Jarrett Lim Knows Exactly What Suits Him
Jarrett has traded some runway time for hospital rounds, but his eye for great style hasn’t gone anywhere
- Singaporean doctor and model Jarrett Lim discovered the runway while still a medical student, eventually signing with NOW Models after an initial rejection.
- Now working full-time as a doctor, he has put modeling on the back burner for now while keeping his fashion ambitions alive.
The doctor will see you now
Jarrett Lim has an unusual relationship with the uniform. As one of Southeast Asia’s best-dressed men from Singapore, he has built a reputation around personal style and an instinct for knowing what works.
But as a newly minted full-time doctor, he spends most of his working life in hospital scrubs. For someone who genuinely loves getting dressed, the irony is not lost on him. In fact, it has made fashionFashionThe art and industry of designing, producing, and styling clothing, footwear, accessories, and beauty trends. It reflects cultural influences, personal expression, and evolving styles across seasons and markets.Go to Fashion Glossary even more enjoyable.
“I recently started working as a full-time doctor, which means I’m basically in hospital scrubs almost all day,” Jarrett says. “Ironically, that makes me appreciate getting dressed even more whenever I have free time.”
A casting call, by chance
It is a fitting development for a man whose modeling career began in an equally unexpected way. Two years ago, he was still a medical student, sitting in a clinic with little to do, when he started scrolling through Instagram. An open runway casting appeared on his feed. He decided, almost casually, to give it a shot. The runway hooked him.
“I ended up loving the thrill of being on the runway,” he says. Soon after, he began sending his photos to local agencies in Singapore, eventually approaching NOW Models. The agency rejected him at his first open casting. Jarrett simply tried again. He reached out, showed up at the agency in person, and eventually signed with them.
“Rejection is part of modeling,” he says. “No single look fits every job.” The realization also changed the way he saw himself. Where he once fixated on his flaws, modeling taught him to understand that not being right for one job does not mean being wrong for the industry, or for himself.
Realizing that perspective has become one of his most useful tools, both in fashionFashionThe art and industry of designing, producing, and styling clothing, footwear, accessories, and beauty trends. It reflects cultural influences, personal expression, and evolving styles across seasons and markets.Go to Fashion Glossary and beyond. His agency has also encouraged him to stay humble when things are going well, advice Jarrett carries with him through the inevitable highs and lows of both careers.
Dressing for one
He is a model whose style feels increasingly assured because it is not trying too hard to announce itself. He dresses for one person first: himself. “I dress to impress myself.”
For him, clothes are a source of self-expression and creativity, but his relationship with fashion has also become less impulsive with time. The churn of his wardrobe has slowed. He is buying fewer pieces and keeping the ones that continue to feel right.
Jarrett keeps his approach to trends refreshingly uncomplicated. He takes cues from what is happening around him, but never follows a trend simply because everyone else got there first. His test is simple: do the clothes still feel like him?
“Do I feel like myself in this?” he asks. If the answer is yes, he wears it. If not, he moves on.
It is a straightforward philosophy, but one that explains why his style has earned him a place among Southeast Asia’s best-dressed. There is no sense of dressing by algorithm and no desperation to collect every passing aesthetic. Instead, there is an understanding that personal style is built through repetition: finding the silhouettes and details that keep making sense long after the trend has moved on.
When the scrubs come off
Now, however, medicine comes first. With his recent graduation and transition into full-time work as a doctor, modeling has taken a temporary step back. The ambition has not disappeared. Jarrett still wants to develop his career in front of the camera and hopes to pursue an overseas modeling placement when the timing is right.
For now, his days are structured around becoming the best doctor he can be. FashionFashionThe art and industry of designing, producing, and styling clothing, footwear, accessories, and beauty trends. It reflects cultural influences, personal expression, and evolving styles across seasons and markets.Go to Fashion Glossary occupies the hours in between, when the scrubs come off and there is finally an opportunity to dress.
When you look at it, it’s a good wardrobe metaphor for Jarrett’s life. Medicine may be the profession he chose first, but fashionFashionThe art and industry of designing, producing, and styling clothing, footwear, accessories, and beauty trends. It reflects cultural influences, personal expression, and evolving styles across seasons and markets.Go to Fashion Glossary remains the part that lets him play.
And after years of studying, castings, rejection, runways, and hospital corridors, he seems to have arrived at a style philosophy that applies to both: know what suits you, stay grounded, and keep showing up.
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Photography Chee Kuang Jie
FashionFashionThe art and industry of designing, producing, and styling clothing, footwear, accessories, and beauty trends. It reflects cultural influences, personal expression, and evolving styles across seasons and markets.Go to Fashion Glossary Shandy Koh
Grooming Hana Han
Photography assistants Oliver West and Sean Sui
Agency NOW Model Managament
On location Sisu Studio
Frequently Asked Questions
Jarrett Lim is a Singaporean doctor and model who has built a profile in fashion alongside his medical career. He is also recognized as one of Southeast Asia’s best-dressed men.
Jarrett discovered modeling while studying medicine after spotting an open runway casting on Instagram. Although NOW Models initially rejected him, he returned to the agency and eventually signed with them.
Jarrett dresses primarily to impress himself, using fashion as a form of confidence, creativity, and self-expression. He follows trends selectively and only buys pieces that feel authentic to his personal style.
Yes. Jarrett recently graduated from medical school and has started working as a full-time doctor in Singapore, where hospital scrubs now make up much of his daily wardrobe.
Although medicine is currently his priority, Jarrett still wants to develop his modeling career. He hopes to pursue an overseas modeling placement when the timing is right.
