Alia Bastamam in24 HOURS
I’m an early riser, and very much a morning person. It’s become a habit for me to wake up at 6.30am every day. But on weekends, I try to stay in bed till 9 because I’m not a completely boring person. 6.45AM The first thing I do is a squats challenge. It starts with 50 squats and you’ll end up doing 250 by the 30th day. After that, I hit the shower. I take zero time to get ready in the morning because I go to work at my studio straight away. My hair’s not perfectly curled all day long – it’s in a messy bun and I’m in the most basic of clothes, with no make-up on. I like clothes that are breezy. Only natural fabrics, which are climate appropriate, because I need to rush around all day. The same goes for my evening looks; whether it’s a fitted wrap dress or a loose kaftan, I like my clothes to feel like a second skin. I keep the outfit simple, amped up with accessories, and never leave the house without my rings. If I have an event to go to then it’s a totally different story: I need at least three hours to get ready, but preferably five so I have time to run out and get my nails done. Right now I’ve got OPI Midnight In Moscow polish on my nails. (It’s a great shade of dark red.) I have a growing collection of nail colours. 7.15AM For breakfast I’ll have tea and toast with cheese or jam, with my iPad for company. I’m usually browsing anything from the latest news to Net-a-Porter’s weekly magazines. Sometimes I’ll sneak in a game of Candy Crush, or two. 8AM My first stop of the day is the work studio to check on the clothes we’re making at the moment. I’ll be at the studio for as many working hours as possible. Depending on the day’s appointments, I’ll either head to our showroom in Bangsar, where I meet my clients, or source for fabrics. Believe it or not, I spend at least three hours in the fabric store. We showed our first Bridal collection in March and then our Resort 2014 collection at KL Fashion Week in June. Next there was the Raya collection. Most likely the next collection I’ll work on will be my Spring/ Summer 2014. At work, I listen to old school R&B on an Internet radio app on my iPad. On my iTunes playlist, which I always go back to, it’s anything moody – from Portishead, Deftones and Metric to Florence and the Machine. I like my Erykah Badu and Floetry, too. When I’m in a good mood, I sing along to Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. 12.30PM Right now I’m going through a salad phase and I hope to stick to it. It’s