“We are a Pacific nation of global influence. We wouldn’t be who we are without the influence of our diverse culture and I chose to remind viewers of that. I am a proud Fijian who happens to be of Indian ancestry” — Sandhya Nand.
Sandhya Nand is a publicist and official photographer for Pacific Runway, Australia’s well-known fashion event for Pacific origin designers.
Pacific Runway is held at Carriageworks and is one of two significant fashion events, apart from Australian Fashion Week. She is also a publicist and a senior contributor to PNG-based STELLA magazine, one of the Pacific’s most prestigious women’s magazine.
STELLA is available in 500 outlets in Australia as well as all over the Pacific, some parts of Asia and UAE, and soon in the UK. She also co-runs a modelling agency, Ethnic Model Management, started by fellow Fijian Terry-Ann Lapa. And she does modelling workshops around the Pacific. We caught up with the proud Fiji-born as she shares her memories of life in Fiji and her latest projects.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself, where did you grow up and your connection to Fiji?
I was born in Fiji in 1971 with a childhood spent in England and India then boarding school in Australia in my teens. My father was a parliamentarian then (later a senator —Shardha Nand), when the first coup happened, I didn’t come home for a while, but deferred uni as soon I could go home.
When in Fiji, I went to school at Veiuto and then Suva Grammar School … that motto has always stuck with me. I continue to seek and continue to find!
Growing up in Suva was the best. That freedom and feeling of safety we had … wow, such a blessing. Oh gosh, this sounds bad but… my friends and I, our teen years, we used to walk around everywhere in the middle of the night. I am sure our parents thought we were asleep.
Early childhood was spent in the cold crisp green of England, then the kaleidoscope of India! Setting foot in Fiji was a paradise.The freedom to run barefoot everywhere, swimming every afternoon at Suva sea wall or at the Deuba beaches.
Then I went to boarding school and was introduced to the red earth of Terra Australis. I felt a connection then and I still feel it now.
My cosmopolitan childhood is what shaped my mind to think the way I do. I was very lucky to be born to my parents. Amazing humans who gave me lots of opportunities and I would like to think that I made the most of most of them and created more.
2. You’re considered as one of the pioneers of the Fiji fashion industry, as well as one of the top models in the 90s. How would you describe the changes from then to now?
Well, even though we were “top models”, we all did our make-up and hair and we didn’t have helpers backstage. There really was only 8-10 of us and we were the masters of quick changes.
Fashion was perhaps more exclusive back then too and innovative. Designers were actually avant-garde, giving free reign to their creativity instead of producing variations on a Kaftan.
Designers such as Zelda Thomas (my fellow top model and now co producer of Fiji’s top fashion event, Style Fiji); Naina, and so on, they created amazing designs.
I do love that there are still boutiques and so many local labels, some who are bona fide designers and not just people who tell their tailor what Vogue photo to copy and I love that there is a governing body to keep egos in check..jokes. The Fashion Council of Fiji exists to keep everything fair and to protect and nurture the industry. Every industry needs captains to steer the ship safely but with excitement in to uncharted waters.
From an objective point of view, Fiji’s fashion industry is a cut above (pun intended!) and well established. Just needs to be pushed a bit more… Complacency is the death of growth.
Have I mentioned how much I love Suva? I was blown away by its style and island sophistication. Wish we had the Suva of now back in the 90s. We knew what to do with it.
The 90s were all about personality and individuality and larger than life presence, which is why Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford etc are still big names. I guess too why Fijians of a certain age still remember us, the 90s models.
Now there’s a fantastic fashion week and the models do the international zombie walk. Very keeping with the times. Very professional but… we got paid well back then. We had actual agents. First the wonderful Anna Sweetman, who ensured we were role models as well as fashion models. She demanded that what we did and who we were, be valued as a skill and as an asset. Back then Zelda Thomas had an agency called Image-Visage, in partnership with a NZ agency and in conjunction with her boutique, Image, at the then Tradewinds.
Now agencies don’t exist, models hardly get paid and modelling is still not a career option even though Fijian models are drop dead stunning and skilled and tall!
Fiji has many models who should be working internationally but at the same time, I am objectively happy that many of them choose to pursue careers that don’t focus on their looks.
Interestingly… we had more Indo-Fijian representation on the runway back then too.
I was reading the news, singing and modelling. Awesome times and I hope I paved the way for not just Indo-Fijian females but all Fijian females, to push boundaries, whether they be self-imposed or put upon.
3. You’ve recently launched a media agency called Dusk Devi Vision PR, how has it been doing?
Well I would be much of a publicist if I was modest about its success (laughs). A publicist must walk their talk so I am proud to say that it is doing very well. I have had the agency, Dusk Devi Vision Media, for a while, which provides photography, presentation training and content creation, and I added public relations in 2016.
I am a natural at it because I am naturally enthusiastic about what people do and I believe in what people do. People are shy, especially Pacific people who are a baffling mix of confident and mild! Life of the party, can dance on the tables till dawn but afraid to talk about their own skills and value. I find that so strange.
4. Did you always see yourself making a mark in photography or achieving what you have now?
Well, in my teens I used to keep Cainnes Janiff in business! Back in the days of film, I used to use my parent’s camera until I got my own at 12 and I photographed everything. I was the chronicler of our teen years and thought I was so good. I still have many photos from that time, including some of my ‘arty’ forays. Look, they’re not that bad.
I knew that I wasn’t going to take photography up as a career until much later in life, first I wanted to chase goals in other areas, writing, modelling, singing, radio, TV, event production, dancing too.
All those goals, I achieved. I still write — about fashion, travel, feminism, multiculturalism and for a while, rugby!
I have also produced some big events that I believe (and have been told) have left their mark, events such as Wella Designer Awards and Bula Rocks The Park.
I still model (at the ripe bold age of 46). Last runway was for Style Fiji 2016 (Fiji’s most prestigious fashion event) and I get employed to photograph myself in editorials and campaigns.
I started my singing career at Traps in 1990, with the Freelancers, thanks to Gary Apted and then I joined the evergreen Ken Jenson and The Hearts. I absolutely love my history as one of Fiji TV’s first faces, one of its first newsreaders and the one that had the most impact. I don’t say that from an ego stroke point of view. What I stood for resonated. I was an Indian woman in a post-coup tension filled and divided country, wearing bright colourful sarees, reading the national news against a masi backdrop. None of that was an accident. It was a deliberate choice on my part, a statement to make a point and I was proven right.
Fiji was and is a melting pot that is proud of its diversity. We are a Pacific nation of global influence. We wouldn’t be who we are without the influence of our diverse culture and I chose to remind viewers of that. I am a proud Fijian who happens to be of Indian ancestry.
5. Which do you consider you most memorable work?
I don’t want my best times to have been two decades ago. Having said that, I am very proud at having produced the Wella Designer Awards for Project ’91 back in 1994 and 1995. These shows kick-started the careers of many of Fiji’s top designers.
6. Who inspires you or whom do you consider your greatest influence?
Moments and words and actions inspire me. This changes day to day. I don’t cite famous people as inspiration; although there are many who do inspire… everyday people and their extraordinary actions inspire me.
I have had many guiding lights, shining role models from my incredible mother, from whom i got my fearlessness at getting older, to other incredible older women, teachers, fashion icons, strong businesswomen, ex boyfriends mothers who set the benchmark for what I wanted to be like as a woman and a mother-in-law!
7. Lastly, any latest projects that you’re working on?
Lots. But I can’t divulge right now. I am always working on something and always for the betterment of Pacific, especially Fijian, awareness.
As a publicist, I am always “on” for my clients. My media agency represents a diverse group of talent, from fashion designers to authors to resorts to fashion events such as Pacific Runway, Australia’s most prestigious fashion platform for Pacific origin designers.
I have some big projects coming up and I promise to tell The Fiji Times all about it when the time comes, because as with everything I do, it’s all about raising awareness of the skills and talent available in Fiji.