Sarah Al Wazzan
Kuwaiti, 34
At eight months pregnant, Sarah Al Wazzan would be forgiven for taking up permanent residence on a couch, feet raised. But instead, the 34-year-old Kuwaiti is considering the best way to redecorate her home. “I’d love those cool carry-on travel trolleys from the Chanel airlines collection,” she muses. “Or the camcorder bag from Chanel pre-fall 2016 collection. It’s always fun with Chanel – you never know what the house will do next.”
Of course, whatever new wares she finds will need to work with the trinkets she already has on display – Chanel surfboards, a Louis Vuitton ball from the 1998 soccer World Cup, Dolce & Gabbana headphones, an Hermès bicycle and boxing gloves by Karl Lagerfeld. “I love all those unusual products that you wouldn’t think a brand would produce.”
Sarah is a woman who clearly never sits still for long. When her baby arrives in April, it will be her fourth – she has two sons, Abdulaziz, 12, and Mohamed, 10, and a daughter Danah, eight. According to Sarah, motherhood is her priority job. “I do it with pride and I’m very serious about it,” she says. “When I see that I have healthy, well-behaved kids who know what’s right and what’s wrong, that’s when I feel proudest.” In her ‘spare’ time though, she also runs an investment business with her father, and operates her boutique, Panacheous, a retailer of children’s clothing in Kuwait City’s Discovery Mall. Initially launched as an e-commerce site, Panacheous has evolved into a standalone boutique.
That’s not to say Sarah doesn’t have time to shop herself – she’s just found a more efficient way to do it than to spend hours in a mall. “I shop through boutique representatives of my favourite brands like Chanel, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana or Dior. WhatsApp, phone payment and direct shipping make it much faster and more convenient,” she says. And for everything else, the click of a mouse has it sorted, the online shopping aficionado admits.
Crediting her mother for encouraging her to embrace her own unique style (“She would often see how ridiculous I looked, but would still nod in acceptance”), this is the legacy Sarah wants to pass onto her own daughter, “I want her to feel as free as a bird. Acceptance helps you not to care what anyone else thinks, ever.”
Photography: Richard Hall. Styling: Charlotte Blair. Words: Kerrie Simon-Lawrence