A life less ordinary
Tengku Zatasha Sultan Sharafuddin Idris and her husband, Aubry Rahim Mennesson, share how their love of travelling turned into a business.
Tengku Zatasha Sultan Sharafuddin Idris and her husband, Aubry Rahim Mennesson, share how their love of travelling turned into a business.
TENGKU Zatashah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah and her French husband Aubry Rahim Mennesson have often been touted as Malaysia’s own Mr and Mrs Smith, not after the characters Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie play in the film, but after the popular luxury website. It’s because they are both well-travelled, and share their tips and travel diary in their blog Frog + Princess and a luxury travel column in The Peak magazine.
Zatashah, the Sultan of Selangor’s daughter and Mennesson are equally at home cruising down the Seine in Paris or exploring Phuket’s rocky limestone islands. They greeted the new year in a boat beside the Sydney Opera House, mesmerised by spectacular fireworks displays, and were soaking up the sun at Pangkor Laut resort recently.
Mennesson loves the beach, while Zatashah loves food capitals such as Tuscany, Paris and Barcelona.
It is their love for travel that inspired their business idea - a webiste called Originalo that offers travel gift packages under themes such as spa, dining, escape and luxury.
“These experiences, from weekend getaways, to relaxing spa sessions or wickedly fun adventure activities are things we love ourselves. We just want to deliver unforgettable experiences, excitement and happiness for you and the ones you love through a simple box that you give!” explains Zatashah, 39.
Originalo was borne from Mennesson’s yearly ritual of surprising Zatashah on special occasions like her birthday and their anniversary by taking her out to a new restaurant. “I love the surprise, and of figuring out where we’re going. A priceless gift to me is not material possessions, but the experience of doing something together and creating shared memories that are so unique and precious.
“One such experience was when Aubry took me by car around the Loire Valley in France on a memorable trip that included a breathtaking hot air balloon ride. It was a surprise and I can remember the wind sweeping across my face as I stared in awe at the glorious chateaus and castles dotting the beautiful landscape.
“Absorbing those moments have become some of my happiest memories. It was just being together that counted where we’d go like, ‘remember that trip…?’ or ‘remember that restaurant you took me to…?’ Hence, we created Originalo to give special memories for people!”
The couple tied the knot in November 2007 at the La Grande Mosque in Paris officiated by the Grand Imam and rector of the mosque Dr Dalil Boubakeur. Friends and close friends celebrated the occasion with a dinner cruise along the Seine. There was also a wedding banquet at the Istana Alam Shah in Klang, Selangor hosted by the Sultan of Selangor.
The couple’s honeymoon in Sicily remains Zatashah’s best holiday.
“For me, it was the visit to Egypt, as I am a Egyptian history buff; I love Ramses II, ancient Egyptian temples and monuments, there is so much history and splendour in these places,” adds Mennesson, 40.
A modern-day princess
Travel is taking a backseat lately, as the couple has just launched their second business by bringing in well-regarded lighting consultancy Light Cibles to Malaysia.
The Kuala Lumpur office is the fifth for the Paris-based consultancy after Madrid, Tianjin and Singapore. Its expansion to Malaysia was the result of a fruitful collaboration with Lightg Cibles founder Louie Clair
and his son Emmanuel, whom Aubry met in Singapore “Both Zatashah and I have always admired Singapore’s skyline when the lights come on n at dusk. Several iconic building along the waterfront were done by y Light Cibles, which was also responsible for Singapore’s lightings masterplan in 1995,” explains Mennesson.
“There is great potential - in Malaysia. Bringing g in this international award-winning expertise se to Malaysia has been a dream and we hope to create spectacular nightscapes here too,” adds Zatashah who is no stereotypical princess shuttled around by limousines or surrounded by bodyguards or minders.
Zatashah is proudly a ‘working princess’. Her globetrotting days began very early in her life. She started boarding school in London at 10 years old, and graduated from Middlesex University with a Bachelor’s Degree (Hons) in Spanish and French, and later, a Diploma Cours de Civilisations from Sorbonne University Paris.
Shunning the attention and adulation she would have received as a member of the Selangor royal family, Zatashah went on to work as international corporate communications manager with French beauty giant L’oreal at its Paris headquarters. She also juggled evening classes for her Master’s Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the American Graduate School, where she graduated magna cum laude.
She has lived in New York and Barcelona, while enrolled at the Gran Universitat de Catalunya for Castellano classes.
Back home, she did a stint as a journalist with a local paper, partly in a way to rediscover her roots and homeland.
“I find it flattering when people refer to me as a working princess,” says Zatashah who is fluent in French and Spanish.
“My parents have instilled in my siblings and I since childhood the need to study hard, graduate, work hard and earn a living. We never took things for granted.
“It’s a fair presumption that I’m molly-coddled or life is easy for me and I do not need to work for a living, but nothing can be further from the truth. I have never banked on my family lineage to get anything in life. When I was a journalist, I conducted my interviews and wrote under the name of Zatashah Idris. At L’oreal, nobody had a clue about my background; I was just a Malaysian girl working with them.
“I work hard, I go through the daily grind, attend trade fairs and I am very hands on. Once people get to know me and see my work ethics, any assumptions they may have just goes away. I just want to be a good example with my life. I do a lot of speaking engagements to young people and they’d always have many questions after my presentation. For me, if I can be a good role model to them then I am happy. If people look up to the royal family as an inspiration; I hope I can achieve that.”
Partners for life
It was in Paris that a mutual friend from Tanzania asked Mennesson to take Zatashah around, as ‘she is new here and it would be nice to have a true Parisian introduce the city to her’.
“And so we met at a restaurant. Only that I was down with the winter flu and I was feeling terrible but the dinner had already been scheduled,” recalls Mennesson.
“Despite that we just clicked as we have much in common. Zatashah was so lively and I was impressed she had such a good appetite. Many French girls s eat one leaf of a salad or have soup. For a guy, it’s very boring to invite a girl for dinner and she doesn’t eat so you are the only one gobbling down food. Zatashahhah had a steak with fries, and then she he ordered a huge chocolate cake. I was the one having salad and soup, because I was ill!,” recounted Mennesson, sharing their first date.
“I am a Malaysian what!” Zatashah injects with a laugh. “We do love our food, don’t we?”
It was only a few months after they dated that Mennesson discovered that she was a Sultan’s daughter after seeing a Hari Raya card sent by her father with a portrait of him in full regalia.
“The idea of a royal family was very foreign to me, especially a Sultan,” says Mennesson. “I have written and published a French book about the typical life of a Parisian man who’d met and fallen in love with a real princess! It’s called Ma princesse, le Sultan et moi (My princess, the Sultan and I)”.
Mennesson has also been exposed to the world from young as his parents sent him off to summer camp in the United States when he was eight to build independence in him although he couldn’t speak a word of English then. He’d had to learn English quickly because summer camp in the US became a yearly routine until he was 16.
“Fitting in to a foreign culture was not difficult for me,” explains Mennesson, who fell in love the second he arrived in Malaysia.
“I adore the people here, they are so friendly, warm and welcoming. And I need my hot weather; I can’t stand winter, as I was constantly suffering from the chill and shorter days. Here, I open my window and the sun is shining every day!”
Mennesson picked up palace protocol very quickly. Meeting the father of the bride proved not to be as daunting as he’d imagined, although Mennesson was nervous. The vital first meeting was held at an informal Sunday luncheon together with Zatashah’s mother Raja Zarina Raja Zainal.
“Both Aubry and my father have similar interests in arts and culture, and both our parents share the same values. And my dad loved his Harley-davidson, so did Aubry’s parents. My father-in-law still rides his Harley with my mother-in-law who is 71, perched behind!” says Zatashah.
Mennesson became adjusted to living in Malaysia quickly as he loved his new life here and Kuala Lumpur is very much a cosmopolitan city. “The one thing I had to learn was not to make jokes lightly as the French have a certain wry sense of humour, which is sometimes timessometimes not taken the same way here,” Mennesson recalls.
Mennesson and Zatasha were keen to make their own mark in Malaysia and not rely on palace connections or their privileged backgrounds. They launched Originalo in 2010. Being partners in business as well as in life came logically, as they constantly bounced ideas and concepts with each otherMennesson who used to be in film producing is artistic and creative while Zatashah excels in organisation and operations.
“We do everything ourselves, from logistics and finance to marketing and product development. There was no time to be afraid or we’d never move on. So we just concentrated on making it successful,” says Zatashah.
“I have had so many people constantly telling me that many things are not a good idea, such as when I wanted to work in France to being an entrepreneur. Everyone has a negative perspective and if I were to listen to them, I’d never get around to achieving anything and I don’t want to regret at the end of my life of not taking chances.”
The one thing that’s vital to keep a business running between life partners is in having a shared passion and strong belief in what they are doing, Mennesson adds.
“The nicest thing she has done for me is to bring me to Malaysia, because I found my happiness here.
“I also value a set of jade cufflinks she bought for me with the Chinese characters of East andwest carved on them. They are very symbolic for me. I wear them on special occasions and they are lucky emblems to me.” *