What do you want to be remembered for? Being honest. 

What’s the most important thing in life? Happiness. 

Apart from family, who or what is the greatest love of your life? My wardrobe. 

What’s the secret to your success? My mother’s prayers.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you… No. Don’t let anyone say no to you.

“I didn’t want to be in fashion at first. I wanted to be a businesswoman, and fashion was just a natural thing”

Media

What’s the last book you read? I like to combine the serious and the not so serious. The serious book is Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg, and the not-so-serious is Crazy Rich Asians, which is fantastic.

What book changed your life or had a big impact on you? Letters To A Young Muslim. That book impacted me because it put Islam in a very modern light. [It’s about] how progressive Muslims should think, and how we should question and not just say yes to everything. 

What’s your media guilty pleasure? Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I could watch it the whole day, I’m embarrassed to say!

Favourite movie? Clueless. 

Favourite TV show? Friends.

Memories

What’s your earliest memory? I told my mom to pick out all the seeds from my strawberry because I didn’t want them. I’m very picky.

Who did you idolise growing up? My dad.

Who do you idolise now? Still my dad, because he’ll read this!

What advice would you give your ten-year-old-self if you could? Don’t play with boys! Can I say that? That’s okay, right!? 

What’s the most important lesson your parents taught you? To be humble and to never be comfortable. Don’t be complacent and don’t get too comfortable in one place so you’ll always strive to do better – that one my dad really pushed on us to make sure we always work hard.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? In Islam, there is the belief that God is everything. So what’s not meant for you, will not be meant for you—that has kept me very sane in my business. So no matter the challenges, I know that if it is meant for me, it will be for me. 

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received? “Don’t care what people say” – that’s the worst advice. I think the only way to improve and learn is to listen to criticism. You should care what people say because there might be some truth to it, something that you can improve on. 

When did you know you wanted to be in fashion? I didn’t. I wanted to be a businesswoman first, and fashion was just a natural thing. I started blogging when I was at university. I began talking about my shopping, and what I bought, and people resonated with that, so I knew my readers were interested in fashion.

An epidode of the reality show Love, Vivy features Vivy's Gen.T cover shoot with Malaysia Tatler

Work experience

What was the first job you ever had? This is my first job—being an entrepreneur… Actually, no! In school, I used to write a book and I would make my friends rent it for 50 cents. So what would that be—an author?

That’s really showing an entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. Yeah, I was nine and I wrote a book. Later, I would leave some pages empty for my friends to draw in it, and then the book cost one dollar to rent because it had pictures!

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? At university, I used to make scrap books. That’s the worst job I’ve ever had, because I would sell them for five pounds but all the materials cost 50 pounds. It was a horrible business!

Read Malaysia Tatler’s interview with Vivy and Fadza for more on the rising success of FashionValet.