Latest Interview with Amina Shafat

Life begins at 25! Well, this could be a mantra for miss congeniality, Amina Shafat. A super model with a difference that ruled the roost on the big bad world of fashion without shedding her inhibitions. And still going stronger. She Recently joined a private firm as an executive officer and has also launched her label, this beguiling survivor is really beginning to bloom.

Apparently, news is doing round that you have relinquished modeling and has been working at an executive post in some private firm. Does it mean that we won't see you flirting with the camera or pushing product on the tube anymore?
I don't think of myself as a mainstream model. It's something, which I do it for fun. It's always been an extra curricular activity to me. I will be working but less.

So what is your new-fangled line of work?
I'm currently working as a business development manager in a consultancy firm. My work includes identifying new business opportunities for my firm and clients.

Does landing up this job have to do with your towery celebrity status than your basic talent?
Oh! I had to give three interviews before I got this job. The people at my firm were a little apprehensive over hiring a 'model' because they have a very serious approach towards their business. Besides they make me work at the backend, so it doesn't matter to them what I look like as long as I can deliver according to their expectations.

You must be a blue-eyed girl at work. After all, they have got a star working with them?
I wish things were like that! Things are different in the corporate sector. They don't care if you are a star or a super star. They are just concerned with the work you churn out and only that gets you adulation and attention.

You said earlier that your four years in modelling is been an extra curricular activity. Isn't this too derogatory to make a statement like this? After all, this very field made Amina Shafat, the Amina Shafat?
Modelling was like a transitional phase for me. But the last four years have been really productive ones. I've evolved as a person from my experiences.

Now you are expending your horizon and getting into designing. Do you think you are qualified enough to be a designer?
All the top designers I know are untrained and unqualified. Nilofer Shahid, Umar Sayeed, Faiza, Bunto none of them went to any fashion school but their work is phenomenal. Better than all those designers who spent four year in fashion schools but still can't design clothes to save their lives.

Of course, none of these big guns went to fashion schools but they all have one thing in common: strong aesthetic sense?
So have I.

Really? But your debut shoot received a lot of negative flak from the fashion critics. They think the cuts were biased and the stitching was underdone?
It's unfair to compare me with the oldies. They have been working for so many years while to me it's just a beginning. They have come a long, long way while I have to go a long way.

Then there are a certain section of critics who found your clothes a little daring, widely divergent from Amina Shafat's style, which is pretty sophisticated and covered. Don't you think it validates your double standards?
I am designing clothes for people and not for myself.

One gets a feeling that you look more or less the same incessantly because you have limited yourself to your mentor Khawar Riaz only. Don't you think it is detrimental to your career to restrict yourself to one person?
I don't "belong" to anyone. I was introduced by Khawar yes; and most of the credit of my success goes to him but I'm not bound to work for him only. I have worked with many other photographers. As for looks, it's nothing but a cock and a bull story. Khawar is always experimenting with my looks, and never has my shoot looked the same from looking like a Victorian queen to ethnic I've done them all with him. So I believe my work has been quite diverse on the contrary.

But why didn't you try to work with Ather Shahzad. After all they have an edge over Khawar when it comes to female shoots?
I have worked with them a couple of times. In fact I did my first Libas cover with them, which was a huge hit. And I simply have no issue working with anyone be it Ather Shahzad, Khawar or Deevees.

It is said that no matter how vibrant and divine the designer clothes are, your shoots look lackluster and you come out as a beautiful mannequin, which is not definitely a compliment. What is your take on such assertion?
If people think that way, well fine I can't change their opinion. I always take criticism in my stride; improvise my work instead of whining, sulking and crying about the opinions.

It is said you started compering, but you are too soft and modest to actually take it up?
Nah, I never compered…besides I don't see any connection with being soft-spoken and not being a good compere. Perhaps people are used to seeing loud, knocking compering.

When other models follow gleefully 'If you have it, so flaunt it' policy and made it big, you on the other had totally go up against it. Have you had the designers alter the design to suit your needs?
Yeah, there have been times when alterations have been made for me otherwise I drape a dupatta around my shoulders one-way or the other.

Don't you lose out on working with top designers for not being allowed to go sleeveless and so on?
I've worked with people who have been comfortable in working with me and according to my "limitations''. And its not like I haven't worked with any top-notch designers.

Did you ever feel that had you been not too choosy you could have done even better?
Nope. I think it's never quantity but quality, which gets you the recognition and nothing else.

By the number of offers you are turning down it seems that you don't want to last long in modelling. Just a year or two more and the party will be over. Has it been difficult switching or turning down lucrative offers lately?
Like I said, it was a transit period for me and now it's time for me to move onto higher grounds. Modelling has given me a lot but I feel it's time to explore other avenues. Moreover being an executive woman was always a dream. Where girls used to think of becoming either a doctor or an engineer, I used to envision myself sitting behind a big oak table signing contracts! So I'm doing one thing I like doing and the other what I've always dreamt of doing.

Are you planning to get married?
It will happen when it's destined to happen.

Would you wait for a year or two or even more till you find 'the one'?
We keep telling girls that they'd get bodhi if they don't marry at a certain age. And then they won't find anybody worth them. I find all these the wrong reasons for getting married. I have to see to who am I getting married to and whether he's my kind of a man or not. It's a lifetime commitment after all.

Models in general have been whining that they don't get Mr. Right – the romantic, intellectual kind and that all the good men are taken, dead or gay. Is this statement true?
The entire notion of a "fairy tale'' romance is clich. There is no such thing as finding Mr. Right and yes I do agree that men are fast becoming an extinct species because they tend to remain "boys'' all their lives.

Are you seeing someone?
That's me to know and you to guess.

There is this general notion that fashion is a shallow and a superficial world, and nobody is anybody's friend. How far is that true for you?
Well, why just the fashion world, I think the entire world has the tendency to be sugarcoated. But again there are good and bad people everywhere. I have met some really nice people in this industry as well.

You are not seen mingling with your co-models and you stay in your own bubble. Has that somewhat isolated you from the mainstream model brigade?
My interaction with my fellow models has been a very limited one. But socialising is no criteria for becoming a part of the model brigade.

Who do you call your friends in modelling?
I've made some really good acquaintances but true friends, zilch.

How do you rate yourself as a models?
Never thought of that.

What are the lessons you have learnt in modelling and otherwise?
Modelling has taught me a lot. It has given me a whole lot of confidence and recognition and has had some positive impact on my life. It has also taught me not to take people at their face value. I've gained more than what I've lost.

Are you flexible when it comes to money?
Yeah, I'm because I get embarrassed negotiating. It's not like bargaining at Auriga for heaven's sake.

You come across as a beauty with brains but with rapidly moving fashion world, where yesterday's concept is today's passe, do you think you need to reinvent yourself if you had to carry on?
I don't think its just modeling where one has to rediscover oneself. We keep evolving as a person and become better humans.

At any point did anyone threaten you?
No I've been very secure as far as my career is concerned what I'm destined to do I'll do, but what I'm not, I won't and there is no reinvention that can get me that!

Ever had to badmouth anybody?
I'm not an angel but I don't do it deliberately.

What has been the major downer in modelling so far?
As I said I have gained more than what I've lost. I don't think there has been any downside of modelling that affected me.

What would be the one thing you'd want to change about the fashion industry here?
I'd just like to change people's psyche. They should realize that models are real people and not aliens. They should not rate us and be judgmental towards us. They should be able to see beyond what meets the eye.

If you were to choose between designing, acting, singing, photography, modeling or being a diplomat, what you had preferred to be?
A diplomat most definitely! It would put me in the limelight, have protocols! plus it would fulfill my dream of working as a high profile officer.

How do you take criticism?
Just the way I take compliments I take criticism positively because it reflects the kind you are if you don't know how to take it. It helps me see my weak points.

What irritates you?
Busy mobile phone network. Electricity failure. Horrible drivers, who drive on the right hand side of the road at 30 kms and don't budge an inch to give you way, irritate the hell out of me.

And what fascinates you?
The power of the human mind.

Do you get hate mails?
No.

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