META, III was created in partnership with ceramicist Reiko Kaneko, using her signature glaze to create a bespoke print.
The Meta coat was captured at the Paternoster Vents.
Anthem II
Inspired by writer Arnold Bennett’s How to live on 24 hours a day, an inspiring 108-year-old book about making the most of every day and Anthem by the genius novelist Ayn Rand. The latter text is powerful in its rejection of collectivism, which Rand perceived as inhibitive to the individual spirit.
The Anthem coat was captured at The Arch.
Nebula 1
Inspired by an upholstery fabric developed and used by the iconic Danish textile company Kvadrat. Style icon Caroline Issa has called the Nebula a “distinctly millennial creation†and “a coat that is as functional as it is beautiful.â€
The Nebula was captured at the Serpentine Pavilion.
METAÂ
Anthem
Nebula
The reigning King & Queen of Bollywood
King Khan wasn’t born a Prince with blue blood in his veins or a silver spoon in his mouth. He was born in an average family in New Delhi to a Muslim emigre from Pehawar who tried his hand at many business ventures including a small restaurant while housing his family in a succession of rented flats. The baby was named Shahrukh at birth, which was later updated to Shah Rukh when he went into acting. His father, Hindko speaking Meer Taj Mohammed Khan, was a pro Mohandas Gandhi supporter and follower of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of the All Indian National Congress, in Peshawar. According to Shah Rukh, his paternal grandfather, Jan Muhammad, was an ethnic Pathan from Afghanistan. However, Shah Rukh’s cousins who still live in the Shah Wali Qataal area of Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar claim that the family is of Hindko origin from Azad Kashmir, not Pathan, and also contradict the claim that his grandfather was from Afghanistan. So Khan’s tweet claiming his ethnicity is a mix of “half Hyderabadi (mother), half Pathan (father), some Kashmiri (grandmother)†may very well be a partial reinvention of his true ethnicity, perhaps to fit in with the traditional Bollywood Pathan heirarchy.
After Partition, Meer moved from Peshawar, now in Pakistan, to the Punjabi refugee neighbourhood of Rajendra Nagar, central Delhi, since he was pro-India. There he married a Hyederabadi girl, Lateef Fatima, in 1959. Their first born was a daughter named Shehnaz Lalarukh, who now lives with Shah Rukh permanently. Shah Rukh spent his primary five years in Mangalore, where his maternal grandfather, Ifthikar Ahmed, served as the chief engineer of the port in the ‘60s while it was being built. After this, Meer moved his family back to Delhi where the head of the household tragically succumbed to cancer in 1981.
His parents, Meer Taj Mohammed & Lateef Fatima Khan with elder sister, Shahnaz Lalarukh
Baby Shah Rukh
Shah Rukh attended St. Columba’s School, New Delhi. Because he excelled academically as well as at sports such as hockey and football, he received the school’s highest award, the Sword of Honour. More importantly for his future career, he acted in stage plays and was known as a teenager for his imitation of Bollywood actors like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and, funnily enough, Mumtaz. Amrita Singh, who became a top Bollywood actress in the ‘80s, was one the teenage friends with whom he acted.
In high school
One evening in 1984, when Shah Rukh was 18, he met 14 year old Gauri Chibber at a party where the boys and girls stood separately. She was the daughter of Punjabi-Brahmin Hindu Colonel Ramesh Chandra and Sarita Chibber, residents of the South Delhi suburb of Panchsheel Park. She attended first the Loreto Convent and then the Delhi Modern School. Boldly, Shah Rukh mustered up his courage and crossed over to the girls’ side and asked Gauri to dance.
Shah Rukh Khan confessed in an interview, “I am very shy in my personal life. I had never asked a girl out. I danced with her, she was very good. I asked for her telephone number and she was the first girl with whom I had danced or asked for their number. I felt that she is the one for me, as she had not said ‘no’ to me up till now.†He promptly asked her for a date the next day to have a soda. She assented and soon they started dating regularly.
At their wedding
Gauri was not entirely happy with Shah Rukh’s decision to join Bollywood. She even secretly wished his films would flop so they could return to Delhi where he could work for her father. “When I went to become an actor, she didn’t like it, because actors have such a reputation and also ours was an inter-religion marriage,†SRK said on The Anupam Kher ShowÂ
Meanwhile, Shah Rukh got his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Hansraj College in 1988, simultaneously studying at Delhi’s Theatre Action Group (TAG) under the mentorship of renowned theatre director Barry John. Gauri also got her Bachelor’s degree in History from Lady Shri Ram College and then took a six months course in fashion design and tailoring from the National Institute of Fashion Technology to join her father’s garment business.
Shah Rukh began his professional acting career in the late ‘80s by appearing in several television series, in which he started making a name for himself as critics compared his look and acting style with that of Dilip Kumar, the film thespian. But where Gauri was concerned, Shah Rukh was an insecure and possessive boyfriend who did not even like her keeping her hair open, let alone talking to other boys. He said in his defense, “I don’t know whether I am a nut but I am very intense about my love for Gauri. She’s a part of me.â€
However, Gauri got fed up with this attitude. Only her mother knew of her relationship with a Muslim boy, that too a struggling actor, as she was too scared to tell her father. So when she was invited by friends to a trip to Mumbai, she left without even telling him. Suddenly, Shah Rukh felt abandoned by her and realized he didn’t want to let go. He told his mother about Gauri and his mother asked him to go and search for her. Armed with INR 10,000, Shah Rukh drove to Mumbai in his trusty, old Fiat in search of his errant girlfriend with no idea of her exact whereabouts. After much searching, in true filmi fashion, he headed to the beach knowing she would definitely visit there. There, he spied her and ran towards her. The moment the two met, they flung themselves upon each other in an embrace and started crying, realising the depth of their love.
Shah Rukh recalled in a TV interview, “I had a Fiat back then and I was dropping her home. That is when I asked her if she will marry me and went off, I didn’t even wait for her to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’â€
Gauri added, “my parents were obviously not for it because we were so young and then to take a decision to get married to a person who was going to join films and also from a different religion.â€
But her brother supported her decision after warning Shah Rukh, “Don’t do anything hanky panky with my sister!â€Â 1991 turned out to be an eventful year in his life. Shah Rukh’s mother died that year from complications from diabetes. Then, in April, he moved from Delhi to Mumbai and was signed by Hema Malini for the film Dil Aashana Hai that she produced and directed opposite Divya Bharti, in addition to signing three more films. Alone and back in New Delhi, his sister Shahnaz sank into depression. Shah Rukh and Gauri remained in touch, but found the long distance relationship hard. Gauri decided that either they should get married or break up for good. After much cajoling, she finally convinced her strict Hindu, vegetarian father to let her marry Muslim boy Shah Rukh and managed to get his blessing. They got married on 25th October, 1991 in a Hindu ceremony.
Shah Rukh Khan bought his mumbai mansion, Mannat, for just INR 15 crores (US$2.5 million) in 1995. a tourist landmark, it’s now reportedly worth a whopping INR 2000 crores (US $333 million). He was also gifted one of the most expensive homes in Dubai, a villa on Palm Jumeirah, worth US$65 million. In addition, He also owns a palatial bungalow in Delhi and a GB£20 million flat near the Dorchester on Park lane, mayfair, London. The second richest movie star in the world, SRK is worth…wait for it…$600 million
Shah Rukh reminisced on fellow actor Anupam Kher’s TV chat show, “I started shooting in June and in October we got married. Our honeymoon was on the sets of Dil Aashana Hai.†The young couple set up home in a small, rented apartment in Mumbai.
Shah Rukh’s debut film turned out to be Deewana, releasing in June 1992, in which he was a supporting actor. The film’s leads were Rishi Kapoor and Divya Bharti. It became the second highest grossing film of the year, launching his film career. He was awarded the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for his performance. The same year, he also starred in Chamatkar and the comedy Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman opposite Juhi Chawla, a hit pairing. The roles he played were similar in that they were full of energy and enthusiasm. Film critic Arnab Ray of Daily News and Analysis wrote that Shah Rukh brought a new kind of acting “sliding down stairs on a slab of ice, cartwheeling, somersaulting, lips trembling, eyes trembling, bringing to the screen the kind of physical energy … visceral, intense, maniacal one moment and cloyingly boyish the next.â€
The next year, he played villainous anti-hero roles in the hits, Darr, in which he plays an obsessive lover, and Baazigar, in which he plays a murderer. In Yash Chopra’s Darr, which was the first of his many collaborations with the filmmaker and his company Yash Raj Films, Shah Rukh’s stammering portrayal and the use of the phrase “I love you, K-k-k-Kiran†became memorable and popular with audiences. He received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role, also known as the Best Villain Award, for this role. In Baazigar, Shah Rukh plays an ambiguous avenger who murders his girlfriend, shocking Indian audiences and turning the standard Bollywood film formula on its head. In The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture, Sonal Khullar called the character “the consummate anti-hero.†Cast for the first time opposite newcomer Kajol, he won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. The Shah Rukh-Kajol pairing has been so successful over the years, that two decades plus later, they are still playing the leads in films together. They have starred in nine films together to date.
With his star in the rise, in 1995 Shah Rukh starred in a total of seven films, the first of which was Rakesh Roshan’s melodramatic thriller Karan Arjun. Co-starring Salman Khan and Kajol, it became the second-highest-grossing film of the year in India.
Aryan has dated Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter  Navya Naveli Nanda
The highest grossing film of the year and one of the most successful Indian films of all time is the romcom, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) opposite Kajol. Written and directed by Aditya Chopra, Yash’s son and later husband of actress Rani Mukherjee, the film’s plot revolves around two young non-resident Indians (NRIs), who fall in love during a vacation through Europe with their friends. Though Shah Rukh was initially hesitant to portray the role of a lover, the audience loved him in this film as a “romantic hero†so much that it became the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema. It won a record of 10 Filmfare Awards, the most for a single film at that time, including the second of Shah Rukh’s Best Actor Awards, as well as winning the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Its soundtrack also became one of the most popular albums of the ‘90s. Film critic Raja Sen said, “Khan gives a fabulous performance, redefining the lover for the 1990s with great panache. He’s cool and flippant, but sincere enough to appeal to the [audience]. The performance itself is, like the best in the business, played well enough to come across as effortless, as non-acting.â€
After Gauri’s brief foray into show business with her hosting gig on weekly Hindi music countdown show, Oye, for MTV India behind her and with Shah Rukh’s star status secure, the couple decided it was finally time for them to start a family and in 1997 their son Aryan was born.
Aryan, now 19, is a mini-me of his famous father. He graduated from the prestigious Sevenoaks School, Kent, half an hour from London. In his own right, he has won the Maharashtra Taekwondo competition in 2010 and was presented with the black belt, the highest achievement level in the martial arts. He is also a budding actor. While Shah Rukh won for best dubbing voice male animation, for Hum Lajawab Hai, the dubbed Hindi version of the Oscar winning cartoon feature movie The Incredibles, Aryan won the award for best dubbing child voice artist male for it in the children’s category. He is also rumored to have dated Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda. Aryan is currently enrolled in the University of Southern California where he is studying filmmaking. His godfather is fittingly Karan Johar.
Red hot in an Herve Leger bandage dress, Suhana can’t wait to be a Bollywood star
Suhana in a Manish Malhotra ghagra choli attending the Bachchan’s Diwali bash
Shah Rukh’s next big blockbuster was the song and dance vehicle Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) with Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor, the highest grossing Indian film of the year worldwide, followed next year by Karan Johar’s directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) Shah Rukh’s fourth film opposite Kajol and a coming of age romcom drama. The third highest-grossing Indian film of the year, it’s the first Bollywood film to enter the UK cinema top ten.
In 2000, the couple had their daughter Suhana. Now 16 and enrolled at Dirubhai Ambani International School, she is a pint sized fashionista, standing at 5’2â€, a footballer, playing football tournaments for her school, and even captaining the U-14 team. She loves dancing, and performed in the Pop video of Shiamak Dawar’s Summer Funk show. She also enjoys writing, winning an award at Katha national story writing competition. Shah Rukh has proudly stated in many interviews that Suhana is desperately waiting to finish her studies and join films. She too has her father’s looks, especially his distinctive nose. Shah Rukh plans to send her to the U.S. for college to study acting.
Next Shah Rukh starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein (2000), and Karan Johar’s family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), which SRK cites as a turning point in his career, as he held his own against the veteran actor who stars in both films. Amitabh’s role in both is that of an authoritarian figure, the movie shows ideological struggles between the two men. Shah Rukh was awarded his second Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for Mohabbatein, while Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, also starring Kajol remained the top-grossing Indian production of all time in the overseas market for the next five years.
2001 brought a reversal of fortune for SRK. Shah Rukh’s production company Dreamz Unlimited produced Santosh Sivan’s historical epic Asoka, a partly fictionalised account of the life of emperor Ashoka, starring Shah Rukh in the titular role. The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival and the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, but despite opening with much fanfare, it performed poorly at the box office. So heavy was the loss incurred that Shah Rukh was forced to close srkworld.com. Then in December, Shah Rukh suffered a spinal injury while performing an action sequence for a special appearance in Krishna Vamsi’s Shakti: The Power. He was diagnosed with a prolapsed disc, which caused him severe pain during shooting. His condition worsened to the point that he finally had to undergo the complicated anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery at Wellington Hospital, London in 2003. After this, Shah Rukh has reduced his workload and limited the number of film roles he accepts per year.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s remake of period romantic tragedy Devdas (2002), the most expensive Bollywood film ever made at the time, starred Shah Rukh in the title role of a rebellious and love lorne alcoholic opposite Ashwariya Rai and Madhuri Dixit. The film became an instant classic and earned numerous awards including 10 Filmfare Awards, with Best Actor for Shah Rukh and even a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.
 “That she is stylish, enigmatic, and poised is known, but at the shoot we saw another side of her. Even in the frames she shares with Shah Rukh, she holds her own impressively†wrote Priya Tanna, editor of Vogue India
Karan Johar’s Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), a comedy-drama set in New York City, starring Shah Rukh, Jaya Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, and Preity Zinta, became the second-highest-grossing film domestically and the top-grossing Bollywood film in external markets that year. His tear jerker portrayal of a man with a fatal heart disease won over the sentimental audience and critics alike. In the 2003 edition of the Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema, it was written that Shah Rukh “defied the image of the conventional hero in both these films and created his own version of the revisionist hero.â€
Then, conflict broke out between Shah Rukh, Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza, all partners in Dreamz Unlimited over the failure to cast Juhi in their 2003 production of Chalte Chalte instead of the much younger Rani Mukherjee, and they parted ways, despite the film’s success. Dreamz Unlimited was disbanded and gave birth to Red Chillies Entertainment with Gauri emerging as producer (uptill now the production house has released nine films). In the company’s first production, he starred in choreographer Farah Khan’s directorial debut, the action comedy masala film Main Hoon Na opposite Sushmita Sen, a fictionalised account of India–Pakistan relations. The film is the story of Indian army Major who becomes embroiled in the events to ensure that “Project Milap,†the releasing of civilian captives on either side of the border of India and Pakistan, can take place as a sign of trust and peace between the two nations. Perhaps because of his familial links with Pakistan, the film consciously moves away from the stereotypical portrayal of Pakistan as a villainous country and shows the Indo-Pakistani conflict from a neutral point of view. In Yash Chopra’s romance, Veer-Zaara, Shah Rukh plays an Indian Air Force pilot who falls in love with a Pakistani woman, played by Preity Zinta. The film, screened at the 55th Berlin Film Festival to critical praise, was the highest earning film of 2004 in India, while Main Hoon Na was the second-highest earner. So Shah Rukh was ruling the box office with both the highest and second highest grosser. Is it any surprise then that he became the reigning King of Bollywood?
AbRam was born via surrogacy
Shah Rukh’s third collaboration with Karan Johar was the romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), the story of two unhappily married people in New York City who begin an extramarital affair. The film, featuring an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherji and Kirron Kher, was India’s highest-grossing film in the overseas market. His role in this as well as in Don, a remake, earned him Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards, though critics negatively compared his portrayal to that of Amitabh Bachchan in the original film.
Shah Rukh Khan bought his mumbai mansion, Mannat, for just INR 15 crores (US$2.5 million) in 1995. a tourist landmark, it’s now reportedly worth a whopping INR 2000 crores (US $333 million). He was also gifted one of the most expensive homes in Dubai, a villa on Palm Jumeirah, worth US$65 million. In addition, He also owns a palatial bungalow in Delhi and a GB£20 million flat near the Dorchester on Park lane, mayfair, London. The second richest movie star in the world, SRK is worth…wait for it…$600 million
In 2007, Shah Rukh revisited his hockey skills for his portrayal of a disgraced hockey player who coaches the Indian women’s national hockey team to World Cup success in Yash Raj Films’ semi-fictional Chak De! India. Critic Bhaichand Patel stated that Shah Rukh essentially portrayed himself as a “cosmopolitan, liberal, Indian Muslim.†For this, he won another Filmfare Award for Best Actor. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN critiqued that his performance was “without any of his typical trappings, without any of his trademark quirks,†portraying the character “like a real flesh-and-blood human being.†Filmfare magazine included his performance in their 2010 issue of the Top 80 Iconic Performances.
Shah Rukh starred alongside Arjun Rampal and Deepika Padukone, in her debut role, in Farah Khan’s reincarnation melodrama Om Shanti Om, in which he plays ‘70s junior artiste who is reborn as a 2000s era superstar. The film became the highest grossing Indian motion picture of 2007. Khalid Mohammed, film critic for Hindustan Times wrote, “the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature style—spontaneous and intuitively intelligent.â€
Receiving his honorary degree from University of Edinburgh, Scotland
In 2008, Shah Rukh bought ownership rights for the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the Twenty20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) in partnership with Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta for USD 75 million. The team’s performance improved over time, and they finally became the champions in 2012 and 2014. To enhance the team’s brand, Shah Rukh himself performed at the opening ceremony of the 2011 season, dancing to Tamil songs. In 2013, he entertained the crowd alongside Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Pitbull at the cricket staduim.
Gauri also remained in the spotlight by appearing in a TV commercial for the home furnishings brand D’decor along with Shah Rukh in 2013. The next year, the couple walked the ramp together for Karan Johar’s debut fashion sown at the HDIL India Couture Week 2009.
Celebrating Kolkata Knight’s IPL win with Shoaib Akhtar
My Name Is Khan (2010), Shah Rukh’s fourth successful collaboration with Karan Johar and his sixth with Kajol, is a true story about the prejudice against Islam in the U.S. after the 11 September attacks. His character is a Muslim suffering from mild Asperger syndrome that sets out on a journey across America to meet the country’s president. Shah Rukh spent several months researching his role by reading books, watching videos and talking to people affected by the condition. My Name is Khan became one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of all time outside India and earned Khan his eighth Filmfare Award for Best Actor, equaling Dilip Kumar’s record of most wins in the category. Jay Wiesenberger wrote in Variety how Khan portrayed the Asperger’s sufferer with “averted eyes, springy steps, [and] stuttered repetitions of memorized textsâ€, believing it to have been a “standout performance sure to receive the Autism Society’s gold seal of approval.â€
Furthermore, over the years, Shah Rukh has systematically played roles that “present NRI identity in global Bollywood,†earning him a billion fans the world over. â€
Shah Rukh and Gauri’s lavish neo classical Bandra bungalow, Mannat has been done up by Gauri in a myriad of styles. While the formal entertaining area of drawing and dining rooms are Louis XIV inspired with much use of gilt and heavy, ornate curtains, the lounge has exposed brickwork displaying Art. You can tell that for better or for worse no expense has been spared and the house is meant to impress the viewer. In the home, notably the Quran can be seen lying next to the statues of the Hindu deities.
Emboldened by her questionable success in doing up her own splendid home, in 2010 Gauri partnered with Hrithik Roshan’s ex-wife Susanne Khan to design exclusive interior projects. Their first project was a 60,000 square foot mansion Vadodara. In 2012, they launched a line of furniture at Susanne’s home store in Mumbai – The Charcoal Project. In an interview with Vogue India, she said that she chose interior design because of her interest in art, “I started off as an artist in school with various sketches. I continued that as a hobby for many years, and I think that is where my designs come from.â€
Shah Rukh’s third child AbRam was born in 2013 via surrogacy, since Gauri was well over 40 by this time. The birth mother is not known and, to quell public curiosity, Shah Rukh is most protective of this child who was born premature and spent a lot of time in the hospital after birth. All three kids have been brought up practicing both their parent’s religions.
After this, SRK starred in the hits Chennai Express (2013) Happy New Year (2014), his own production Dilwale (2015) yet again opposite Kajol, and Fan (2016) in which his grand mansion Mannat appears. Raees (2017) is this year’s upcoming release opposite the charming Mahira Khan. He has appeared in more than 80 Bollywood films to date, and won 14 Filmfare Awards. In terms of audience size and income, he has been described as one of the most successful film stars in the world. For his contributions to film, the Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri, and the Government of France awarded him both the Ordre des Arts et des Letters and the Légion d’honneur. He also has countless endorsement deals, earning him the nickname, Brand SRK. His philanthropic efforts include health care and disaster relief, and he was honoured with UNESCO’s Pyramide con Marni award in 2011 for his support of children’s education. In 2015, he received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Shah Rukh is one of the wealthiest celebrities in India, topping the Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 List in 2012, 2013 and 2015, his wealth being estimated at US$600 million. He owns several properties in India and abroad, including a GB£20 million apartment in central London, and a villa on the Palm, Jumeirah in Dubai. He was named by Newsweek as one of their fifty most powerful people globally in 2008. His wax statue is at six of the Madame Tussaud’s museums around the world.
Speaking of his success, Shah Rukh said in an interview, “Such great things have happened to such a normal guy like me. I am a nobody who shouldn’t have been able to do all this but I have done it. I tell everyone that there’s this myth I work for; there is this myth called Shahrukh Khan and I am his employee. I have to live up to that … I’ll do it, I am an actor. But I can’t start believing in this myth.â€
“We have known each other for so long, we have surpassed a stage,†he said regarding his relationship with Gauri on Koffee with Karan. “One of the stages that we have passed is that we don’t need to sit under a moonlit night. I think just passing each other across from the bedroom to the living room is romantic. Love is in the air. We have wonderful children who are a proof that we have a wild, loud, screaming romance going on in the house all day long.â€
They sure seem like a rock solid couple at least outwardly despite their starry life with its myriad of hazards and pitfalls.
Marina Qureshi’s designs can best be described as possessing a quality of quiet extravagance. There is a fiercely tactile sensibility underpinning the overall romance of her aesthetic and an unmistakable gift for detail. Â Her latest collection is instantly covetable and replete with Qureshi’s inimitable edge. Titled Broken Nature, it has a palette of teal, black, jewel red and deep purple. There is an appealing modernity to the colour range, outlined in silhouettes that are sharply contained yet flowing. Embellishments include clever inserts of tweed, fringe and ingeniously rendered leather. These are clothes for glamorous dreamers and show-stoppers alike. Marina speaks to Afshan Shafi in an exclusive interview
How do your roots affect your design aesthetic?
Pakistani fashion has evolved immensely over the past decade. I’ve grown up admiring my mom’s traditional vintage attire and I think my love for delicate thread work, sequins and crystals stems from Eastern couture. The combination of intricate embroidery with lustrous textures and detailed cuts define my label.
Who do you feel is the embodiment of your brand?
It’s for every woman who wants to feel special. A lot of effort goes into every piece with close attention to minute details so that when worn, it appears ultra chic yet completely effortless.
Who are your style inspirations?
My style inspiration would be Valentino! I love his cuts, especially how he thinks women should present themselves and the glamour that he represents. It makes you feel confident.
What inspired this collection?
The collection takes inspiration from broken nature not only in deformed patterns, but also in the strong and bold colour palette. Dark burgundy, purple, black and teal conjure up a chemically discoloured forest.
What were your inspirations behind the colour scheme?
The collection is a strong and bold interpretation of a classic theme. The print jacquard used is a distortion of the colouring of nature. Used beautifully in dresses and skirts with signature lace and induced cuts, it captures the essence of the brand’s feminine aesthetic. The classic silhouettes are broken to either induce a different colour vertically/horizontally or merged to create another texture. Fringes are enriched with unexpected colour. Tweed and faux leather have also been used this season following the colour theme.
Broken Nature by Marina Qureshi
Marina Qureshi
Fact Sheet
Background:
Dubai based Pakistani
Education:
ESMOD and Central Saint Martins
Worn by:
Lara Stone, Ellie Goulding, Amanda Seyfried and Florence Welch.
Featured in:
Vogue (British), InStyle, Velvet, Harper’s Bazaar (Arabia), Chasseur, Grazia, Savoir Flair, Nylon and Elle
By Mahlia Lone
Young, rich, famous, good looking, and in love…life is goodÂ
Bradford bad boy/boy bander, Zayn Malik has countless nubile young female fans the world over, but his number one fan would have to be his girlfriend, supermodel and Victoria Secret Angel, Gigi Hadid. In December, he even proposed to her, and while she has asked him for time before she even begins contemplating settling down, let’s look back at their fast paced year long romance.
Zain Javad Malik was born on 12th January 1993 in Bradford, Yorkshire, to working class Pakistani-British Yaser Malik and his English/Irish wife Tricia, who converted to Islam upon their marriage. The couple also has three daughters: Doniya, Waliyha and Safaa. All four have declared themselves Muslim, speak Urdu and can read Arabic.
Despite the band’s massive popularity, Zayn became the target of anti-Muslim slurs, forcing him to delete his Twitter account in 2012. During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, he posted “#FreePalestine” on Twitter, for which he received condemnation and death threats. Now he wisely keeps his political views private
Zain grew up listening to his father’s urban music collection of R&B, hip hop and reggae, as well as Bollywood songs. As a teenager, he took performing arts courses and appeared in school productions. He also boxed at varsity level and enjoyed writing, which is why he wanted to pursue an English degree at university.
In 2010, he changed the spelling of his name to the more contemporary sounding Zayn and auditioned as a solo artist for the British television music competition The X Factor. Though he was eliminated as a solo singer, he came back as part of the boy band One Direction with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson. Zayn’s wide tenor vocal range with his belting and falsetto singing techniques ensured that he hit the high notes and, thus, became the band’s strongest singer. The pretty boy group quickly became popular all over the UK and finished in third place. Seeing this, the show’s executive producer Simon Cowell contracted them to a £2 million deal at his label Syco Records. While in North America, the band signed on with Columbia Records.
One Direction gained immense popularity amongst female tweens. Their book, One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), licensed by the band, released in February 2011, topped The Sunday Times’ Best Seller list. Simultaneously, the boy band went on The X Factor Live Tour in the UK performing for 500,000 people in total. At the end of the year, they dropped their debut studio album Up All Night, which topped the charts in 16 countries. The lead single What Makes You Beautiful reached number one in the UK and number four in the US; it went platinum four and six times in the US and Australia, respectively. After a year, they released their second studio album Take Me Home, which sold 540,000 copies in its first week in the US and went on to the number one position in 35 countries. The album’s lead single Live While We’re Young became One Direction’s highest ranking song in many countries and recorded the highest one-week opening sales figure for a song by a non-US artist at the time. When One Direction’s third studio album, 2013’s Midnight Memories’ debuted on Billboard 200 they became the first band ever to have their first three albums all debut atop the Billboard 200. With their fourth album, aptly entitled Four, they had a record of four consecutive number one albums. By March 2015, the band had sold more than 50 million records globally.
Despite this tremendous global success, after five years of being a part of the band that made him famous, Zayn quit on 25th March 2015, citing stress. He was feeling burnt out and perpetually exposed. He said he wanted to live as a “normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight.†He denied rumors of any trouble with the other members, explaining that they were understanding and supportive of his decision.
In December ’16, Zayn reportedly popped the question, but Gigi replied that she is not ready to settle down and asked for more time. She’s also hesitant and wants to proceed with caution after her mother’s two messy divorces
“He was one of the more accomplished vocalists of the group, exhibiting the widest range. He mostly inhabited a silvery, full-bodied tenor, similar to but more sharp and precise than Harry Styles’ smoky warble,†wrote Brad Nelson in The Guardian, adding that his departure would leave “a void of vocal agility.â€
Zayn had started dating Perrie Edwards in May 2012. She came from a similar background, was exactly the same age and was also discovered in the same way. She is a member of the all girl band Little Mix that was also discovered on The X Factor. In fact, Little Mix is the only band to ever have won on the show. The couple got engaged after a couple of years together. Scandal broke out in mid 2015 when an English fan claimed in the tabloids to have hooked up with Zayn when his band was on tour in Thailand. She met him and his band mates when they were partying at a nightclub in Patong, Bangkok. Though Perrie stuck by him through the scandal and he promptly returned to London to be at her side, clearly his heart was no longer in the relationship.
In his autobiography, entitled Zayn, he writes when he decided to leave One Direction: “It was March 2015. I had been in a bad place for a while and I didn’t see myself getting out of it unless I made a change. My relationship with my fiancée, Perrie, was breaking down. To make matters worse, there were so many crazy stories flying around in the newspapers about us, and it felt like such an invasion of privacy, it made me just want to disappear for a while.â€
Despite taking time off his music to work on the relationship, Zayn couldn’t make it work. Perrie became insecure and controlling and finally Zayn sent her a break up text in August 2015. In Little Mix’s  new book Our World, Perrie reveals, “It was horrible, the worst time in my life. A four-year relationship, two year engagement ended by a simple text message. Just like that.â€
His good looks, naughty, juvenile peccadilloes, cheating scandal, body covered tattoo graffiti, including Perrie’s image that he subsequently got altered, trendy hairstyles and last but not least his singing and songwriting talent had garnered Zayn a substantial fan following. Billboard editor Joe Lynch described him as “the quiet one in the group, never the one to grab the spotlight during interviews. He typically saved his words for the songs, not for media sound bytes.†And after much speculation regarding his career as a solo artist, Zayn signed a solo recording contract with RCA Records in 2015. That year he also met Gigi Hadid.
Jelena Noura Hadid, known popularly as Gigi, was born on April 23rd 1995 to a wealthy Beverly Hills real estate developer Mohamed Hadid and his model wife Yolanda. After her, came her younger siblings who are also models now, Bella and Anwar.
Mohamed Hadid is a Jordanian-American who was born in Nazareth and is of Palestinian parentage. On his mother’s side, he can trace back his ancestry to Dasher Al Omer, Prince of Nazareth and Sheikh of Galilee, the mid-18th century Arab ruler of northern Palestine who withstood the might of the Ottoman Empire.
Hadid immigrated to the U.S. to make his fortune and started out by restoring and reselling classic cars in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He then moved to a Greek island where he opened a nightclub. The club flourished and with the profits, he started developing real estate in the U.S. In the ‘80s, he bought the Ritz-Carlton hotels in NYC and D.C. for US$150 million; he also famously outmaneuvered Donald Trump to buy the Ritz property in Aspen, Colorado; then he focused on Beverly Hills residential property, developing a luxurious mansion Le Belvedere that sold for $50 million in 2010; in 2012, he developed Le Palais, a 48,000-square-foot limestone fronted mansion built on an acre plot next to the Beverly Hills Hotel, currently listed for sale at $58 million.
A competitive man with a type A personality, at the age of 43 on the encouragement of his friend Austrian Olympic skier Franz Weber, Hadid competed in speed skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics, representing Jordan. Not only was he the only member of the Jordanian delegation, but he also remains the only person to have represented the country in the Winter Olympics to date.
Though Hadid does not consider himself a devout Muslim, he has abstained from drinking alcohol. However, this did not stop him from investing in a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, including some from his own Beverly Hills winery that he runs as a business venture.
Born Yolanda van den Herik, Gigi’s Dutch mother herself worked as a Ford model for fifteen years. In 1994, she quit modeling when she married the divorced millionaire businessman Mohamed, sixteen years her senior who had two daughters, Alana and Marielle, from his previous marriage to an American. After having her children, Yolanda gained fame on the reality show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, on which her good looking progeny regularly appeared, propelling their own modeling careers. Yolanda divorced Hadid in 2010 and married musician, composer and producer David Foster, who himself already had five daughters, but the marriage only lasted five years due to her ongoing battle with Lyme disease. After her second divorce, she changed her last name back to Hadid to match the name of her famous children.
Now Gigi was a really pretty child and growing up in a Beverly Hills mansion with well connected parents who were proud of her looks, she had been modeling since age two for Paul Marciano’s brand Baby GUESS. She stopped to concentrate on school plus get through the awkward stage and, in 2011, went back to work for GUESS as a teen model.  In 2013, she graduated from Malibu High School where she had been captain of the varsity volleyball team as well as a competitive horseback rider. She moved to NYC to model and attend The New School, where she started studying criminal psychology. But her modeling career took off and she quit college and signed with IMG Models working full time. She made her New York Fashion Week debut in February 2014. By the end of the next year, Gigi had made it, shooting to the Top 50 Models ranking at Models.com. She has graced magazine covers such as those of Vogue (U.S., Paris, Italy, Britain, Japan, Spain, Australia, Brazil, the, Germany, Italy, China), Allure, W Magazine and Teen Vogue as well as WSJ Magazine, Elle Canada, Dazed and Harper’s Bazaar (USA, Malaysia) among many others. By May ‘15, Gigi had walked for such premiere designers as: Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Michael Kors, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Max Mara. In December, Gigi’s dream of becoming a Victoria Secret model came true when she walked in her first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show along with her bff Kendall Jenner, of the Kardashian-Jenner clan. For the lingerie show, she trains and body sculpts by boxing.
For two years, from 2013 to 2015, Gigi dated musician Cody Simpson and also appeared in the music video of his song Surfboard. Following their split, she dated Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers for five months. Clearly, she liked pop stars. Gigi, along with fellow models Kendall and Hailey Baldwin, daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin of Hollywood’s Baldwin brothers, became American celebrity It girls. Gigi also became a part of American pop star Taylor Swift’s girl squad. She appeared in Swift’s Bad Blood video and also in Taylor’s then boyfriend Calvin Harris’ video How Deep Is Your Love.
By November, Gigi was dating Zayn. They announced their fledgling relationship via her Instagram account when she posted a photo of them holding hands together. In an interview with Sirius XM’s The Morning Mash Up, Zayn talked about the beginning of his relationship with Gigi: “Yeah, I just asked her out. It was pretty straight up. I just asked her if she wanted to go out. I was in New York…We met and we spoke, and we went on a date.â€
“We were both talking about the fact that we’d never actually been on a first date until each other,†Gigi told a reporter of the TV show Entertainment Tonight. “I met him once before and he is obviously so gorgeous, but really the way we could have conversations and kind of just…we’re really interested in the same things, so it was really easy. So that was amazing.â€
On the 12th of January ’16, Gigi celebrated her boyfriend’s 23rd birthday by gifting him a customized Z pendant. At the end of the month, fans got to see their chemistry for themselves with their hot makeout scene in his Pillowtalk video. When asked during a radio interview if it was easier to makeout with his girlfriend, he replied in the affirmative, confirming their relationship and, hence, a new power couple was formed.
Zayn’s debut studio album Mind of Mine released in March 2016. The album and its lead single, Pillowtalk reached number one in several countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, with Zayn becoming the first British male artist to debut at number one in both the UK and US with his debut single and debut album. He debuted atop the US Billboard 200 earning 157,000 equivalent album units in its first week, with 112,000 coming from pure album sales. Zayn also topped the Billboard Artist 100 chart, replacing Justin Bieber at his peak and surpassing One Direction’s number-two peak on the chart. He had proved his naysayers wrong, those who had doubted his ability to succeed on his own, just like Justin Timberlake did after leaving NSYNC. Philanthropically minded, he is also an official ambassador of the British Asian Trust charity group, contributing to improving the lives of disadvantaged people living in South Asia.
In April, the genetically blessed couple featured in a romantic spread for Vogue, ala Kim and Kanye West. They also made a sensational red carpet debut at the Met Gala looking very much loved up.
But then in June came news that left fans reeling. Horror of horrors, they had broken up after an explosive fight on her birthday. Apparently, they had been fighting quite a bit recently, and so decided to take a time out. Stress had taken its toll on Zayn’s fragile nerves. Anxiety had crippled him and he had to pull out of concert appearances. He even cancelled his performance at London’s Capital Summertime Ball, saying he was “suffering the worst anxiety of my career.â€
E! channel reported a source saying, “They got through a rough patch that Zayn was facing personally and it started to put a dark cloud on their relationship. Gigi was there for him when he needed her the most and that brought them closer than ever.†Gigi and Zayn stayed in touch through this period and she played the role of a supportive friend. He began relying on her more and more and she was determined to be his rock.
Gigi tweeted her support for him, “Z – I’ve seen the battles you go through and the way you fight to get to a place that allows you to get up there for your fans. Your bravery in those times makes me proud, but your honesty last night proved what you’re all about, being real … Your talent and good heart will never lead you wrong. Love you and so proud of you always.â€
After they got back together, they took a romantic trip to Tahiti, which the paparazzi managed to photograph as the couple snoozed on the beach and kayaked together like regular beach goers.
When in September, she was pounced on by a prankster in Milan and picked up from behind, she elbowed him ferociously and said he should be thankful her boyfriend wasn’t there or he would have really been in trouble!
The show must go on and indeed her shows did. Gigi walked for: Versace, Chanel, Elie Saab, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Miu Miu, Balmain, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Fenty x Puma, Isabel Marant, and Giambattista Valli during 2016 despite the drama in her personal life. She signed lucrative endorsement deals, becoming the global brand ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger, fronting many of the brand’s campaigns plus launching her own clothing line Gigi by Tommy Hilfiger; similarly, she put out a boot collection for Stuart Weitzman, the Gigi Boot and she became Reebok’s brand ambassador. (Incidentally, Zayn has also just come out with a boot collection this year for Giuseppe Zanotti.)
Two of Gigi’s most high profile gigs of the year were the 2016 iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards and the American Music Awards both of which she hosted, injecting her youth, beauty and sex appeal into the proceedings. For the first she received favourable reviews but her comedy skits in the second were panned by viewers. She followed this up with getting her VS wings at this year’s show where she was joined by younger sister, Bella. To cap it all off at the end of the year, Gigi won the award for International Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, presented to her by Donatella Versace, beating out all the other top supermodels, like Cara Delevingne and Kendall.
On the down side, Gigi was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disease involving the thyroid. In time, sufferers develop goiters, gain weight and may even develop thyroid lymphoma. Though incurable at the moment and degenerative, the disease can be managed with medication.
Gigi’s growing stature as a model can be gauged by the fact that out of all the models she has the highest number of Instagram followers—26 million by the end of 2016, over only 10 million the year before. Zayn’s social media followers across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pandora are an eye-watering 47 million. Moreover, he was voted the “World’s Sexiest Asian Man†in Eastern Eye’s worldwide poll yet again. Together they make quite a formidable power couple at such a young age. However, they are quite a low key couple in private, preferring to stay in and cook than party the town red. “He makes a brilliant curry. Butter chicken is his signature dish,†Gigi said in an interview to ES magazine.
Asked in an interview what makes their relationship tick, Zayn said: “She’s super intelligent. I think that’s why it works so well. She knows how to carry herself. She’s quite classy and that. She’s not, like, arrogant in any way, she’s confident. She carries it well. She’s cool. And we do the same type of job, so we get that with each other.â€
Gigi added, “I would say his brain. For the first time, we are both in a relationship where we have similar interests outside of work, and that is really important. We cook a lot together and do art together, and we’re each other’s best friends. We both feel we can talk about anything and learn a lot from each other.â€
In December ’16, Zayn reportedly popped the question, but Gigi replied that she is not ready to settle down and asked for more time. She’s also hesitant and wants to proceed with caution after her mother’s two messy divorces.
Meanwhile, the Mirror reported a source saying, “Zayn and Gigi have moved in together in LA and he’s busy furnishing and buying paintings to change it up and make it more of a couple’s pad. They cherish every moment together and make sure they’re never apart for longer than 10 days so it made sense for her to move in officially. The couple also share Gigi’s New York apartment when they are on the East coast and couldn’t be happier… Zayn prefers a quiet night with Gigi than showbiz parties so it’s important she feels comfortable.â€
Here’s wishing the couple good luck. We don’t know if they will be together for the rest of their lives, but for however long it lasts, at least they bring out the best in each other and make each other feel secure.
“Zayn sees how much Gigi is there for him,†said a source close to the couple. “They’re mutually passionately in love.†It doesn’t get much better than that.
Nadia Ellahi, creative head of her eponymous bridal and wedding wear couture brand, advises Sana Zehra how to put together the perfect, timeless trousseau
What are the key trends for bridal and wedding wear for the upcoming season?
The best part about bridal couture fashion right now is that not just long and flowy but even short and straight shirts are in fashion. These can be worn with fuller ghararas and lehngas as well as mermaid cut lehngas, flowy pant ghararas, etc. It’s all a matter of choice now, one can and should select what would suit oneself and look flattering depending on body proportions and be age appropriate as well. In hand embroidery for bridals, dabka, kamdani, Swarovski crystals, multi-shaped stones and 3D flowers are greatly in vogue. Metallic pastel colors are a popular choice amongst brides these days. Red is and always shall remain a classic. For mehndi events, colorful lehnga cholis and dresses are trending.
What are classic silhouettes that flatter every woman?
One can never go wrong with a straight slightly below the knee shirt worn with straight pants. It’s a classic and would never go out of style, so it is perfect to include in a bridal trousseau. For brides, I’d say this shirt with a trailed lehnga/gharara is a style that is timeless and will not look dated, regardless when you re-wear it. I always try and create dresses, which even after 10 years one could wear and look stylish and contemporary.
What trends would you like to see die?
The tulip pants, especially in bridal trousseaus. Neither are they flattering nor are they classy. This is one trend that I didn’t even bother to create in my bridal trousseau line.
What trends would you like to see more women experiment with this season?
I would like to see more women in saris; I find saris to be exquisitely elegant. When draped and carried well, a sari looks absolutely glamorous.
What do you hope to see more of from designers in bridal and wedding wear this season?
I love everyone’s new collections; I think everyone is doing a fantastic job in their own way. However, I would like to see a bit more experimentation with the colour red since red is the classic and traditional colour for the Pakistani bride.
By Mahlia Lone
Known in political circles as Hillary Clinton’s “body woman,†“shadow†and “mini me,†Huma Mahmood Abedin was born in 1976 to Indian/Pakistani parents in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her parents, both born pre-Partition in British India, highly religious, scholarly college professors, founded the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs in 1978; an Abedin family run organization devoted to the study of Muslim communities in non-Muslim societies around the world. For this, the family received regular funding from Muslims the world over, especially Saudi Arabia. In fact, her father Syed Zainul Abedin (1928-1993) relocated the family to Jeddah upon receiving a lucrative teaching post there when Huma was only two. She was enrolled at a British all girls’ school in Jeddah and learnt Arabic. Her younger siblings, sister Heba and a brother were born much after her. Their mother Saleha Mahmood Abedin is currently, an associate professor of sociology and dean at Dar Al-Hekma College, Jeddah.
Huma returned to the U.S. for her higher studies and got a BA from George Washington University in Washington D.C. with a major in journalism and a minor in political science. She wanted to be a serious political journalist like her first idol Christiane Amanpour and wanted to work in the White House press office. In 1996, while still at university, she began working in the East Wing of the White House as an intern to the First Lady Hillary Clinton. Another famous intern, Monica Lewinsky started working in the West Wing, the President’s section, at the same time. Highly intelligent and efficient, Huma got a full time job at the White House following graduation and served as the back-up to Hillary’s personal aide. When Hillary ran for the Senate in 2000, her older White House aides moved on. But Huma went with her and officially took over as Clinton’s primary aide and personal advisor during her successful 2000 U.S. Senate campaign in New York.
“Huma is a very, very religious person — she doesn’t smoke, drink or swear, always very polite,†a Clinton insider told Newsweek
In 2001, Anthony Weiner the Jewish Democrat, then in his second term as a Congressman from Queens, New York, and 12 years her senior first saw Huma. “I was like, ‘Wow, who is that?’ †he told The New York Times Magazine’s Jonathan Van Meter. Weiner represented New York’s 9th congressional district from January 1999 until June 2011, winning seven consecutive terms and never receiving less than 59% of the vote; he was a popular politician who got the job done. On paper, it was a match made in heaven. At a Democratic Party retreat at Martha’s Vineyard in August, Weiner asked Huma out for a drink. She replied that she had to work, but Hillary promptly gave her the evening off. Huma waved her arms at her boss and shook her head no. But Hillary encouraged them, “Of course all you young people should go out.â€
On the date, Huma, a teetotaler, ordered tea and then retreated to the bathroom for a long time. “She ditched me,†Weiner said crestfallen.
The two kept running into each other in D.C. but Huma wasn’t interested. She thought he was “a brash, outspoken, ambitious, camera-hogging New Yorker.†Very slowly opposites began to attract. Weiner finally won Huma over in January 2007, when he sat between Hillary and her rival for the Democratic nomination, then-Senator Barack Obama, at President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address. “I appreciate you looking out for my boss,†Huma texted him. They went out for coffee and romance blossomed.
During Hillary’s unsuccessful 2007 bid for the Democratic nomination, Rebecca Johnson wrote in a Vogue article that Huma is “Hillary’s secret weapon†and that her motivation is not the details of policy or political horse-racing, but “the way that politicians are uniquely invested with the power to help individuals—as with, say, the woman whose legs were badly broken by a piece of plane fuselage on 9/11â€, whom Huma visited with Hillary in the hospital. Huma said, “To me, that’s one of the blessings of this job. In some tiny, tiny way I am part of history, but I am also able to help people.â€
“I’m not sure Hillary could walk out the door without Huma,†Clinton adviser Mandy Grunwald told Johnson. “She’s a little like Radar on M*A*S*H (TV show). If the air-conditioning is too cold, Huma is there with the shawl. She’s always thinking three steps ahead of Hillary.†That year Huma went with the grand doyenne of fashion and publishing, Vogue’s Anna Wintour to Paris for a $1,000-a-person fund-raiser at the home of James Cook, an American businessman. It’s pertinent to note that Huma cuts a stylish figure herself, rarely repeating an outfit and always perfectly accessorized. Her go-to red carpet look is designer wear that is polished with splashes of colour and flashes of metallics. Plus she is high powered and rubs shoulders with all the American bigwigs.
In July 2008, a New York Times article stated that Weiner is one of the most intense and demanding of bosses, often working long hours with his staff, requiring them to be in constant contact via their cell phones, frequently yelling at them, and even throwing office furniture when irate. As a result, he had one of the highest staff turnover rates of any member of Congress, including, at one point, three chiefs of staff in 18 months. He admitted to pushing his aides hard but said that this was just his style of working. Some of his employees praised him for “his intense involvement in constituent concerns and readiness to fight for New York City.â€
“The couple framed it as a sex scandal without actual sex, a narrative that made sense, stated a NY Times storyâ€
Meanwhile, Huma started serving as the deputy chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013. In 2010, Huma made TIME magazine’s 40 under 40 list of a “new generation of civic leaders and rising stars of American politics.†Hillary sought Huma’s advice on Middle East affairs. Senator John McCain commented at this time, “She is a person of enormous intellect with in-depth knowledge on a number of issues—especially issues pertaining to the Middle East.†So Huma was a rising star in the D.C. political firmament.
In 2010, Huma and Weiner tied the knot in a ceremony officiated by Bill Clinton. She wore an embellished Indian-inspired Oscar De la Renta gown with polki jewellery that spoke of her ancestry. The designer favoured by First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush told Vogue that designing the embroidered, cap-sleeved gown for Huma “was like dressing Scheherazade, the beautiful queen from One Thousand and One Nights.†The lavish wedding cost a cool $250,000.
In her wedding toast, Hillary said fondly of the bride: “I have one daughter. But if I had a second daughter, it would be Huma.†Saleha, Huma’s real mother said Hillary may as well be Huma’s mother as she got to see her daughter far more than she (her mother) did.
In May 2011, Abedin accompanied Hillary and Obama on an official trip to London that included a state dinner at Buckingham Palace. Huma wrote to her husband from her “spectacular†room at the palace, “I cannot believe what an amazingly blessed life that we live, these incredible experiences we’ve both had.â€
Just days later the perfect life came crashing down. Weiner hastily called and left a message for his wife, who was in Washington, the ominous words, “My Twitter was hacked.†In fact, Weiner had mistakenly tweeted a photograph of his crotch meant for a 21-year-old Seattle college student to his 45,000 followers. It was a full blown sordid sex scandal. Huma who was pregnant at the time accompanied by Weiner hid from the reporters at a friend’s house in the Hamptons. Only when they were packing up the car to return to New York City, Weiner had the guts to confess, “It’s true. It’s me. The picture is me. I sent it.â€
“It was every emotion that one would imagine: rage and anger and shock,†Huma recalled to the Times later. Calling a news conference, Weiner came clean. He admitted he had sent explicit messages to six women during the previous three years, but had never actually met any of them. One State Department official said that many blamed Huma for driving Weiner to sexting because she “was never around. She gave so much to Hillary Clinton, what did she have left for him? It was politically incorrect, but we did wonder.â€
Huma sought refuge with Hillary who had herself lived through Bill’s extramarital escapades while in office that had resulted in a scandal on a much bigger scale. The next day after the press conference, Huma returned to work at the State Department. “My compass was my job. It was where I could go and life was normal,†she said.
“Huma didn’t really want me to resign, frankly. Her frame was: ‘We’ve got to get back to normal somehow,’ †Weiner told Van Meter. But he didn’t really have a choice. He resigned his office and gave up his $174,000 salary. Huma was making $155,000 from her State Department salary. The Clintons stepped in to help Huma financially. Not only did Weiner have to sell his Forest Hills condominium for $430,000, but Huma also sold her Washington condominium, for $620,000, at a slight loss. They moved into one of longtime Clinton supporter and New York developer, Jack Rosen’s buildings at 254 Park Avenue South. They were hardly slumming it in the sunlit, 12th-floor, 2,120-square-foot, four-bedroom $3 million apartment, the monthly rent of which was at least $12,000. In Dec 2011, Huma gave birth to a baby boy, Jordan Zain Weiner. Life was better than normal.
Weiner started a consulting firm, Woolf Weiner Associates, to pay the bills. To help her favourite, Hillary signed off on Huma’s request to become a special government employee (S.G.E.) at the State Department, so she could work from her New York City home while taking care of her newborn. Huma acted as a consultant with expertise that no other person could supply on a “myriad of policy, administrative and logistical issues,†according to her application for S.G.E. status. She became an S.G.E. by mid 2012 and was paid $62.06 per hour. She was also acting as a consultant to Teneo Holdings, a global strategic-consulting and investment-banking firm co-founded by her friend and colleague Douglas Band, Bill Clinton’s right hand man. For the seven months she worked at Teneo, she was paid $105,000. Additionally, Huma was hired as a consultant to the William J. Clinton Foundation to help plan for Hillary’s “post-State philanthropic activities.†Getting four different paychecks at once, the potential for conflicts cropped up immediately, according to William D. Cohan who tallied up her salaries in a Vanity Fair article. Together the couple reported a combined income of $496,000 for 2012. Politics sure is a lucrative career!
That summer, Huma, Weiner, and six month old Jordan posed for People magazine in their gorgeous apartment. They were happy. Huma is quoted in the article, “Anthony has spent every day since (the scandal) trying to be the best dad and husband he can be. I’m proud to be married to him.â€
Weiner was running for the 2013 NYC mayoral elections, but again he was caught sending graphic messages this time using the cheesy pseudonym Carlos Danger to a 22 year old woman named Sydney Leathers, an Indiana native who on social media had first expressed her disapproval of his extramarital behaviors. The story broke right after the sunny People story appeared. Weiner admitted that he had continued to send sexually explicit messages to at least three women in 2012. One recipient of his messages said that Weiner described himself to her as “an argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man.â€
Despite demands for Weiner to drop out of the mayoral race, he doggedly and penitently held a press conference with his wife beside him in which he announced that he would continue his campaign. He apologised, “I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out and today they have…I want to again say that I am very sorry to anyone who was on the receiving end of these messages and the disruption this has caused.†Not surprisingly Weiner lost the mayoral primary, winning only 4.9% of the vote. But the repercussions went far beyond New York, dragging Hillary’s name into messy headlines about pornographic pictures and Weiner’s descriptions of his carnal appetites.
“The Clintons put him in exile,†one longtime Clinton insider said. They had no choice but to distance themselves not from Huma, but her errant husband who had become a political liability.
Weiner and Huma had allowed filmmakers full access to his “circus-like†mayoral campaign for a documentary called Weiner that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016. The film’s co-director Elyse Steinberg told The Daily Beast reporter: “Just as Anthony was reduced to a caricature and a punch line, so was Huma. Our hope is that you get to see a different side of her: as a wife, as a mother, as a person with a very important job and you also get to see the judgment that was placed against her. Huma is one of many women whose husbands did something wrong or embarrassing, and they were criticized for staying in the marriage. Our job was to question those judgments.â€
“In the documentary, the filmmaker asks Weiner, ‘Did Huma want you to go back into politics?’ Without hesitation he responded. ‘She did. She was very eager to get her life back that I had taken from her,’ reported Tara McKelvey for BBC News. “The marriage survives. But Abedin’s role changes. She goes from being a devoted wife to someone who places her bets, at least politically, on Clinton – not her husband. The metamorphosis of Abedin from a committed wife to a cautious one, hedging her bets, takes place gradually during the film. It’s expressed in a subtle manner—more through gestures than words. In a political ad that’s shown early in the film, she smiles at her husband while he talks about his candidacy for mayor. Later at an event in a New York apartment, she stands up and says: “I’m usually in that room as far as possible from the microphone.’ Then she makes the case for why New Yorkers should vote for her husband.
Weiner is skinny and wiry–a coiled fury. He also has Faustian appetites. He’s slouched on a couch. She’s standing on the side of the room, with her arms crossed. ‘The level of guilt,’ he says and puts his hand on his heart. She practically rolls her eyes – and leaves the room. She loves him, but the scandal has pushed her almost to a breaking point. Later he says he wants her to go with him to the polls on Election Day to show her support for his candidacy. While he talks, she’s standing in a dark hallway with her arms crossed. One of Clinton’s advisors, Philippe Reines, who served as a spokesman when Clinton was Secretary of State, appears as a dark force in the film—unseen but powerful. Reines wants Abedin to stay away from her husband during a key moment in his mayoral campaign. Apparently, he thinks it could damage her reputation. She listens to Reines—not her husband. Weiner was committed to politics. But he became a punch line. In the end, his wife distanced herself from his campaign. She didn’t go with him to the polls on Election Day. The film shows that in political theatre, sometimes it’s smart to stay off stage.â€
Neither of the couple watched the documentary.
In 2013, a stage production The Weiner Monologues premiered at the Access Theater. Directed by Jonathan Harper Schliemann, the play was based on media coverage of Weiner’s sexting scandal.
Meanwhile, Hillary had started her bid for the 2016 Presidential Election with Huma as the vice chairwoman of her campaign and considered by many as the most powerful person in the campaign organization. This was not surprising as Huma had remained Hillary’s closest confidante. Annie Karni wrote on the Politico.com site that Abedin was “the only official channel to Clinton†and was hence “elevated to the most senior member of Clinton’s old guard. Huma is occupying a perch overseeing the campaign operation.â€
“Just knock on the door to the bedroom if it’s closed,â€Â Hillary would tell Huma.
“A lot of times, Hillary would snap her fingers and go, ‘Gum.’ And Huma would fetch it,†a Clinton insider told Newsweek. Huma was so dedicated that when she heard Hillary had been forced to carry her own bag up a staircase, she almost cried.
“Whatever the title, the job she performs for Hillary has always been essentially the same: confessor, confidante, and constant companion. It’s safe to say that over the years Abedin and Hillary have spent more time together than either has with her husband. A former adviser to Bill Clinton describes her as ‘a mini Hillary.’ Wherever Hillary goes, Abedin goes,†Cohan wrote.
“Abedin’s near constant presence by Clinton’s side for decades has made her a source of fascination and, in recent years, a paparazzi-stalked celebrity in her own right. Fans at rallies stop her for selfies; she has been photographed multiple times for Vogue, even by Annie Leibovitz; she hobnobs with movie stars at Paris Fashion Week; and she has the distinction of being the only Clinton campaign staffer who has been singled out by Donald Trump for attack (he used her marriage and recent separation from former Rep. Anthony Weiner to question Clinton’s judgment),†he added.
In her turn, after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States, Huma wrote an open letter to Clinton supporters calling her “a proud Muslim†and criticized Trump’s plan as “literally writing racism into our law books.â€
Further public humiliation was in store for Huma when in August 2016 the New York Post printed excerpts from a Twitter conversation between Weiner and an unnamed woman. Weiner had again sent a picture of his crotch, this time with his four year old son sleeping on the bed beside him. He also told the woman he’d dreamed about her, and invited her to meet him in New York.
Before the story broke in the press, Hillary was asked by reporters what she thought about the latest whiff of scandal but she dismissed it as “rumours.†Several of Mrs. Clinton’s friends and allies suggested she distance herself from Huma. Hillary is very loyal, but she’s also pragmatic.
The two women’s closeness had caused envy in those who sought to curry favour because Huma speaks for Hillary, and people adept at getting access to Hillary knew it. “Everybody fights to be at the center and Huma controls a lot of that dynamic,†a former advisor to Hillary said. Mrs. Clinton steadfastly refused to give up Huma.
The New York Times reported the next day that Huma had finally separated from her womanizing husband. She announced, “After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband. Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy.â€
*NO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS OR NEW YORK POST*
EXCLUSIVE: Huma Abedin and her Husband Anthony Weiner go for brunch on Father’s Day and take their son to a park for some family fun in New York. Abedin was dressed down in jeans and flat shoes with a floral print shirt and was enjoying her day off whilst Hillary Clinton was in Hospital celebrating the birth of her grandson. Weiner was having fun with his son in the park going on a slide and swings. Weiner went for some trendy green shades in the blistering New York sunshine.
When asked whether Ms. Abedin would step down from the campaign, Hillary’s campaign chairman, John D. Podesta answered, “Huma is a terrific leader. She’s multifaceted, has a great strategic sense, and she’s a wonderful colleague. She’s an integral part of the team, and her competence is only exceeded by her humility. We of course stand by her.â€
“There is a long list of usually chatty Clinton surrogates and supporters who went gone mute on the subject of Huma Abedin,†wrote Cohen. “The ones who didn’t get the memo, or chose to ignore it, stuck close to the prescribed script. Michael Feldman, the managing director of the Glover Park Group, a communications consulting firm, said that after 20 years Abedin has become part of the ‘institutional memory’ and now occupies ‘a really important and unique place in the organization.’
Bob Barnett, the lawyer who brokered the Clintons’ multi-million-dollar book deals, says Huma is ‘now one of the key glues that holds Clinton world together…. She knows everyone and everyone knows her. She knows their strengths. She knows their weaknesses. She knows the roles they’ve played, and that history is priceless to a person in public life.’â€
Then horror of horrors, in September the Daily Mail published an article claiming that Weiner had engaged in a months long sexting relationship with a 15-year-old girl. The troubled teenager claimed he asked her to dress up in “school-girl†outfits for him on video messaging app Skype and persuaded her to engage in “rape fantasies.†They also sexted through the app Confide specifically designed for confidentiality, automatically deleting messages and images after the first time they have been read or viewed. However, the girl took screenshots of a few of the lurid messages and images, including him bare-chested in the bathroom, which he had sent her that she shared with the Dailymail.com.
Devices owned by Weiner were seized as part of the investigation into this incident. He gave a statement to DailyMail.com in which he said: “I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgement about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent. I am filled with regret and heartbroken for those I have hurt.â€
The father of the teenager called him “a monster.†He told the Daily Mail that Weiner’s conduct was “absolutely criminal,†and that it has been “gut-wrenching†to watch the impact it has had on his daughter. “I hope I never come in contact with him, I’ll be in jail if I do.â€
Still the Clintons never publicly criticized Mr. Weiner.
FBI director James Comey went public with the latest investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, after he announced that the FBI was investigating emails found on a laptop seized during the investigation into Weiner. Freedom of Information Act requests from a conservative organization have made many of Clinton’s staff’s emails sent during her State Department tenure public. Huma was involved in many of the sensitive emails that were scrutinised. In one email dating back to the time when Clinton was Secretary of State, then-Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band asked Huma to facilitate a meeting between Hillary and the Crown Prince of Bahrain.
Hillary to her credit did not fire Huma regardless of what her husband’s indiscretions had cost her.
But what is wrong with Weiner? And why has he ruined his life? Jaffe, a UCLA-trained addiction expert said, “If someone’s life is repeatedly negatively affected by this behavior and they are unable to stop it, they need help.â€
A NY Times story on Weiner stated that the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health estimates that 6 to 8 percent of Americans are sex addicts. Awareness of sex addiction, an intimacy disorder, has gone mainstream thanks to celebrities like Tiger Woods, David Duchovny, Russell Brand, etc. “Those commonly afflicted are 30- to 50-year-old men, upwardly mobile, successful men, type-A, pillar-of-the-community, CEO-type personalities who usually have a problem connecting to other people and generally have some sort of trauma in their past.â€
The Post recently photographed Weiner horseback-riding through the woods at a $25,000, 35-day, all-male sex rehabilitation program at the Recovery Ranch in Nunnelly, Tenn. In-patient rehab is considered a last resort for sex addicts. The patients greatly benefit from having the seclusion the all-male treatment center provides without all the triggers that women can create. Upon entering the facility, electronic devices are immediately confiscated and for the first two weeks patients can’t even receive phone calls.
As we all know, Hillary Clinton lost the general election. Her email server scandal may have been a contributing reason. Huma was seen in tears after her boss’ loss. She now works as Hillary’s personal assistant.
“I’d call Huma one-in-a-million,†Clinton staffer Philippe Reines told a NY Times reporter. “She is truly one of a kind, one in a billion. We are all in awe of her poise, grace, judgment, intellect and her seemingly endless energy.â€
Fatima Sheikh shares her favourite types of trendy chokers
Fashion comes in all shapes, forms and sizes and this time it came in the shape of a choker. These neck pieces have been trending like wildfire. Initially worn by American supermodels like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid etc., the trend soon spread its wings around Asia. Now everyone and their aunt seem to be rocking a choker.
I remember I wore one last year on my birthday in March because my dress had a deep neckline and statement necklaces were hitting the shopping bags at that point. I was never a fan of chunky necklaces so I took a ribbon, cut it and tied it around my neck. As I stepped in the car my mother gave me a daunting look telling me that the strap around my neck looked hideous and out of place. I rolled my eyes and took it off. Last week not to my surprise she bought me two chokers.
This trend is even catching up with the not so fashion forward older set. The silver lining is that it is not too expensive nor pure cut throat fashion, (no pun intended).
HERE ARE 9 OF MY FAVOURITEÂ CHOKER LOOKS SO FAR THATÂ YOU SHOULD TRY:
The classic
This one is my favourite. An off-shoulder top with a wide preferably black velvet choker. This is as classy as it can get.
Multiple chokers
To add a little funk you can mix and match your chokers and make it look as trendy as you please.
Matching separates
This look defines elegance in one colour. Wear the same colour of choker as your dress. The result will speak for itself.
Love for lace
Don’t forget the elegant lace chokers bringing back the Victorian touch to our outfits.
The tinier the better
Just a string can do the trick, It’s less, but more in the language of fashion. This look is effortlessly eye-catching.You can even add a little charm in the middle to give a cute effect.
Beauty lies at the collar
Beautiful jewels tightly around your neck instead of hanging. These are hard to find in stores, but you can get creative. Take your favourite necklace and adjust it tightly around your neck in the place of a choker and you can find yourself as the trendiest person at the party.
The leather goods
This is an edgier, more funky look – a leather choker with studs. A leather jacket or fur would go perfect with this one. It’s a good winter look.
Shoelace out of place
This look is casual yet adds definition. If I weren’t in love with the trend I would say it is a shoelace tied around the neck, but it is more than that. It is a statement widely recognized around the world that looks cool.
90s is the new 2000
This choker is an actual replica of the 90s look. I remember clearly finding these in my aunt’s dressing room from time to time because I was a fashion obsessed baby. I have stumbled upon some old family pictures too where my khalas are posing and flaunting these chokers. Generations change but fashion stills remains.
