Fashioning The New Decade

Founder and president of The Melium Group Dato’ Seri Dr Farah Khan talks about balancing digital and DNA in the new landscape of luxury retail and lifestyle By Aina Izzah.

- Aina Izzah

Brilliant blue skies stretch into the horizon as the blinding midday sun reflects off imposing skyscrapers. It is against this dazzling landscape that fashion luminary Dato’ Seri Dr Farah Khan takes on the camera, poised to take on the future in her inimitable style.

With the turn of a new decade, anticipating the future is on everyone’s mind, even Dato’ Seri Farah’s. “We live in interesting times, and to be on the cusp of a new era is super exciting, don’t you think?” This, from a woman backed by three decades of business experience, having successfully introduced and steered the course of a number of international luxury fashion labels and F&B brands locally—think Tod’s, Max Mara, Givenchy, MCM, Roger Vivier and Dôme Café, to name a few. Today, her luxury and fashion retail brand, The Melium Group, is distinguished as a premium, leading retail specialist in Malaysia.

Renowned for her philanthropy, both as an individual and at the helm of Melium, she has championed various fundraisers, the most notable being Melium & Malaysia Tatler’s 30th anniversary charity auction where she and a committee of sterling women, raised RM4.5 million for 20 deserving charity organisations. Not one to do things by halves, she says, “There’s still so much to do, to achieve. It’s hard to believe it’s 2020, the last 30 years shot by in the blink of an eye.”