The good-looking couple radiate a real heat as they welcome us into their house, providing us espresso whereas their rescue pet, Gula, a fluffy tri-coloured feline, eyes us curiously.
Shikin Gomez, a widely known title within the style business and runner-up on Asia’s Next Top Model Season 5, sits down with entrepreneur husband Rami Aladdin, to talk about their relationship, careers and their future.
This being a Valentine’s Day-themed challenge, and with their one-year anniversary developing on the finish of February, it was solely acceptable to delve into how they complement one another.
Evidently very a lot in love, huge smiles plastered throughout their faces as they mirror on their journey collectively, Gomez begins by saying, “We’re like yin and yang.”
“I’m very relaxed and very chill. And he’s more organised and scheduled and he has his lists, and I’m more ‘go with the flow’,” says Gomez, the third of 4 kids, who studied communications and media.
The couple acquired married in Langkawi final February. picture: Bthology Studio
Frenchman Aladdin, whom one would assume would possess a critical manner, having began a software program company proper out of school and later increasing to Malaysian shores, is communicative and contemplative.
“We appreciate that we know our strengths and our weaknesses,” says Aladdin, 34, managing accomplice of tech firm Twine. “We listen to each other, because we know that okay, she’s way better than me at relaxing and enjoying herself. So, when the time comes to take it easy, she’s the boss, and when we need to get certain things done…” he trails off, and they each burst out laughing.
With their busy schedules, they guarantee that they put aside time to spend collectively.
“Rami is very much of a list person; he has a google calendar invite for our date nights. Every Tuesday at 7pm it’s date night,” laughs Gomez.
“It’s so easy to take things for granted and to think ‘when there’s time, we’ll spend time together’ so we make sure that we carve out time for each other,” says Aladdin, youngest of three siblings, who spent a bit of his childhood in France.
Love within the time of CovidThe couple met within the “most 21st century way ever” – they matched on a courting app.
“It was during the first lockdown, where we couldn’t go anywhere or meet anyone,” remembers Gomez. “And we matched on Tinder, and we began doing Skype dates.”
Aladdin chimes in, “I heard about this game, called ‘The 36 questions that lead to love’, and on our first date on Skype, I said I’ve always wanted to do this.”
Psychologist Arthur Aron got here up with the questions, in a 1997 examine the place he explored whether or not intimacy between two good strangers could possibly be accelerated.
“I thought it was going to fly by,” says Gomez, “But it took us four hours, and it didn’t feel like four hours, we were just talking and talking and talking.”
During that dialog, they realized so much about one another, for instance, that they each come from comparable mixed-religion backgrounds.
Gomez regarded gorgeous in a robe by Alia Bastamam. picture: Bthology Studio
“It was interesting, I wasn’t looking for someone who had a similar background as me, I thought me and my siblings were the ones who understood what if felt like to be doing Christmas and Raya, and then when he said he had a similar background, it was like ‘excuse me, what?’” says Gomez.
A number of months into their on-line romance, they lastly acquired to fulfill in individual when eating spots opened up, albeit with strict laws.
“In the beginning, she was really controlling the pace of things,” remembers Aladdin. “We wouldn’t talk every day, and I got frustrated in the beginning but she said ‘no, I like missing you’. I really felt like I was in high school, having a crush and wondering when I was going to see her again.”
Over the following few months, love blossomed and Aladdin remembers the precise second when he actually fell in love with Gomez.
“One day, she told me that she had made nasi lemak at home, and at the time, I hadn’t really had a good one. Wearing a very girl-next-door type of outfit, she asked me if I wanted some, and I just thought, wow I love this girl. And then she gave me the best nasi lemak I’ve ever had in my life.”
For Gomez, it wasn’t one second that made her realise Aladdin was the one – it was a mixture of all of the considerate issues he does each day.
“He’s very consistent, I guess, that is one of the many things; like he made sure that I felt safe. He ensured that I was comfortable when we were out with his group of friends. He was supportive of all of my endeavours and I felt like he is behind me all the time,” says Gomez.
In some ways Aladdin proved to be the one and Gomez started to grasp that she had fallen in love with him.
A well-executed proposal in Langkawi – on a yacht throughout a shoot the place Gomez had been employed to be the primary mannequin – led to an idyllic marriage ceremony on the identical island.
As superb as the marriage regarded, with Gomez trying gorgeous in an Alia Bastamam robe as she walked down a Plexiglas isle, visitors and grooms dressed all in white, planning a marriage throughout Covid occasions proved difficult.
The couple matched on a courting app. picture: AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
Amid locking down a venue, determining their visitor checklist and hoping that nobody would get contaminated (and ensuring they themselves steered away from Covid), Gomez’s father handed away a month earlier than they had been meant to carry the reception.
“It felt rushed, and I didn’t feel right, to be celebrating, so we had to push it and then the date 22022022 (Feb 22, 2022) came up and we thought, why not? And that’s what we did,” Gomez relates.
It was a bumpy journey, however it all labored out in the long run.
The highway aheadHaving established herself as a prime mannequin in Malaysia and regionally, Gomez has set her sights on furthering her profession in Europe.
Last 12 months, she took a leap of religion and determined to begin over from scratch in unfamiliar territory.
“In Malaysia, it’s simpler, because you kind of know people and these people know other people. So, I’ve gone back to zero and started all over again – at 30.
“It’s very tough to start again. You know, like when, when there are new kids on Tik Tok suddenly becoming popular, and you wonder, how do I stand out? In an industry where they see age first, if you look young, it’s easier.”
A decade of expertise within the enterprise is unquestionably a plus, and throughout her time in Barcelona, Gomez landed an editorial unfold in a Spanish journal named Mujer Hoy.
“I feel like my journey to expand my career in Europe is going in the right direction thanks to this spread,” she expresses. “It’s such a big area. And in every city, they are looking for different things. I tried Paris, Barcelona was good. So next would be to try out London and Milan, and see how that can be for me. I just want to dip my toes in all the markets to see which one works.”
While Aladdin’s enterprise will nonetheless have a foothold in Malaysia, he too shall be shifting to Europe and establishing a base there.
“We have some European clients for our company here. But we really want to grow our business in Europe as well,” explains Aladdin. “And so, Shikin wanting to go to Europe is making it easy for me to also take that leap, and my business partner wants to stay here. So, we are planning to have two big antennas and we’re thinking of Portugal. Because Portugal is really trying to attract people and if we’re in Lisbon, for her, it’s really easy to fly into different cities for jobs.”
Both have had their fare share of moments to mirror on the longer term, particularly through the prolonged lockdown intervals.
“Lockdown was an opportunity to slow down and think about my priorities and what we really wanted to do business-wise,” shares Aladdin. “It was deciding what was important for me, and for me it was the freedom to be able to work from anywhere, thinking of a software business that wouldn’t tie us down to offices, places, factories.”
For Gomez, lockdown was a sobering time for her – with no runways to stroll down or picture shoots taking place for months, she was lucky to have the possibility to attempt her hand at conceptualising, styling, directing, and modelling in her personal shoot for the Malay journal Glam.
“The runway shows, that all stopped, I couldn’t see when it would all pick up again and I didn’t know what my career would be like in the future,” explains Gomez. “One of the highlights of this period was being given the chance to shoot my own cover – I did my own hair and makeup and shot the cover myself, based on a theme. It was a big accomplishment for me to be able to do this on my own, and it gave me a lot of reassurance about what I can achieve.”
Rising to the event, togetherDaunting although it’s to begin over, Aladdin and Gomez are trying ahead to their new regular with optimism.
In reality, Gomez’s optimistic outlook on life is what Aladdin loves most about his spouse.
“The other day my mum and I had errands to do, and we had to spend the day at a mall waiting for something. I had to work so Shikin took her on a little shopping spree. My mum told me afterwards, that she had an awesome day.”
“She’s so down to earth, she can turn an annoying afternoon, a day of waiting around, into a fun little day. That positivity, her enthusiasm, optimism and also the resilience – I feel like what she’s done in Europe, there were times of uncertainty that would have broken someone,” he says, tears welling up in his eyes.
“I think what I like about our relationship is that we’re happy for each other, we support each other in our careers and in our individual lives,” he provides.
Gomez looks like the explanation their relationship is safe is as a result of they spent lots of time speaking through the lockdown, specializing in attending to know one another as an alternative of casually courting different folks and getting distracted.
“I like that he keeps me grounded,” she says.
