The fashion maven gets candid about shifting trends, becoming your best self and why you should never underestimate the power of a bold, red lip
“Don’t be afraid,” Shabnam Arashan tells me. “It’s only fashion.” It might seem counter-intuitive that a fashion icon’s top style tip is to “not take fashion too seriously”, but according to Arashan, one of the Singapore inductees into the Asia’s Most Stylish list this year, having great style is more about knowing yourself than it is about knowing your labels.
“Being fashionable no longer pertains to just the clothes you wear. It includes how you move through the world. It’s a matter of being confident and at ease with yourself,” she says. “There are very subtle nuances of what I like in my fashion, seen in the interior decor of my home, the art I collect, the restaurants that I go to ... you tend to project what you like not just in what your wear, but in how you live. It’s an extension of yourself.”
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Going back to her point of not being afraid of fashion, Arashan says she has experienced a kind of post-pandemic style awakening—where she has become more focused on how her clothes make her feel and less on the trends du jour. “Some trends won’t suit you, and that’s fine. [The Covid-19 pandemic] gave me time to reflect not only on myself, but my style as well,” she says. “It made us reflect on the life we’re living. Do you live a life that’s defined by how you dress, or do you wear clothes to reflect the life you’re living?”
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