in, and some people go; that’s the plus and minus. Multiply is when you give more, you eventually get more back. When you’re selfish, you won’t get much. That’s life.”
The “13” is a little more playful. It’s simply the date the business began, 13 August 2020, but Chloe has bigger plans for the number too, hoping to one day expand into 13 different product lines. Right now, Theory 13 works across anti-tarnish jewellery, polymer clay, and resin.
Despite that ambition, the team behind it has stayed small on purpose. Chloe has thought about hiring before, but has held off, not out of necessity, but because she isn’t yet convinced a new hire would actually take the right things off her plate. Past attempts at bringing in part-time help haven’t worked out the way she hoped either, so for now, she’d rather wait for the right fit than bring someone in just to fill a gap.
Chloe’s years in retail and fashion shaped how she runs Theory 13’s customer experience, though deliberately not in the way she experienced as a shopper herself. She’s got a clear line on this.”I would rather treat my customers as friends. If it doesn’t look nice on you, I will tell you it’s not nice. I don’t sell just to sell, I want you to really make use of what you’re buying.”It’s a standard she’d expect to carry over if she ever does bring someone else on board, not just someone who can do the job, but someone who’d treat customers the way she does.
Quality is the one thing she won’t compromise on, even when it costs her a sale, and the same goes for pricing. She’s open to some flexibility, but only up to a point, past which she’d rather walk away from a sale than undercut what the work is worth.”I don’t really enjoy people who aren’t knowledgeable saying something that isn’t true. But I’ve learned not to be that angry about it anymore.”
Looking Forward
Chloe’s next big goal is a proper physical shop, a step up from the studio Theory 13 currently runs from. For the past two years, she and Maxx have leaned into Malaysia-themed clay work: rafflesia, durian, hibiscus, and other homegrown motifs.”I really want a shop that prioritises Malaysian things, tourist things. This is what Malaysia should look like.”
The search for the right space has taken nearly two years, with at least one proposal turned down along the way. Chloe’s take on it is refreshingly unbothered. “Maybe we’re still not ready yet. So why not, sharpen our skills some more. When it’s time, we go for the second, better option.”If there’s one lesson the business has taught her, it’s patience, not an easy one for a self-described fast-paced person.”You cannot rush. When you rush, a lot of things you can’t do better. Maxx makes sure I slow down.”
From the 18-year-old who left home not knowing what came next, to the first in her family to graduate, to the founder standing in her own studio today, Chloe’s story is proof that the most colourful paths rarely go in a straight line. Theory 13 continues to run on that same hands-on spirit: no shortcuts, no outside investors, just Chloe and Maxx, one piece at a time. To bring a little colour, and a little Malaysia, into what you wear, find Theory 13 at @__theory13 in Instagram.
