What is the connection between Vivy Yusof’s stash of bags and the loss of earnings at FashionValet? Malaysian Netizens are trying to find out

Vivy Yusof’s cupboard full of luxury bags

Vivy Yusof and her husband Fadzarudin Shah Anuar, the co-founders of FashionValet, were questioned yesterday in Kuala Lumpur by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in connection with the company’s millions in losses. Since the joint resignation from the company they started, Netizens in Malaysia are getting more curious about Ms Yusof’s cache of beg-beg luxury that she has flaunted on her socials. And the curiosity has turned into outrage as it is not yet possible, for many, to square FashionValet’s staggering deficit with Ms Yusof’s collection of clearly expensive handbags, among them those by Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and others. It is not known if this is the profuse luxury to which she is accustomed to.

On X, Malaysians are voicing their disdain with her seeming hypocrisy, carrying and showing off her bags while FashionValet was in the red. The collective outrage is understandable. In her best-selling book The Last Decade: My Journey from Blogger to Entrepreneur, Ms Yusof wrote about their earlier days seeking the funds needed to start their business: “Yes, Fadza and I come from comfortable families and our parents are well-off. They were well-off, but we weren’t.” It is not clear why she saw it necessary to state that she and her husband were not moneyed. Yet, all the while, Ms Yusof had no qualms about showing her predilection for designer bags. In her memoir, she also wrote that at her first meeting with her future husband, “he found me bimbotic because I was carrying a designer bag.”

An Hermès Birkin shared on IG in October 2022

By her own admission, her use of expensive bags go back to her student days. And it has not stopped, although, to be certain, she does carry her own bags made for either Duck or Lilit. Photographs on Instagram continue to show her with an amazing array of expensive handbags that give no indication of specific taste. It appears that she has a weakness for It bags. The more obvious the better, the more distinguishable the hotter. Sometimes she carries the same bag, but in different colours. She has, for example, the Chanel 19 Flap in different hues and the 22 in both black and white, not to mention numerous Dior Book totes in different patterns (a pair bears her two daughters’ names, and one hers) and Lady Diors in assorted colours, including one in bright blue that she carried when meeting our former president Halimah Yacob in 2023.

And there are the Hermès Birkins. In one of her IG reels from last month that showed a pair of Duck headscarves spread over the backs of a desk chair and an armchair in a Singapore hotel room, a grey Birkin can be clearly seen on a sofa (was she staying in a suite?). By then, FashionValet was already in its fifth year of astonishing losses. Yet the Birkin is frequently seen in her posts. Like many women who own them, Ms Yusof has in quantities that cannot be referred to in the singular. There are at least half a dozen of them in different colours, not counting a massive one (looks to be a 40-cm model) in crocodile leather that was carried during what appeared to be a pilgrimage of the umrah in Mecca in 2022. Apart from the Birkin, there is also at least one Hermès Constance in her crammed hoard that her inspired fans might find enviable.

Vivy Yusof with just a few unmistakable pieces of her vast luxury bag collection

Many Malaysians following the case are perplexed by how Ms Yusof was able to aquire such a staggering quantity of expensive bags when—for at least half a decade—FashionValet has been struggling to stay afloat. A few X users even itemised some of the bags she has and valued them, shocking many who are unfamiliar with the pricing of these satchels. Others were astounded that, given the eye-watering prices, her bags are stored in a manner that does not take into consideration their worth or their desirability. As seen in one photograph shared on Ms Yusof’s IG page, they were squashed together in a white, doorless shelving unit. It appears not to be the sole cupboard that holds all the bags she owned.

In one post shared just a couple of days ago on IG and then deleted, Ms Yusof appeared to have put some of her pre-loved bags for sale. Why the sudden need to dispose of the bags is unknown. She wrote: “I collected them over 20 years, [bought] with my hard-earned money.” Is the second point to address the public suspicion of the source of her income? Then she added that she’ll “be donating part of the proceeds to Palestinian causes.” What puzzled Netizens was, why now? Why was she getting rid of bags she has collected for two decades so suddenly? In the image that accompanied the sale notice, her bags are in cupboard space that is at least three times more capacious than that shown above. How was she able to afford that many luxury bags if they are not dupes? And seemingly acquired during the time she was running loss-making FashionValet. An inevitable question emerged: Did Vivy Yusof pay herself too handsomely?

More luxury bags (front row: Chanel, Dior, Gucci) on a shelf, as shared by Vivy Yusof on Instagram

Update (6 November 2024, 11pm): The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has seized Vivy Yusof’s possessions that included 11 handbags and a luxury watch—in all believed to have a total value of RM200,000—during a raid of the residence she shared with her husband Fadzaruddin Shah Anuar this afternoon, the News Straits Times reported. The brands of the items were not identified. According to the daily, “the case is being investigated under Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009 for providing documents such as receipts/invoices that are false or contain false details with the intention to deceive the principal.” No further details were provided. In The Star’s reporting, “several of their accounts with RM1.1mil in funds” were frozen. The couple was at the MACC this afternoon for further questioning. A day earlier, the FashionValet office was raided too. Documents of unknown content were reportedly removed form the premises

Update (7 November 2024, 11:00): For reasons unknown, Vivy Yusof has removed—on her Instagram page—images of her cupboards crammed with luxury bags (such as the screen shot at the top of this post). According to The Star, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has uncovered, in the “50 to 60 boxes of documents” seized from the FashionValet office, records that contain “suspicious transactions”. Graft officers are now looking into the possibility of fraud. The Star also reported that MACC is seeking “individuals to explain luxury items displayed on their social media accounts to determine any connection with the investment funds obtained”. What luxury items are of interest to the investigators is not identified.

Photos: vivyyusof/Instagram