Sania Mirza, who has recently made a winning return to the tennis court after her maternity break at Hobart International and her sister Anam Mirza, who recently married ex-cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin’s son Asad, are also business partners in their four-year-old lifestyle exhibition Label Bazaar.
Spirit of sport
Sania, who returned to professional tennis after three years, has been in the news for losing a whopping 26 kg post her delivery. “Motherhood has been incredible to me. It has changed me as a person. As a sportsperson, I’ve always put myself and my needs first. It’s been like that for the longest time. But after my pregnancy, it was not about me anymore and I was perfectly okay with it. My body went through a lot of changes during pregnancy and a part of me knew it would never go back to being the same, so yes I had a series of mixed emotions going back to the court. But tennis has been my first love, so I had to make this comeback for myself,” Sania says.
She admits that motherhood has changed her in many ways but most importantly, it has made her selfless. “I love my boy more than anything in the world and I would do anything I could to spend time with him,” she adds.
Getting back to the sport was of course an important reason for her to work so hard on her body and get back in shape but it was more than just that. “It wasn’t about how I looked, it was about how I felt and more than anything I wanted to feel healthy like I always was. How you feel about yourself is more important than how anyone else does and that’s where self love comes into the picture.”
Label Bazaar
The Label Bazaar is a fashion and lifestyle exhibition that curates a mix of runway and upcoming brands to come under one roof for people to shop from. It was founded by her sister Anam Mirza back in 2016. “I am the brand ambassador of this wonderful platform but more importantly I am a proud sister who has watched my little baby Anam grow into this boss lady in this journey of hers,” says Sania.
“I started it when I was in college because I wanted to get a certain kind of outfits which were not available in Hyderabad. When I think of it, I started it to make fashion accessible to me and then it just got bigger and moved to bigger cities. Now I can proudly say that we are 12th season down,” avers Anam.
Incidentally, every season is different from each other. “When we pick clothes or designers, we have a certain checklist that we follow. We choose most of our clothes considering if we ourselves would buy them or not. The designers, we have on board this time, are very experimental in nature and have a fresh approach towards their clothes,” adds Anam.
Sister vibes
Sania is the face of the brand and makes it a point to visit every show if she is available to show her support while its curation is done by Anam and her team. The sisters are like friends and complement each other perfectly. After wrapping up a show in Hyderabad, they are now gearing up for the show in Bengaluru (scheduled on February 29 at Taj Westend).
“Sania plays a very crucial role in my fashion choices or all the crises I have in general. I think it is the same with her as we discuss almost everything possible and try to support each other in every possible way. For example, if I am working on something and 10 of them approve of it but somehow if Sania does not get convinced, I would drop the plan then and there, because we have that much faith and trust in each other,” Anam points out.
She admits that being self-motivated is very important to her and it fades away if you don’t keep working on it. “I am lucky that I have a very supportive family, friends who absolutely push me to do my best, even on days when I don’t feel like going to work. Also, I have an unbelievable team who I love to work with, who keeps me motivated on a day-to-day basis,” says Anam.
The duo have an exciting year ahead. While all they say is that they are planning something big in July and at the end of the year which is under wraps, the sisters are certainly ruling the fashion and tennis courts at the same time.
