BAZAAR’s Malaysia’s Most Stylish Women from each year return to celebrate fabulous fashion and extraordinary moments. Presenting the luminaries, from original top models to world-class journalists, architects, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and wellness gurus—in a class of their own.

Puan Sri Tiara Jacquelina Effendi

President and Group CEO of Enfiniti  

Jacket, Puan Sri Tiara’s own.

When Puan Sri Tiara was first featured in 2004, it was also the same year the homegrown fantasy film Puteri Gunung Ledang premiered at the Venice Film Festival. As the producer and star of the movie, she also played a hand in having it shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards, which made her one of the most influential women of her time.

Today, fresh from her directorial debut of OlaBola The Musical, Puan Sri Tiara still has that glow and confidence that stops you in your tracks. Her enthusiasm for film and musical theatre is infectious, but it is her undying love for Malaysia that propelled her to reinvent the theatrical experience, combining visual effects together with hip-hop music to narrate the journey of the Harimau Malaya football team in the 1980 Olympics.

“I feel really blessed to have chosen OlaBola The Musical for my transition from actor and producer to director,” she enthuses. “It was really daunting for me at first because as a director, you have to keep one eye on the project as a whole, while the other looks at minute details of every aspect: the writing, the music, set design, scene transitions, choreography, and so on.”

Her next baby Tiarasa Escapes aims to bring the glamping experience in Africa to Malaysia within the next couple of months. “With the beauty and tranquility of nature at our doorstep, it only makes sense that we live life to its fullest,” she says.

Puan Sri Tiara Jacquelina Effendi, in BAZAAR December 2004 ‘Malaysia’s Most Stylish Women’: “What happened in 2004 was hard to beat because it was when the movie Puteri Gunung Ledang was considered for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.”