Model, influencer, content creator, dancer. Athina Kamarudin takes stock of her creative journey and opens up about where she hopes to take herself next.
Photography by Edmund Lee. Text and styling by Abdul Aziz Draim.
Athina Kamarudin wears watches from the Royal Oak Mini collection from Audemars Piguet throughout.
Harper’s BAZAAR Malaysia, November ’24 featuring Athina Kamarudin, wearing Royal Oak Mini Frosted Gold Quartz watch in 18-carat yellow gold, AUDEMARS PIGUET. Dress, ALIA BASTAMAM.
Harper’s BAZAAR Malaysia, November ’24 featuring Athina Kamarudin, wearing Royal Oak Mini Frosted Gold Quartz watch in 18-carat yellow gold, AUDEMARS PIGUET. Dress, ALIA BASTAMAM.
Athina Kamarudin is a trooper. We had to schedule this cover shoot in the afternoon (which rarely happens) because for the first half of the day the multi-hyphenated talent was already engaged in a different project—involving another shoot, with one of her brothers, also with Harper’s BAZAAR. “We didn’t tire you out, did we?” I ask. “Not at all!” she replies. “I’m so excited to do this.”
The enthusiasm is evident in her warmth and demeanour as she greets the members of our crew before settling into the make-up chair, displaying a professionalism that collaborators often cite to be a deciding factor in their continued partnership with her. That, as well as her charm and beauty. “It’s a face that has no bad angles,” one stylist once opined. “Usually, we’d get the shot after just a few clicks.”
It Began With Dance
It’s been a couple of years now since she first came to prominence—and a full year after becoming one of our BAZAAR Women Of The Year 2023—yet Athina Kamarudin remains a mainstay in the Malaysian fashion and beauty industry, where she lends her talents and beauty to both local and international blue-chip brands. Better recognised now as a model, influencer and content creator, Athina’s personal creative journey actually began with a love for dance. “I started ballet at age three when I was religiously watching Barbie movies,” she shares. “So I got my mum to enrol me into a ballet class at our neighbourhood dance studio; and I immediately fell in love and knew that this was going to be a big, big part of me.”
Those initial pirouettes in ballet class would soon steer her to other dance programmes in both primary and secondary schools, leading to competitive dancing as she went on to represent Malaysia in folk and contemporary dance competitions under the Girl Guides Association of Malaysia. “We went all around the world, from Russia to Korea, sweeping first places everywhere. It took a lot of hard work but every time spent in dance studios were the most joyous moments for me.”
Royal Oak Mini Frosted Gold Quartz watch in 18-carat white gold, AUDEMARS PIGUET. Robe; and dress, both from ALIA BASTAMAM.
