Shentonista Of The Year: Mini Me

When we first met Rynthia a few months back, she was dressed in black from head to toe. Fast forward a couple months later, and here we are dressing her up in our brightest look yet. But there’s no better person that could embody this look better than Rynthia, our Shentonista Of The Year: Most Memorable winner.

Beneath her cool exterior, Rynthia is a warm, cheerful woman who wears her heart on her sleeve. And when we say that, we mean it literally. The tattoos adorning her arms and legs all tell the story of someone near and dear to Rynthia’s heart—her late daughter. Designed by Rynthia herself, each tattoo tells a piece of her daughter’s life story. Now, Rynthia speaks of getting even more tattoos. Because let’s be honest, once you get one, you’ll just want to keep getting more and more.

“My next one will probably be a rose, but not just any normal rose. I’m designing it now, so hopefully it will turn out nice.”

As expected, Rynthia shows up at our studio in yet another all-black outfit, which she pulls off just as well as our outrageously flashy avatar look for her. While getting her makeup done, she marvels at how bright her eyeshadow looks, and sneaks a few selfies in to send to her partner. She tells us that this is the craziest, brightest look she’s ever donned, and that she loves it. And we’re glad. Full-day shoots are never easy, and Rynthia happens to be our final profile of the day, but watching her have fun on set and being game to try out different poses makes the long day that much easier.

If you grew up in the ‘90s, Rynthia’s stylised avatar might look familiar to you. Hint: it’s based off of one of Rynthia’s favourite cartoons—Rocket Power. Yep, we reimagined the iconic Reggie Rocket and created a look for Rynthia inspired by her, complete with a cool skateboard as well. Read on to find out how we incorporated bits of Rynthia’s loveable personality into this chosen look.

What’s the biggest lesson that you learnt last year?
The importance of health. My partner and I are trying to get the whole family healthy together by maintaining a proper diet and watching our food intake. With everything that’s happened in the world, it’s made me realise how important our health is. We’re just all trying to stick to this diet plan now as a family. Other than that, I don’t think I really learnt much last year (laughs).

Is there anything that you’re hoping to achieve this year?
For me, it’s getting more of a life. Now that borders are lifted, we’ve already started planning trips. So we’re hoping to visit Sri Lanka either mid- or end-year because my partner’s parents live there. It’s also the last place that I travelled to before COVID, so going back and visiting them again this year will be quite an exciting experience for us all.

I really just want to get away from Singapore and enjoy life. I mean, I’ve already gotten COVID (laughs), so we’d like to be able to enjoy life and see the world as a family. We’ve been cooped up the past two years, and there’s nothing much that can really be seen in just Singapore alone, so we’d love to take this chance to go out and explore the world for what it is, just like what we used to do when we were younger.

The one thing that really sticks out in my memories of my childhood is travelling. My parents used to bring me to a lot of places to explore different countries and cultures, and these trips would always be longer ones, like a month or so, so that’s what I really enjoyed most about my childhood. That and watching Rocket Power—it was my favourite cartoon growing up!

When we spoke previously, you mentioned that you were hoping to get back into the fashion industry. How’s that going for you?
I’m planning to, and am still trying to get back into fashion merchandising, because that’s what I was doing previously for work. I just love being able to see collections first-hand, before they’re even displayed or put out in stores. Being one trend or season ahead from others is really exciting to me, and also being able to brainstorm, visualise, and market it is where my passion and my drive lies.

To me, fashion is like a story about your life. It represents you, and is how people understand and recognise you. Every emotion is laid out when you put on an outfit, so the moment you see someone, you’ll know what kind of day they’re having. Like are they happy, are they sad, are they angry? The fashion choices you make really tell others about your character and personality, which is what I like a lot about fashion. It’s something very individual, but very dynamic as well.

You also previously mentioned that you were planning now writing a book about your life and your late daughter. How’s that going?
Ahh, yes, I’m trying to write a book, but the thing is that there are so many adventures to write about, and it’s going to take a long time for me to complete it. So with my busy schedule, I’m just trying to find pockets of time to write now. I do write sporadically on my phone, in the notes app. So my partner was saying that I should have this book be designed to look like a phone, because I never write on a laptop (laughs). It’s always like, you know, halfway through my chores, or during lunchtime, I’m just there writing stuff down on my phone, so there are pages and pages of content in there, but it’s just that they’re more like fragments that need to be compiled.

When you were growing up, who did you look up to the most?
I should say my parents right, if it’s going to be out there? (laughs) I mean, yes, my parents, but more recently, I’ve started looking up to one particular person—the funeral director for my late daughter. She has taught me so much, and if I could, I would love to be like her. She has such a busy lifestyle, but she somehow always makes time for her family, her business, and her personal life. She really inspires me to look at life differently, and to be a strong and independent woman.

You’re born alone, and you’ll die alone. That’s something that she’s taught me, and is also something that my partner always says. It sounds harsh, but it just means that we should all learn to rely on ourselves, and not be overly-dependent on others. So I look up to her a lot in my everyday life, and if possible, I would love to continue learning from her. When I was younger, there were so many people that I wanted to be, and I felt the need to keep changing myself to be like these other people, but there’s really no need to do that. It took me a long while to realise this.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Teleportation! Then I can just teleport anywhere, like to a beach in Phuket or something like that. I get to save on transport and flight times—no more long plane rides! And even on Zoom, I won’t have to use virtual backgrounds anymore. I can have real sakura flowers or Bali as an actual backdrop (laughs).