Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Tatler Malaysia

TATLER HONG KONG Twelve-year-old Lance Lau is part of a new generation of eco-activists in Hong Kong fighting for climate justice. He discusses his experiences campaigning for change and the challenges facing humanity. tatlerhongkong.com TATLER INDONESIA Iman Usman, the co-founder of RuangGuru, an app that connects students with tutors, discusses what the future holds for distance learning. Last year, less than a week after Indonesia closed its government schools due to the pandemic, RuangGuru launched a free, 18-channel, live-streamed online school, providing classes to anyone with access to a smartphone. tatlerindonesia.com TATLER MALAYSIA This month, a look at the lighter side of life in a series of interviews with three Malaysian stand-up comedians based abroad—Ronny Chieng, Nigel Ng and Phil Wang—who discuss honing their craft and making it on the…

“With everything that I do, funny is the most important thing” —NIGEL NG NIGEL NG ‘Right place, right time’ just about sums up the springboard of which Malaysian stand-up comedian and content creator Nigel Ng’s international fame trajectory was set. In 2020, just as pockets of the world slid into the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ng doubled down and found his niche for his YouTube content. His portrayal of Uncle Roger, an orange polo tee-donning, middle-aged Asian man roasting BBC Food host Hersha Patel’s questionable egg fried rice video instantly went viral. Maybe it was his over-exaggerated portrayal of the typical Chinese uncle or maybe it was his usage of familiar Manglish (Malaysian English) expressions such as “Haiyaa” or “Fuiyoh”—either way, it clicked, and Uncle Roger became larger than…

In-between the conflicts of war, the clashing of cultures, as well as the personal struggles of the protagonists as they wrestle with both heart and mind, 912 Batu Road is a cleverly woven tale of fact and fiction, interspersed with personal instances of writer Viji Krishnamoorthy’s life. From the unique retelling of forgotten war heroes like Gurchan Singh and Sybil Kathigasu, to the little not-so-secret life of the author, like how the book’s title is actually based off the house her father grew up in (there’s more where that came from, so keep your eyes peeled), this gripping tale is a timely reminder that despite the tumultuous times we live in today, there’s always a tomorrow to strive towards. So, I read in your novel that this story initially began…

Don’t call Pierpaolo Piccioli an artist. He insists. “It’s provocative to say this, I know, but fashion is not art to me,” the designer says in a hushed, thoughtful tone, his Rs curling through a thick Italian accent. “Fashion needs to work with the body, there is a practical purpose, but art is free from constraint.” Piccioli is perched across from me on an ornate sofa, wearing his black hoodie-and-slacks uniform, square Raybans firmly planted on his nose as he swings a sneakered foot over his knee. He continues, “Both are languages with which you can express yourself and your values. Fashion is my language.” On a simmering July afternoon, we are at a preview in Paris, beneath the chandeliered halls of a grand salon in Place Vendôme, several gowns…

What have you been working on? The Deep collection, which consists of two capsule collections named Deep Sea and Deep Space. I’ve been enjoying working with stones including malachite, onyx and turquoise; they boast enchanting colours that remind me of the deepest depths of the ocean as well as the northern lights. What do you love about the northern lights? It is nature’s most fascinating phenomenon, which deeply touches people and is almost too beautiful to be true. The vibrancy and harmony of its colours are inspiring for any jewellery designer. You are a third-generation jeweller. How has this impacted your designs? My grandfather and father have spent more than 60 years of their lives at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. They have dedicated themselves to their craft, and their…

Describe your clientele in three words. Modern, sophisticated, intelligent. What’s your first memory of jewellery? I will never forget my grandmother’s jewellery. What inspires you? My design philosophy is to create jewellery that feels luxurious and timeless, but also youthful and exciting. Tell us about the first piece you designed. My signature hoop earrings. They’re still one of my bestsellers because hoops never go out of style. Over the years, I’ve created variations with different coloured gemstones, cuts and settings. Yellow or white gold? White gold. Sapphires or emeralds? Both! I’ve never seen a gemstone I didn’t like. If you could design jewellery for anyone, who would it be? The late French socialite Daisy Fellowes. She had the most impeccable style and taste. Designing for her would be an artistic…

How is business? The first half of this year has been good for us. Our sales numbers are close to what they were in 2019 before the pandemic, so if things continue to improve and travel bounces back during the second half of this year, we’ll be doing well. How has Hublot developed as a brand over the past 12 months? The pandemic has been difficult, but it’s also taught us a lot. Being active digitally has always been important, but it’s even more so now. Hublot is a brand that holds a lot of physical events because of our marketing partnerships, which is something we can’t do any more. We’ve had to become really agile in order to focus on digital events and launches. Our digital content has become…

It was 2009 when 23-year-old law student Yunalis Mat Zara’ai—who is more famously known as Yuna today—knew that she had to face the music eventually: she needed to come clean to her parents that not only was she, in the singer-songwriter’s own words, “jamming with the boys”, but she also had a substantial following over her MySpace at the time with her own music, and was performing her songs live over the past six months. She grins when she recalls the moment she spilled the beans. After telling her parents that she was doing gigs in the local indie scene, the first thing her father had asked her was: “what’s a gig?” Deciding there and then that she’d show them, Yuna invited her parents to watch her perform at the…

Nearly 20 years ago, modern mystic Sadhguru went travelling through the US on a mission to find a new home for his non-profit spiritual organisation, Isha Foundation, which he founded in 1992 in Coimbatore, India. Along the way, he developed a particular interest in Indigenous cultures and visited Center Hill Lake, Tennessee, where he says he encountered a “frozen Native American spirit”. “I had never seen that kind of pain in anybody,” he recalls. “I started inquiring about the Native American people and what happened to them. Then I learnt that region is known as the Trail of Tears, where terrible events took place and thousands of Native American people were killed between 1830 and 1850.” Moved by the site, in 2006 he opened the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences…

If you were to ask anyone in the Malaysian startup scene there is a good chance the name Ganesh Kumar Bangah rings a bell. The serial entrepreneur started his first tech business, MOL Global, in 2000, at the tender age of 20, with a backing of RM2 million from Berjaya Corporation’s Tan Sri Vincent Tan. Three years later, MOL was listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange, making him the youngest chief executive officer of a public listed company in Malaysia. His accolades don’t stop there. Ganesh, who is referred to as ‘The Bill Gates of Malaysia’, was also named the Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012. He also served as the chairman of PIKOM, the National Tech Association of Malaysia from 2017 to 2019. Ganesh prides…

Last month, Violette Serratwho, professionally, simply goes by Violette—became the creative director for Guerlain, succeeding Olivier Echaudemaison, who held the position for 21 years. Violette says it’s “insane” to think she will be creating make-up for the Parisian maison that introduced the modern lipstick bullet to the world in 1870. In fact, the announcement of her new role coincided with the launch of Guerlain’s Rouge G Luxurious Velvet Collection, a revamp of one of Violette’s personal “holy grail” lipsticks. Previously the global beauty director for Estée Lauder, Violette says that in creating make-up for Guerlain, she will “honour the brand’s heritage, looking at the past and being inspired for the future. I want to bring that story to life.” It’s also a homecoming for the Frenchwoman, who has spent the…

Olivia Palermo is a longtime partner of Piaget, having creatively directed pieces for the maison’s emblematic Possession range, which is what the best-dressed-list mainstay is pictured wearing. Founded in the Swiss village of La Côteaux-Fées more than 140 years ago, Piaget is responsible for some of the most innovative timepieces available on the market today, but it is also known for its high jewellery craftsmanship, which took off during the 1960s and 70s under the watchful eye of a fourth-generation member of the family, Yves G Piaget. A RADICAL ROMANCE Cruella, the prequel to Disney’s iconic 101 Dalmatians, about the early days of one of cinema’s most notoriously fashionable villains, features an incredible selection of De Beers jewellery. Academy Award winners Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil and Emma Thompson…

TIME TRACKER Limited to 100 pieces, this vintage-inspired Heritage Manufacture Perpetual Calendar boasts a warm, chocolate-coloured dial that’s housed in an 18-karat rose-gold case alongside a 259-component perpetual calendar. This complication, which is patented by Montblanc, took three years of research and development to perfect. Montblanc Heritage Manufacture Perpetual Calendar Limited Edition 100 CHASING RAINBOWS This 32 mm high jewellery watch from Piaget is the very first time the Swiss maison has created a rainbow-set timepiece. A spectacular array of green tsavorites and coloured sapphires have been assembled by Piaget’s in-house gemmologists, who searched long and hard for specific carats, cuts and clarities. An 18-karat yellow-gold case comes with a matching dial and bracelet, all of which have been decorated using the maison’s signature Palace decoration. Piaget Limelight Gala Precious…

Dropping this month is the Bulgari Aluminium GMT (stands for Greenwich Mean Time), a worthy heir to the 1990s legendary timepiece which was the first luxury watch made of aluminium. The new one still retains the aluminium case, blue bezel and rubber strap, but now it comes with a 24-hour time zone marker that’s divided into two zones to allow the wearer to distinguish between day and night according to the time zone he finds himself in. A stylish and sporty travelling companion indeed.…

BAEA HONG KONG Born in Hong Kong to a family who have worked in the design industry for more than three generations, Adah Chan was exposed to exquisite craftsmanship from a young age. Her grandfather Poon Yan Chan ran a textile manufacturing company, and her mother Christine Chan evolved the family business into retail in 1985, opening the Bed & Bath luxury housewares brand, which has a boutique at Prince’s Building. Growing up, Chan always loved visiting factories, calling them “places where the magic happens”. “I’ve always been really fascinated by how things are made. The most interesting aspect for me is how design becomes a product.” The founder of bedding and homeware brand Baea, she spent her 20s sourcing linens in Asia and Europe for the likes of Ralph…

ADAM AMENGUAL Los Angeles-based photographer Adam Amengual has been taking pictures since the age of 13 and now shoots for publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Monocle. This month, he photographed South Korean media mogul Miky Lee inside the soon-to-open Academy Museum of Motion Pictures DECLAN CHAN Stylist, art director and creative consultant Declan Chan is based in Hong Kong and works with publications around the world, as well as on campaigns for brands such as Cartier, Estée Lauder and Calvin Klein. In this issue, he styled the fashion shoot TAMARA REYNOLDS Documentary photographer Tamara Reynolds recently won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship—a grant given to leaders in the creative industries—and next year will publish The Drake, a photo book featuring her award-winning images of…

Before we begin, this isn’t a story where we throw around the classics like ‘beauty is skin-deep’ or ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. We aren’t so much as ‘rewriting’ the narrative of conventional beauty as we are taking it apart entirely and steering it in an entirely different direction. We are going to talk about the narrative of inclusion (or its lack of ) with three women who have been through varying degrees of societal rejection just because of surface-level differences and have come out stronger for it. This is a story about the ripple of change, no matter how small, for the waves it will make in the future. THANK YOU, NEXT For Rocyie Wong, who is a known psoriasis advocate that has lived with this…

“The very first challenge we’ve had to tackle was getting women to realise that coding, or even joining the tech industry itself, was a viable career option they could take for themselves,” says Purnima Wijendra, the co-founder and technical director of TechSprint Academy, Malaysia’s very first all-women coding school. “Because in Malaysia, the concept of women participating in supposedly male-dominated industries is still foreign to most of us—not just for those residing in rural areas, but for those in urban ones as well.” Now, the issue of gender disparity in the workforce is an age-old one. According to the International Labour Organisation’s statistics on the gender gap in labour force participation rates (LFPR), the global LFPR is 75.2 per cent for men and women 48.7 per cent. In Malaysia, according…

Hong Kong-born designer Queenie Fan founded contemporary accessories label Cafuné in 2015 and her sleek, sculptural handbags have since found fans in women worldwide, including Lady Gaga. The Rhode Island School of Design graduate honed her skills at 3.1 Phillip Lim, Coach and Rag & Bone, specialising in accessory design before launching her own label, which can now be found at luxury department stories including Lane Crawford, Bloomingdale’s and Galeries Lafayette. When did you realise you wanted to work in fashion? When I was 15, I was obsessed with Japanese vintage fashion. I would spend all my pocket money buying Japanese fashion magazines, making notes, cutting out outfits I liked and sticking them into my scrapbook. That was when I knew fashion was something I loved. What was the first…

THANKS A BUNCH Victoire de Castellane arrived at Dior in 1999 to establish the house’s first high jewellery department. Fast-forward to today, and the designer has unveiled a 116-piece collection, the largest in the revered French fashion brand’s history. Comprising 116 pieces, Dior Rose made its debut this summer during an extravagant dinner in Chengdu. An ode to Monsieur Christian Dior’s favourite flower, which is said to have reminded him of the garden at his childhood home in Granville, Normandy, this stunning line boasts blousy petals set with diamonds and naturalistic branches sculpted from glittery gold. Dior Joaillerie Dior Rose secret watch in pink and white gold set with pink sapphires, tsavorite garnets and diamonds RIPPLE EFFECT Julien-Loïc Garin has a penchant for mixing reality with fantasy, a characteristic he…

Margot Robbie has been photographed wearing the J12, one of Chanel’s most iconic wristwatches. The Australian actress fronted the collection’s campaign earlier this year and has enjoyed a relationship with Chanel ever since wearing the brand’s couture to the 2018 Oscars. At this year’s awards, Robbie wore a floral sleeveless dress from Chanel, which reportedly took 205 hours to make. Named and inspired by racing yacht silhouettes, the J12 has been worn by stylish women everywhere since its debut 20-plus years ago, having also graced the wrists of Victoria Beckham and Lily-Rose Depp. SHARPSHOOTER Watches that come both bejewelled and powered by complicated mechanical movements are always worth the wait. So it’s time to shine a spotlight on Chopard’s three unique high jewellery timepieces that are mounted onto matching grey,…

“I love combat sports—boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Muay Thai. They really help me centre myself and find balance. I enjoy the complexities that the sport offers and how, in order to excel, one has to walk a thin line between physical aggression and mental calculation; it’s like playing chess. Plus, it’s a great full body workout”—DARREN LEE 39, executive creative director “In normal times, I like playing football and tennis but in the current Covid world, tennis is my number one sport. I love the combination of fitness, power and finesse you find in playing tennis. I’ve always enjoyed competition so I find it more fun than doing cardio on a treadmill or a bike”—ARIFF FAISAL 28, co-founder of Kualesa “I love spending time in the gym as it always…

Trust Lady Gaga to take one of the world’s most decadent brands and make it even more glamorous. The American performer has paired up with champagne house Dom Pérignon for a collaboration that celebrates creativity and supports at-risk youth. As part of the campaign, Gaga appears in all her surreal glory in a conceptual video shot by visionary photographer and director Nick Knight. She’s dressed in two opulent regal robes—one, sharp and sculptural in scarlet and magenta, the other all frilly pleated ruffles of pink lamé—sashaying to a trippy remix of Free Woman from her 2020 album Chromatica. She poses with a bottle of Dom Pérignon and raises a flute of Rosé Vintage 2006. As mesmerising as the singer herself is the centrepiece of this collaboration: a limited-edition, veil-like sculpture…