This year’s STYLO Fashion Grand Prix, one of the glitzy fringe events of the upcoming Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix, will be headlined by Andy Ho and Kavita Sidhu, two ‘old’ faces of the local fashion industry. It seemed timely then for Anandhi Gopinath to meet the pioneering hairstylist and the veteran model/actress/producer for an update on their careers. Here are their stories.

There are a few players in the Malaysian fashion industry who have stood the test of time, remaining relevant decades after they started out. Although the industry in this country is relatively young, it has had its high points, and the rich pool of talent that exists here has given rise to experts who understand the nature of the business enough to continuously reinvent themselves.

Flipping through former fashion files and old lookbooks yields two important names — pioneering hairstylist Andy Ho and veteran model/actress/producer Kavita Sidhu, both of whom are headlining the STYLO Fashion Grand Prix, one of the glitzy fringe events of the upcoming Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix.

The weeklong fashion extravaganza began on Thursday (March 25) and will end with the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One party this Saturday (April 3).

Ho is one of the country’s top hairstylists, with a star-studded clientele that includes Kavita herself and several other actresses, models and celebrities. Apart from his salons in The Gardens at Mid Valley City and Pavilion KL, he runs a hairstyling academy with his wife and business partner Florence Lum.

Ho and his team will be providing all the hairstyling support for STYLO and Ho himself will participate in a first-ever Hair Couture Gala show alongside fellow hairstylists Winnie Loo and Lois Lee.

Former beauty queen Kavita needs no introduction — she is known as one of the country’s most beautiful women and put Malaysia on the world map when she flew to Paris to grace the runways at just 18. She modelled for pioneer designers like Datuk Bernard Chandran and Bill Keith and remains close friends with them. These days, Kavita has shifted her focus to television and turned her hand to designing. She will be debuting her new lifestyle brand at STYLO with an exclusive fashion show.

Ho and Kavita are old friends and it is a joy to hear them reminisce about the past during our photo shoot at Vineria.IT in Bangsar Shopping Centre. It was Kavita’s birthday the day before the shoot and Ho teases her about it before they hug and exchange a bit of gossip. We leave them to it as The Edge photographer Kenny Yap tries to angle his lens to capture the perfect picture of the two in the rain-drenched evening light.

As expected, getting the right shot is easy since they are both quite used to being in front of the camera. There is a lot of warmth between the two, no doubt stemming from mutual respect and camaraderie. “I have known her like forever,” says Ho with a grin and obligingly fluffs up Kavita’s hair as Yap keeps the camera rolling.

Their stories, although different in many ways, share distinct similarities — they worked very hard at their craft, always kept their goal in mind and had the guts and the gumption to chase their dream.

Andy Ho
Nothing about Ho’s confident demeanour or super-stylish dressing reveals his roots, but once you have spent some time with the man, you can tell he’s still a small-town boy at heart. The oldest of seven siblings from Kluang, Johor, Ho is down to earth, refreshingly honest and charming.

He is also a consummate gentleman — he asks politely if he may smoke before lighting up his Marlboro menthol, which his assistants had dutifully brought him before the interview. He is especially careful about blowing the smoke in the opposite direction. “Don’t want your hair to smell of smoke lah,” he says. Naturally, that’s the first thing he thinks about.

And as I soon find out, Ho is a caring and nurturing person as well. He gives me free tips on taming my curly hair and offers to trim it later that evening. It’s difficult not to be charmed by the man, especially when it is obvious he isn’t trying to do so.

“I started learning about hairdressing when I was 21. Everyone told me it was too late to learn but I didn’t think so. I loved this industry… I can instantly make people look beautiful and express my own creativity, which is really self-satisfying,” he begins, telling me how he started on his career. “My parents were very unsure when I told them this was what I wanted to do, but I promised them I would do it in the right way, that I would do it properly,” reveals Ho.

And so he did, moving to Kuala Lumpur to study. According to Ho, there were plenty of hairdressing schools even then, although they were much smaller. What was also different was what they used to teach — hairdressing then was a hugely different industry. At the time, it was pretty much about washing and cutting hair. Today, of course, hairdressing is a science, seeing the way the technology and research related to hairdressing products and methods have evolved.

“Times have changed. Hairdressing today is not just about cutting hair. Nowadays, you must be very knowledgeable, you must know people’s lifestyle and you have to understand chemistry, so you can style and colour people’s hair. That is a science, you know. As a hairdresser, you have to be very observant about your customer’s lifestyle and about global trends…It’s very important. You cannot just do something that expresses yourself but doesn’t work for the customer’s face or lifestyle,” says Ho.

This is Ho’s key to success: Not merely unleashing his creativity but also ensuring it is in context and that it meets a specific need. Although this is something he recognised early in his career, it took him several years to strike a balance between the two. Although, if you ask him, the many years do not seem that long.

“To me, everything is instant, you know. Maybe because I have so much passion… The minute I wake up, before I go to sleep… this is all I can think about. How I can do hairstyling in the right way. Feels like just two months,” he grins.

But he cannot remember whether he opened his first salon in KL Plaza when he was 25 or 26. “When I started, I knew that a good picture is worth a thousand words,” he says. “I was involved in quite a bit of fashion work, so I prepared my own portfolio. I sent my work overseas and I was the first Asian whose work appeared in international hair magazines. From there, people recognised me and the local press supported me a lot too.”

Over the years, Ho kept styling and hairdressing and his involvement in fashion continued. He had an idea of the kind of stylist he wanted to become and that helped direct his career immensely — Ho was a realistic and consummate creator who understood the balance between creativity and real life.

His range of skills and abilities — including makeup, which was self taught — opened myriad opportunities to him. Ho was the former creative director of cosmetics label Red Earth and spearheaded its rebranding exercise about 10 years ago. He was also the first person in Southeast Asia to be invited to London to participate in Wella International’s Trend Vision competition. Working with some of the world’s best photographers only served to enhance his experience in fashion styling, which he also did with local retailer Padini Holdings.

About five years ago, Ho decided that he was at the right point in his life to share the knowledge that he had gained. He opened his own hairstyling academy, Hair Connection Salon & Academy, and struggled to establish a syllabus and build a reputation.

“But I didn’t do this alone. I did it with my partner Florence. From girlfriend to wife to business partner,” he says with a boyish smile. How romantic, I say, and he agrees. “We studied together, then worked together. Now, we have the same goals, so it’s good,” he says. The couple, who have three children, split the work fairly — Florence handles administration and the paperwork while Ho handles the salons and the fashion shows that he often does.

The subject of STYLO comes up, and of course the much-anticipated collection from Kavita, who is designing for the first time. “She is a star. She carries herself very well. I believe people like her can project themselves into so many images, and I like working with people like that,” says Ho.

He is too diplomatic to pick a favourite from among the people he has worked with, but says that over the 25 years of being in the industry, he has noticed how people grow. “It’s so interesting to see how people can grow from a young innocent girl to a celebrity,” he muses. “The process is so interesting. And the best part is, now they are my friends. From clients, they become friends, so the feeling is different and that makes me feel good.”

Ho’s mobile rings for the third time in half an hour and he apologises profusely before taking the call. Things are very busy at the academy and at the salon as the team is busy preparing for STYLO. While he is only too pleased to support local fashion, the partnership with STYLO is a win-win situation — it’s a great training ground for the academy’s students.

Before the interview, he had mentioned that his creations for the Hair Couture Gala that will be held on April 1 will not be in the same dramatic vein as hair shows in Paris and London. “My idea is to show off the hairstyles, but I want to do it in a beautiful way and not a shocking way. I believe the seven deadly sins are still part of human nature, so I am choosing to interpret them in a positive, beautiful way. And the emphasis will still be on the models and the clothes. The hair is an accessory.”

Ho is working closely with the designers and the clothes they are wearing to ensure the hairstyle complements the model’s overall look and her personality. “I have to make people feel like it’s couture hairstyling, but it also cannot be surreal. It has to be in the right context,” he says thoughtfully.

So, what can we expect from Andy Ho at STYLO? His simple reply exemplifies his personality: “Just beautiful hair.”

Kavita Sidhu
Kavita’s most endearing feature is the way she gushes when she speaks. Instead of coming off as affected though, it conveys her genuine excitement about and interest in our conversation, even when we talk about something as simple as where she got her all-white Blackberry Bold or her love for Roberto Cavalli’s designs.

The veteran model/actress/producer and now designer isn’t feigning interest — as brainy as she is beautiful, it is her curiosity about everything that has allowed her career to develop into what it is today. Discovered as a model while still in school, Kavita has established a career beyond the runway, with successful forays into acting, producing, television hosting and now designing. On Tuesday (March 30), Kavita will be presenting her first resort-wear collection as part of STYLO.

Understandably, she is unwilling to reveal too much. “It’s a lifestyle brand, so the collection I’m presenting at STYLO is just one part of it. The master brand will be launched in about two months’ time, so I’m keeping mum about it until then,” she says. I manage to coax a few more details out of her as the interview progresses — there will be 25 different looks, featuring a wide range of pieces like kaftans and evening dresses. The artwork that is part of the exhibition is the only other clue she offers. “Let it be a surprise,” she says, flashing her 100-watt smile.

That now-famous smile was first discovered when Kavita was 13. Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather had come to Kavita’s secondary school, SMK Assunta in Petaling Jaya, looking to audition girls for a television commercial for Milo. “I was a serious athlete. I loved sport and I was the head of my sports team. I did high jump and long jump and all that. So, I auditioned for the Milo commercial and that’s what really started me off,” she says.

School was where she was discovered again, this time as a model. “We used to have these fashion shows every year, and professional models used to come and participate in them. So, that’s how they saw me and found me, this tall and skinny girl,” she laughs.

Kavita, who has two older brothers, had the full support of her doctor parents as long as she kept her grades up. “I think they could see that people were really interested in me and that the offers I was getting were big ones. They also saw that I was good at it. But I made sure I performed well in school, I did my A-levels, and I did well so they were happy.”

Starting her modelling so early in life made the work increasingly easy as she grew older, and Kavita says she is completely comfortable at shoots even now and enjoys what she does immensely. “I find it easy and totally relaxing actually because I’ve been doing it for so long,” she states.

When she was 17, the modelling agency Kavita was with entered her in a model competition, the top prize for which included a trip to Paris to be shot for the cover of a Singapore fashion magazine. “The shoot lasted a week and after that I took my portfolio to all the agencies in Paris until I found one that took me in. I returned to Paris three months later to model, after my exams were over. Modelling felt like a hobby to me at the time but I must have taken it seriously as well because even at that age, I took my portfolio all the way there and I did what I did. It was so exciting, and so unbelievable — being in Paris at that age was just so amazing. I’m so glad I have that experience with me.”

Ironically, Kavita had harboured dreams of becoming a doctor because of her parents and then leaned towards sports in school — modelling had never crossed her mind. “I was a tall, skinny, gangly girl. I never thought I would be doing this, not ever,” she says.

Yet it does seem like the London-born, KL-raised beauty was born for the job. The perfect physical representation of the word “statuesque”, she is slender and supremely elegant, with a comportment that comes naturally. It’s probably how she won the Miss Charm International title at just 18.

Kavita laughs at the memory.

“I was selected by the Singapore-based organisers to represent Malaysia, and quite frankly, it felt like another modelling job to me. It was in Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia, and my mum came with me. I remember it being quite an eye-opening experience, and of course when I came back, I realised what a big deal it was because I got so much more work after that.”

And so she kept modelling until she was offered an acting job by local funnyman, actor and director Harith Iskandar. The role was in the television series Dunia Ina & Rees. “I was so surprised when he offered me that role, I was like, ‘hello, I can’t act!’ Harith insisted I could, so I gave it a shot.”

It was a career-defining move for Kavita. Not only did she begin acting, that too in a Bahasa Malaysia production, but producing as well. A chance meeting with director Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba became a lifelong friendship and business arrangement as Kavita is now an executive producer with Pesona Pictures.

“Shuhaimi found me,” she says fondly. “She was the one who told me to audition for Layar Lara and I got the part. The experience was really out of this world for me, to be surrounded by amazing actors like Ida Nerina and Azean Irdawaty. I also never thought I’d be doing this for 10 years.”

Along with Hans Isaac, Kavita was — and still is — the rare non-Malay actor in Bahasa Malaysia movies and really had to work hard on the language, even to the extent of taking classes. She also worked on her craft very seriously by spending six months at an acting workshop in London’s Lee Strausberg School of Method Acting.

“Modelling and acting are vastly different,” she comments. “When you model, you have to be aware of the camera, but when you’re acting, you have to completely forget about the camera. Going back and forth wasn’t easy, but what helped were the rehearsals I had before each movie. We’d be in intense rehearsals for a month to a month and a half prior to shooting and being together with the other actors really helps you get into the right frame of mind. You shed all your inhibitions, your ego, shed yourself really, and just play the role.”

Her acting chops earned her several other high-profile roles in movies like Mimpi Moon, 1957 — Hati Malaya, the Pontianak series of films and Waris Jari Hantu, which was also spun off into a series on RTM2. Not only did Kavita act, but she also co-produced.

She has since moved on to television hosting and excitedly describes a brand new television programme that is scheduled to air in a few weeks. “It’s called Fashionista, and it’s a Bahasa Malaysia programme on fashion. It has different segments on style and fashion and all that, and I am so excited to be hosting it,” she says. That’s all she says, convincing me to watch it to find out more.

The new fashion label is her next and most recent project. “It has always been a dream of mine to create a lifestyle brand, and the first step is a clothing line,” Kavita says. “What I’m presenting at STYLO is a capsule collection. After the launch, I’ll introduce other items like accessories, bags and shoes. There are other ideas as well, but that will come later. The inspiration of the brand is Malaysia, really, and our cultural diversity. There are many elements of the people of the straits — the Nyonyas, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Indians, even the British.”

Initially, the collection, called Kavita, will be sold online although there are plans for a retail store. “The timing never seemed right to present the collection, [Datuk] Nancy [Yeoh, STYLO’s president and CEO] came to me last year and offered me the chance to show my collection but it wasn’t right for me. This year, everything has come together nicely. I am very excited about this,” she says.

No more modelling? Yes, she says, there is some modelling work that is planned for later in the year that she’d like to keep under wraps. For the moment, all hands are on deck for the launch of the new collection.

“But you know, I don’t really consider myself a designer,” she says. “It’s just another endeavour of mine. My heart remains in acting and producing.”

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 799, Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2010