Yiu Lin’s love for fashion is what led her to establish KLutched and ShoesShoesShoes and in 2012, she married the love of her life, former national squash champion, Mohd Azlan Iskandar. The couple later welcomed another love to their lives, Zara Aaliya whose appearance on her mummy’s Instagram drew gushes from everyone! Here, Yiu Liu shares with us her thoughts on motherhood and how she balances between work and family.
Hi Yiu Lin! How old is Zara Aaliya?
She just turned 1 on Boxing Day.
Could you describe how a regular day is like for you?
If I’m not traveling for work, I usually try spend the early mornings with Zara by taking her for a walk outside at the pool and park, then I jet off to work. Work usually entails me doing quick visits to our ShoesShoesShoes outlets, and also some time with my team at my office in Bangsar. Usually I have organised back-to-back meetings with my team and external parties, as you need to be quite efficient being a working mom.
I try to always get back to Zara by mid afternoon so I get to spend a couple of hours with her. We either take her for her outside classes or swimming, as that’s always in her daily activity. We get her to bed by 7.30pm then it’s mummy daddy time, either a dinner at home or a movie out. Some last work emails are run through, and then it’s bed!
If you could have one super mummy power, what would it be?
Duplicate myself?
What’s it like being a mother so far? How has Zara changed you?
One is never ever really prepared to be a mum, until you actually become a mum. It’s been challenging to be honest, especially balancing her needs, my desire to be a hands on mum, and with my career.
When me and my husband decided to have a baby, we both agreed to want to be both, fully committed to the child and her development, growth and needs. So we are both very conscious about this, and try to be very involved in her upbringing. My work with ShoesShoesShoes and Klutched, both brands which I own and fully run, are very demanding in the sense that it still needs me to be very involved in the whole aspect of the business, from designing, to sourcing and producing, and also the PR and marketing side. This of course also involves a lot of traveling, from country to country. I am still trying to find that balance, but thankfully I have a great team with me so we have been able to cope so far!
Having Zara in my life has made me a more balanced individual, in a sense now I have more than just my business to focus on! She’s also made me a lot softer, and it’s amazing how much you can fall in love with such a little thing 🙂
Is there something that you miss about the life before being a mother? If so, what is it?
The ability to just pack my bag and travel on a whim! And going to exotic destinations such as Mongolia which I was planning to before I got pregnant. Now all of these places will need to wait until Zara grows a little older, where I can either leave her at home or bring her along with me!
With that being said, what’s the best part of motherhood?
Just having her in our lives, a product of the both of us, our little mini-me. Just watching her grow day by day, and reaching different developmental milestones just amazes us. She’s now a toddler, so it’s really fun as she comprehends things really fast, and is starting to communicate quite clearly what she wants. And of course all the smooches that she gives us really makes us think this is definitely worth all the sleepless nights!
How did being a mom to Zara inspire ShoesShoesShoes’ second Bambini collection?
I launched our first ShoesShoesShoes Bambini collection before having Zara, but there were a lot of things about babies shoes that I did not understand. Now after having Zara and actually having to buy shoes for her, I realise the practical aspects of what’s important in baby shoes.
Previously, it was more the aesthetics that I was focused on, making sure the design was fun and captured the eye of the baby/kid. Now I try to balance that with practical things such as comfort, type of materials and embellishments, fit and how to get the shoe to stay on the babies foot! 😛
What do you do in your free time?
In my free time, I enjoy a good book. Of course if Zara is around, we spend that free time with her. Other times I catch up with friends as I do believe in still being your own person, despite being a mom.
Any tell-tale signs if Zara is into doing fashion with mommy yet? Or maybe hitting it at the squash court with daddy?
Well one of her first few words besides “dada” and “mama”, was “SHHHHoes”. Next was “BAAG”, so I guess she knows whats important? Few days ago she picked up my lipstick and started to pretend to pucker up and apply the lipstick, she also picked up daddies squash racquet and tried to swing it. So I guess she’s definitely emulating what we both do best?
Lastly, any advice for first-time mothers going back to work?
Don’t beat yourself up. You do the best you can, and things will fall into place. The art of balancing and multitasking is something we women do quite well, so it will eventually come naturally. Prioritise what is important to you, and once you acknowledge what you need as a person to be happy and then work towards that, you will have a happy household.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Ung Yiu Lin and ShoesShoesShoes.
