Being in the business for the longest time, Ace jewellery designer Shafaq Habib has made a niche for herself in this field of creative endeavour.
We caught up with her to chit chat to know about her life, aesthetics and more so about her passion which is designing the gorgeous treasured pieces of jewellery!
Q1. What has been the most driving factor in your career which keeps you going?
My creative thoughts and innovative designs have been the driving force in my career.
Q2. In the times of immense competition, What do you think makes your work stand out?
I travel a lot and observe timeless and classical features of different cultures and incorporate these with our south Asia design lines. I am Claude Monet student for flow of colours and shades. My finished designs often show it. Late Guljee once came to see my jewellery and said your jewelry is like paintings specially the flow of colours.
Q3. Do you think celebrity endorsement is important or the work speaks for itself?
Celebrity endorsement is a short time bubble which fizzles out unless the work shows it.
Q4. Gold or diamonds, Which are your personal favourite?
My personal favourite are pearls, They can enhance the beauty of both gold and diamonds in jewellery.
Q5. What do you think is one item of jewellery every woman should own?
Earrings and rings. Ladies of great international standing like Hillary Clinton, Queen Elizabeth, Benazir Bhutto, Madaeline Albright never appear in public without earrings.
Q6. Mostly designers have a muse in mind while designing, who is yours?
I have always admired Coco Chanel. I watched her biography when I was young and was so impressed that I thought I want to be like her. Interestingly, when I held my first exhibition in Washington DC in 1982, my near ones thought I was wasting my time. Rather than being discouraged I remembered same thing happened to Chanel when she designed her initial sets of hats, and went ahead with my exhibition. By the grace of God exhibition was a huge success and I never looked back.
Q7. One Pakistani actress you would want to accessorize with your jewellery?
Lots of actresses like Reema, Meera, Mahira Khan, Iqra Aziz, Iman Ali and many more have worn my jewellery. When I visited India in 2006, I went to one of the best jewellery store in Dehli. The salesperson knew I had come from Pakistan and called the owner to meet me. He wanted to impress me so he took out a magazine and showed me a picture and told me this is our very popular design and named Bollywood stars who had bought it. I felt very humbled because right under the models name it was written in bold letters designed by Shafaq Habib. I did not tell them who I was and quietly walked out.
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