Harpers Bazaar – Between Friends
Published date:
Pages 234-235 HARPER’S BAZAAR OCTOBER 2010 bazaar LIFE Between Friends
Shentel Lee and Sereni Linggi
Photography: Michele Yong. Makeup: Alex Eu. Hair: Sun Khiew
Girl Power!
These Kuching darlings are fast becoming the It girls of KL. Here, they dish on everything, from sophomore pranks to NYC hustlers. By Sunitha Thayaparan.
Sereni Linggi and Shentel Lee shared their first slice of legendary New York pizza in Times Square at 4am; they started a chic hair accessories brand, Sereni & Shentel, that’s quickly getting well noticed by KL stylistas last year; and met and bonded over spicy Pakistani cuisine four years ago. “Our hostess that night, Rabia, is by far our best publicist and lays claim to the fact that she started our friendship,” laughs the yoga-lithe Linggi, 34, who admits that first introduction was hilarious. “We’d never met before despite both being from Kuching and we bonded over a jug of icy water as the food was a little spicy. But we hit it off and kept yapping at each other from opposite ends of the table. It must’ve really irritated the other guests,” laughs the irrepressible Lee, 28, founder of The Playground Sydney, which specialises in cosmetic packaging. With a host of shared stories and life experiences that the two have, it will most likely end with them rocking the retirement home, Britney-style.
First impressions?
Sereni: Shentel was impeccably dressed in Cacharel and was the life of the party. I think I was one of the last people left in Kuching who hadn’t met Shentel, and vice versa. It dawned on us we both lived in our own little separate worlds scouring the Net for fashion news and DIY crafts! We also seemed to finish each other’s sentences.
What do you love about her and why?
Sereni: She’s brutally honest, which is a rare quality these days. I can always rely on her honesty. Like … whether I should keep my MC Hammer pants and shave my head into a Rihanna-esque mullet? And before I can even finish, it usually ends with a hellto- the-no! Shentel is a stand-up comedian with the razor wit of a drag queen.
Shentel: Her elephant memory. Sereni is a walking dictionary of references, which is great now we’re in business together! But she has the worst poker face.
What were you doing the last time you had a really good laugh together?
Shentel: It would have to be this year’s Rainforest Music Festival. Sereni threw a Superheroes party and we dressed up as –Miss Ah Ha! and Miss Oh No! We were dancing around in the jungle with yellow capes and purple wigs, taking photos with randoms who would come up to us. Our super power was telling people if they were “Hot!” The moment we really laughed though was when Sereni and our friend tried to steal a blinking torch from an usher. The two of them managed to get as far as 500m with the torch to be then tapped on the shoulder by security and forced to give it back. It was hysterical!
What is she never without?
Sereni: Her GHD curling iron. Once her iron died on her and she went absolutely mental and needed sedatives. She can’t live without her Shanghai Tang sunglasses either. The girl hates the sun and is paranoid about wrinkles on her forehead even though she is flawless and has skin of a six-year old child. For work, she is never without her Pantone colour charts.
Shentel: Sereni is never without her trademark kohl-lined eyes. She is addicted to her ’Berry and will tweet stuff we’ve talked about over lunch and I wouldn’t even have noticed! She is also never without God. She prays for the whole of Kuching, which I think is the cutest thing.
Describe Sereni’s style?
Shentel: She is eclectic and spontaneous. I have seen her do every style including looks inspired by the Filipino blogger Bryan Boy. Her trademark is an amazing collection of rocking high heels, that she can run in.
Who are your style favourites?
Sereni: Everyone from Alber Elbaz, Christopher Bailey, Sass & Bide, Vena Cava, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfield, Steve Tyler from Aerosmith, Leigh Lezark, Nicole Richie, Olivia Palermo, my brother and his collection of Balenciaga man bags, Tavi Gevinson and Denise Huxtable of The Cosby Show. At the moment we are both obsessed with up-and-coming local designer Jonathan Liang. He is talented and edgy without trying too hard.
What is the most spontaneous thing she’s done since she’s met you?
Shentel: When Sereni hosted an Earth Hour Event, she tricked a KL band called Kyoto Protocol into singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me in front of the whole crowd.
What do you find adorable about her?
Sereni: How she flies off the handle when anyone calls her Kylie Kwong.
Shentel: In all our years of friendship I’d never seen Sereni cry. I seriously thought she was heartless. She finally cracked over the movie Hachiko. So she didn’t shed a tear at my wedding but cried buckets over a movie about a dog. Funny!
The best advice she has given you?
Sereni: Leave the party before it fizzles out or gets too crazy.
Shentel: Sereni is full of daily advice, famous line being “That’s expensive!” However, she can lose it when it comes to Christian Louboutins.
Her proudest achievement?
Sereni: Securing packaging design accounts from well-known cosmetic brands in Australia, including Miranda Kerr’s line of skincare. Our Sereni & Shentel website is amazing and is entirely her work.
Shentel: I think it would be her eco-friendly mall, Green Heights Mall. It is the first of its kind here in Kuching. Her Earth Hour events are legendary and she has managed to get her local community thinking about how and where to recycle. Every year she has an eco-friendly concert during Earth Hour at the mall where local acts play. It is powerful in delivering the message on thinking about the planet and what we should do to help conserve energy.
Travel features strongly in your lives. Any anecdotes?
Sereni: We went to New York together in the summer of 2008 on a whim. It was my first trip to NYC and we had the best time going to museums, restaurants, eating cupcakes, and generally having lots of laughs. Another fantastic trip was to Bangkok. We had a great time browsing the markets and going out to fantastic restaurants. Shentel and I love good food. Our personal favourite is hawker food and when we’re feeling fancy it’s KFC buckets.
Shentel: The funniest moment was when we landed in JFK. We figured that we would catch a cab rather then book a car which was a huge mistake. We ended up with a hustler who got pulled over by the cops 15m away from the entrance of the W hotel at Times Square. He told us to get out and tell the cops he was just giving us a ride. We were so scared. We had to get out of the car and wheel our bags on the streets to the hotel leaving him with the cops. Luckily they didn’t hold us. We were on the streets of NYC at 3am in the morning after 20 hours of travel. But as least we learnt that 3am is the best time to buy I Love NY t-shirts – they’re cheapest then.
Two decades from now …?
Sereni: We’d be hair accessory moguls, still making headbands in our bejeweled wheelchairs and superhero capes. If that doesn’t happen then we would probably be suing the pants off each other. Seriously though, I cannot live without Shentel Lee. There, I’ve said it, Shentel!