I don’t ‘belong’ to anyone: Amina Shafat
Sadia Malik

ISLAMABAD—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.