RENAISSANCE WOMAN

Leader, icon, mother, epicurean, philanthropist ... Dato' Sri Dr Farah Khan is much more than the sum of her parts. The doyenne of Malaysia's fashion scene gives us her most intimate interview yet.

- SHIREEN ZAINUDIN 

Doing a quick search on Dato’ Sri Dr Farah Khan tells us that she is a Singaporean entrepreneur, the founder of luxury retail company, The Melium Group, and Creative Director of her eponymous Farah Khan label. She has been listed as one of the top 100 most memorable women in Malaysia and received the Italian Star of Solidarity Order in 2006.

But here is what it does not tell you: in the flesh, she’s playful, a bonne vivante with enviably lithe limbs that are perfectly set off by a pink Maticevski dress at our cover shoot. She is the embodiment of zen in the lushest Max Mara teddy coat. She is edgy in denim Givenchy, sensuous in Simkhai gold mesh. She is Farah Khan, fashion icon.

At her home a few days later, Farah Khan is relaxed, potently and inimitably chic in black. We are discussing changes in life, evolution at work. I ask her if she has had any regrets and she shares her current read—Brene Brown’s Atlas of the Heart. Like everything she is drawn to, it is a substantively and aesthetically beautiful book. She flips it open and reads. Her speaking voice is distinctive—precise, cultured. Warm.

“The idea of ‘no regrets’ means living without reflection. To live without regret is to believe we have nothing to learn, no amends to make, and no opportunity to be braver with our lives.”

She continues reading from a different page, “there are too many people in the world today who decide to live disappointed rather than risk feeling disappointment.”

“I think all this applies equally, whether falling in love or getting a haircut,” she says with a little smile.

IKIGAI