Carmel Magazine

54 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 4 Photo: Kelli Uldall sh Vasanji is equally at home encouraging a tiny child down a fashion runway, such as at the popular MY ParTEA benefit for Monterey County Youth Museum, as he is giving an older teen a grounded perspective on life. When he's not visiting the most exciting cities in the world picking out exclusive lines for the Carmel children's clothing stores Heaven and Starchild that he owns with wife Monique, he's being a dad to daughter Alia and a soccer coach to local kids. Born to a Kenyan father and an Indian mother, the well-attired Vasanji grew up in London with a large family who all pitched in to run his father's catering business. After putting on parties and promoting music and fashion shows as a teen, a move to Canada inspired Vasanji to open adult clothing stores, and he discovered his eye for putting together a collection. "Season after season, I get more excited, not less," he says. Monique takes care of the financial side of the business while Vasanji takes over the creative side. "It's a perfect match," he says. The kids all over the county who benefit from Vasanji's soccer skills quickly learn to refer to it by another name. "I teach a European style of football, not American soc- cer," he explains, as the current coach for Santa Catalina Upper School. In the summer, he works with travel club teams. "We learn compromises and respecting the need for others for our growth and success," he says. "I teach the kids to work smarter, not harder." In whatever role he's in, Vasanji hopes to bring out a side of people's personality that hasn't been expressed. "The number one reason I do fashion shows is for me to see something artistically come out of a child," he says. "Whether it's performing on stage or dressing different- ly…I want to allow [what's inside] to be free and to see where it may go." And Vasanji continues to bring out new ideas to make sure nothing in his life or the lives of those he inspires is ever stale or boring. "I don't want to be a regular coach or anything regular," he says with a laugh. "Why not 'wow' yourself, whether it's in coaching, with the business, or with the family?" —Brett Wilbur A icon Ash Vasanji Fashion Stylist, Soccer Stud, and Co-Owner of Heaven and Starchild

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