At GRAZIA Malaysia, we have always strived to build a longer table, not a taller fence; and everyone is invited. I’d like to think our magazine can celebrate greater representation in fashion and extend the conversation on how the industry can make more people feel seen and heard.

Pia Wurtzbach, our first Filipina cover star, who is considered the epitome of what is attractive and beautiful. After all, she did win the coveted Miss Universe title in 2015. A beauty queen, an actress, an advocate and now an author, Pia seems to have done it all—or so you’d think.

This issue ultimately studies the legacies we (want to) leave behind and unearth a lovely inheritance of the human condition: we are not alone. What echoes do our choices project into the world? What echoes buffer us from the past? On building GRAZIA Malaysia’s legacy, I’ve always said this is not a solo project. As we turned one, I was reminded that “you are only as good as your team.” Thank you to the GRAZIA Malaysia team for pulling off yet another remarkable issue.

Looking back at the past 12 months, it has been a study in the unknowing. Walking backwards 365 days, GRAZIA Malaysia has shared fashion as a great adventure. Through our platforms, we hoped to reframe our relationship with fashion, reconsider our connections with each other, and the way we see ourselves. We have witnessed how an image, a film, or a profile can inspire a conversation, and open windows to exciting, more inclusive narratives.

I am so grateful for the support and optimism since the day we started. Thank you for supporting our vision, and for holding us to a higher standard.

This issue also marks a first for Vanizha Vasanthanathan, our cover star who made her first solo appearance in any fashion magazine. A long overdue recognition after a decade in the industry, Vanizha told writer Pravin Nair, “It’s the big-name players in the industry who decide who makes it where. I’m here to tell them to look at me and everyone else who looks like me. We get to play too.”

On the cover, you’ll find former f(x) alumni, Korean pop star Krystal Jung. Inside, there are stories about the intricacies of fashion and music (pg.24); the musical journey of three up-and-coming local musicians (pg.66); and why you should add sound bathing into your self-care regimen (pg.42).

When you flip through this issue, you’ll also find music selected by the GRAZIA Malaysia team. Simply open up your Spotify app, scan the code, turn up the volume, and lose yourself in our pages—even if just for a little while. This issue is about offering a brief escape from the daily worries, the distressing news cycle and incessant notifications. A small moment of comfort: that’s what we’re trying to provide, issue after issue.

Now, press play.

For this month’s Editor’s Note, I have nothing to say about our usual topics. As we close this issue, amidst the deepest reflections and the most mundane thoughts that our days are made of, there is a war that is ongoing. An absurd war—like all wars.

The world is watching live, this gratuitous, unmeasured violence based on decades of conflicts. I don’t claim to understand what is going on fully, but the world is witnessing the admirable courage and resistance of a people willing to fight to the end for their identity and the greater good of freedom.

Amongst the horrifying headlines and images online, and cyber bombs thrown by keyboard warriors, I came upon a post by writer Xochitl Gonzalez in The Atlantic. It was titled, simply, “What Happened to Empathy?” Gonzalez writes: “Empathy is cultivated through interactions with people we don’t know well, those glimpses into other interior worlds. We have, over the past two decades—slowly and then quickly—‘optimized’ other people out of our lives. One app at a time, we’ve greatly reduced our need to casually engage with anyone we don’t know—or even to meaningfully engage with those we do.”

On a certain level, I understand this. The world can often feel too big and too messy that you just want to shut out the news, tune out the noise, and hide under your blanket. The only problem is when everybody else starts to get filtered out.

Gonzalez continues: “We have manicured out our lives and our feeds and our day-to-day existence the need for any and all interactions with anyone who has not been hand-picked by us, who is not of the same class or race or political position. We have found more and more ways to avoid engaging with others of our species. And in doing so, we have eroded our empathy.”

As the world is crashing in, our hearts are breaking yet we don’t know what to do. I don’t have any revolutionary suggestions to give apart from be kind and take in as much of others’ experiences as your heart can take.

For this month’s cover story, from the get-go, we knew we didn’t want to do a straight-up photoshoot. We wanted to explore the idea of a cover story as a fashion film. We reached out to Roanne Woo, who you might recognize from our August 2023 cover shoot. Not only is Roanne a model, but she is also a very talented young filmmaker whose works have been nominated for international festivals. And who else better to star in this little fashion film than model-turned-actress Nia Atasha, who happens to be best friends with Roanne?

The pair brainstormed the script, production, soundtrack, choreography, and editing. A week later, we were on set shooting Nia, playing seven different characters in the “Elemental” film. Needless to say, she pulled off every single one.

I hope you enjoy our fashion film–which you can find on our Instagram page–and the rest of the issue.

“The collection looks like it’s been designed by AI," a friend said when we passed a mega luxury store in central Hong Kong. I immediately understood what he meant, looking at the brand’s  “classic bags” being slapped on with a different fabric, marketed for the summer season. Coincidentally, it looked pretty similar to the bags hanging next door at another mega luxury brand.

Before K-wave and T-wind dominated our pop culture, once upon a time, Hong Kong used to churn out pop stars who were devoured by fans across Asia. During its golden years, Hong Kong birthed stars like Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in the ‘80s and the Four Heavenly Kings in the ’90s. Cantopop and movies have helped create a common cultural identity for Cantonese speakers worldwide. Over the last few decades, however, it has been overshadowed by Taiwanese pop acts as well as the meteoric rise of K-pop, and more recently, Thai stars. 

Today, with the help of a new generation of artists, Cantopop and movies are slowly finding their way back to the playlists and screens of Hongkongers, restoring the Cantonese culture to its former glory. I hope you are thrilled to see Louise Wong, who is part of Hong Kong’s biggest rising stars, on our cover this month. 

It has been phenomenal two years for Louise Wong, to say the least. In her career-defining performance in Anita, the first-time actor made an incredible impression playing the much-beloved late Cantopop diva Anita Mui. Her second leading role in A Guilty Conscience, released this January, is now the highest-earning Hong Kong film ever, grossing almost US$15 million to date. Now, with everything she touches becoming gold, Wong has no problem putting her performance on display.

On the other side of Asia, Nita Mukesh Ambani is putting India’s rich art, culture, and heritage on display. In ‘The Gateway of New India’, learn how one woman’s love for arts is making Mumbai a world-class creative capital. 

In this “Exhibition” issue, we also speak to Venezuelan artist Eduardo Enrique, feature artworks by nine artists to chronicle fashion’s new vanguards, and explore our dream gallery with curator Frida Aasen. 

I hope you find inspiration in this issue.

Habitat, by definition, refers to the place or the location where a biological population lives, resides, or simply exists. So, what does habitat mean to the people of the dispossessed? In this issue, we take an inclusive look into the plight of refugees who have been rehomed to Malaysia. The story of Parastoo Theatre, founded by Afghan refugee Saleh Sepas, who is empowering refugees through the performing arts, is particularly poignant. Find out how you can make a contribution to the organisation in “Life, In Limbo”, (pg.94)
In fashion, rehoming your clothes is the latest response to the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the industry’s waste crisis. Circularity is a word that’s used a lot in fashion at the moment—but what would a truly circular fashion industry look like? We unpack the movement in “Green Comes in All Shades” (pg.32).  

I think ultimately, overconsumption is the root of the fashion biodiversity problem. We are now buying more clothes than ever, which is bad for the planet. It’s not good for the clothes either, because things move so fast now that quality becomes lower and lower. If you want to have a better relationship with fashion, you’ll need to rethink buying clothes as an investment: slowly collecting pieces you really love, that you really want to own. Pick up Alec Leach’s book The World Is on Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes if you’ve ever wondered how you’ve amassed a wardrobe full of clothes you don’t particularly like. 

This conversation in circularity also continues in beauty, where we speak to new-gen Korean hair care brand AROMATICA about circular life and the future of sustainable beauty products. 

Finally, the future seems promising for our cover star Priyanka Chopra Jonas. With a comedy alongside Idris Elba and John Cena, a project with Mindy Kaling, and a Bollywood movie coming up, the Indian beauty is just getting started on her “PCJ” era. I hope you enjoy this issue.

The word “social” translates to a collective noun for communal activities involving a group of people. In today’s global village, however, this includes virtual engagements on social media—for better or worse. In this issue, we delve into the social(s), tackling contentious topics such as the cancel culture in fashion (Page 38) and the current state of our local movie scene (Page 90). We also spoke to the scintillating Ms. Puiyi (Page 94) for a different perspective on social media presence as she gains nationwide attention.

Cultures across the globe have always associated springtime with a sign of new beginnings. As it’s
the first issue of GRAZIA Malaysia, it seemed only appropriate to tie that in with grace and elegance.

In this issue, we explore the silhouettes of Spring/Summer ‘23 that herald a new form of femininity
(Page 62) and discover a new ecological oasis in Blue Lagoon. We also speak to five outstanding
Malaysian ladies in Women Talking and their new way of influencing—with intent. We won’t spoil it
for you, so take the time and enjoy our very first issue.

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024 

December2023/January 2024

November 2023

October 2023

September 2023

August 2023

June/July 2023

May 2023

April 2023

March 2023

Born in 1938 and at the forefront of progessive social issues ever since, the fast-paced nature of change is second nature to GR AZIA’s editorial desk.

GRAZIA is the most STYLISH, INNOVATIVE and AGENDA-SETTING brand for the woman changing it all. It is at the forefront of fashion, beauty, culture, and technology that inspires and provokes readers through bold, compelling content powered by purpose.

1. You agree that the use of Magzter.com, the application and its services, are at solely at your own risk. Neither Magzter.com nor its associates nor employees nor third party content providers guarantee that the service will be completely uninterrupted or error-free or foolproof against miscreant activities. Nor do they warranty that you will get the exact results as expected or promised by the website or product.

11. THE SERVICE AND ALL PUBLICATIONS ARE PROVIDED ON AN 'AS IS' AND 'AS AVAILABLE' BASIS. MAGZTER, ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS AND AGENTS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER MAGZTER NOR ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS OR AGENTS, MAKES ANY WARRANTY THAT (I) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (II) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (III) THE INFORMATION THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR THAT MAY BE CONTAINED IN THE PUBLICATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, OR (IV) THE QUALITY OF ANY PUBLICATIONS OR THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBTAINING AND MAINTAINING RELIABLE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY AND YOUR DEVICE. MAGZTER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INABILITY TO DOWNLOAD CONTENT. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR MOBILE DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MAGZTER OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY.

2. You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

2.You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

3. In no event will Magzter.com or any person or entity or third party involved in the creation, production and distribution of the content on the website and the application be liable in contract or legally for any damages, including and not limited to, direct, indirect, incidental, special, and consequential incurred to you while or on using Magzter.com. By registering on the website or downloading the application, you agree that the provisions mentioned in this section shall apply to all use of and content on the website and the application.

3. Without prior written or authorised permission from Magzter, you should not modify, copy, distribute or sell any content obtained from Magzter as everything published here is the proprietary property of Magzter or its licensors. As such unauthorised use may also violate applicable laws including copyright and trademark laws, Magzter strictly prohibits these and will terminate your access and account if any such illegal activity is proved or detected. You should also stand liable for the damages caused by these unauthorised activities. Except as permitted by the Publication's lawful owner, you acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading Publications accessed through the Service. Except as explicitly required under copyright law or permitted by the features of the Service you may not modify, reverse engineer, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works of, or in any way commercially exploit or provide to a third party the content of the App, the Publications, or any portion of them without the express permission of Magzter and the owner of such content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of Magzter or Magzter's licensors.

5. You specifically acknowledge that Magzter.com is not liable for any kind of defamatory or offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties or their content and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

8. Magzter reserves all rights to monitor the content published and inputted by you for the purpose of determining whether you are compliant with these terms and conditions and other operating rules determined by Magzter. Magzter has the right to take decisions about the content and delete them at its own will.

9. Magzter is a distributor and NOT a publisher of the Publications and so Magzter has no editorial control over the content, including opinions, advice, statements, services, offers etc., that is represented in the magazines. So Magzter will not take responsibility for the accuracy or the reliability for any information or facts provided therein or that is made available through the service, by anyone other than authorised Magzter employees who are acting on their official capacities. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered by the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of Magzter. Magzter will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Service or from the Publications. The Service may contain links to other Internet sites and third-party resources and Magzter does not assume any responsibility or liability for communications or materials available at such linked sites. These links are provided for your convenience only. You are solely responsible for understanding any terms and conditions that may apply when you visit or place an order through a third-party site.

Details of the objectionable content, including its link on our platform

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}} best-selling international titles.

Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making waves in the global digital publishing business. Magzter has crossed 80 million users since its inception in 2011 from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide. He has more than 25 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses. He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the digital world. Girish's deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally.

In the event that you encounter any objectionable content on our platform, we have put in place a grievance redressal policy to address your concerns.

Magzter Inc. (“Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared. Please read the following privacy policy (the “Policy”) to learn more about our privacy practices. By visiting any of the websites operated by the Company, and any sub-domains thereof, or using any of our mobile applications and other methods of content distribution (collectively, the “Service”), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Magzter Inc. is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 80 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Magzter is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. Please note that Magzter is merely a platform for publishers to distribute their content. We do not control or endorse the content published on our platform. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of our publishers or their content.

Magzter is not responsible for compensating any party that has suffered damages or incurred costs due to any content, or part of the content, that violates their rights. Magzter is not liable to face any legal action in civil court for any violation of rights caused by any content, or part of the content, that infringes the rights of a third party.

Magzter offers the world’s largest {{allyoucanread}} subscription service called {{gold}} which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Magzter offers the world’s largest “All-You-Can-Read” subscription service called Magzter GOLD which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Name

Note: This will only share the cover and the publication information, but not the content.

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Prior to Magzter, he was the President of Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and Galatta Media. His duties included strategic marketing, partnership development, and monetizing content globally. DCI grew from a small team of 3 in 2000 to 300 by 2011 and was dealing with web, software and app development for clients globally.

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below:

The DMCA allows us to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within ten business days of receiving the copy of your Counter Notice.

This Policy covers Company’s treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information about you and your computer or device that Company gathers when you are accessing the Service. We may collect Personal Information from you, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our products, services, content, and advertising, and to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described in point 4.

This title is included with your Magzter GOLD subscription

To analyze the quality of content and provide appropriate feedback to publishers

We have designated a Grievance Officer to address any complaints related to objectionable content.

We request that any complaint related to objectionable content be sent to the Grievance Officer through email to the above-mentioned email address. We also request that you provide the following details when making a complaint:

and the App that provides you the capability to order, subscribe to and receive the delivery of various magazines, books, news and magazine and publication related content (collectively known as 'Publications') and to have these digital versions of the Publications delivered to you

c. We also collect information associated with your use of the application in order to make personalized recommendations. If you provide your third-party account credentials to us, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts (“Third Party Account Information”) may be transmitted into your account with us if you authorize such transmissions, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to the Service is covered by this Policy.

f. The Personal Information we collect allows us to respond to your requests, improve our products and services, customize the advertising and content you see, and communicate with you about new products.

is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

n. We will also use usage information in order to ensure users adhere to our Terms of Use. For example, a user’s usage information will help us confirm that a user only downloads a magazine or other content a permitted number of times or to a permitted number of devices.

which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

{{magzter}} is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Grazia Malaysia Magazine - August 2023

Grazia Malaysia Magazine - August 2023

In this issue

Grazia Malaysia Magazine Description: