Share This Article
Twinkle Suba Shah grew up noticing things that most people walked past. Growing up as an expatriate in Muscat, moving between rented apartments that could never quite be called her own, she found herself paying attention to the spaces around her in a way that most children do not. The curtains. The furniture. The colours. The way everything in someone’s home came together to create a feeling that was immediately and instinctively understood. She did not have the vocabulary for it then. But she was already doing the work.
That early sensitivity to space carried a belief that has stayed with her ever since: home is not defined by ownership. It is defined by how a space makes you feel. It is a quiet but profound idea, and it sits at the heart of everything Twinkle does today as an interior stylist based in the UAE.
The path that brought her here was not straightforward. A diploma in interior design from Pune was followed not by a design career but by a return to Muscat and then a pivot into the corporate world, where she spent years as a Brand Manager with L’Oréal, learning how storytelling, emotion and visual identity shape the way people experience brands. Then came COVID, and with it a return to creativity through Twirazon, her resin art brand, which began with creating individual pieces and evolved into asking how those pieces lived within a space. How a thoughtfully designed environment could completely change their impact.
Looking back, as Twinkle now does with the clarity that only hindsight offers, none of it was disconnected. Every stage was quietly preparing her for interior styling, a profession that brings together her background in branding, her passion for art and her lifelong fascination with how spaces make people feel. That is when she knew she had found the path she was meant to follow.
Spaces that feel, not just look
Ask Twinkle how she approaches her work and the answer comes from the same place her story began: with people, not products. Styling, for her, has never been about making a room look beautiful. It is about understanding the people who live or work there and creating an environment that reflects their personality, their lifestyle and their story.
People rarely remember every piece of furniture in a room, she reflects. But they always remember how that space made them feel. That is the feeling she is always working toward.
Sometimes the smallest changes achieve the most significant results: a different layout, thoughtful lighting, layered textures, a carefully chosen accessory. Twinkle has spent her career showing people that meaningful transformation does not require a complete redesign or a significant budget. Thoughtful styling can completely change how a space is experienced. And for the many people in Dubai and across the Gulf who are building lives far from where they grew up, that ability to create something personal, welcoming and uniquely theirs, without tearing everything apart, is not a minor thing. It is everything.
Personal over performative
The shift Twinkle thinks about most in the industry today is both a challenge and an opportunity. Social media has made design inspiration more accessible than it has ever been. It has also created a tendency for spaces to start looking and feeling alike. Beautiful but interchangeable. Designed for the photograph rather than for the life that happens after it.
Her response to this is instinctive and consistent: resist the pull toward the performative. Create spaces that feel right for the people living or working in them, not just for the moment the camera appears. She is also a deliberate advocate for colour in a market that has long defaulted to the neutral palette. Colour, used with intention, adds warmth, personality and emotion in ways that no carefully curated collection of beiges can replicate.
For Twinkle Suba, colour is not simply an aesthetic choice. It is one of the most powerful tools she has as a stylist, and one of the most distinctive aspects of her approach. Colour is how she tells a person’s story. It is what transforms a space from something that looks beautiful into something that feels joyful, lived-in and deeply personal. In a market where so many interiors play it safe, her willingness to use colour with both confidence and intention is what makes the spaces she creates unmistakably her own.
Her years in branding shaped this perspective. At L’Oréal, she learned that the strongest identities are never the loudest. They are the most authentic. She believes the same is true for interiors. A space that genuinely reflects the people using it will always remain relevant, long after the trend that inspired it has moved on.
Your journey does not need to be linear
If Twinkle could go back and tell her younger self one thing, it would be this: your journey does not need to be linear for it to make sense.
Looking back at a path that moved from interior design studies to corporate brand management to resin art to interior styling, she can now see the through line that was invisible to her while she was living it. Every experience was quietly shaping the way she sees people, creativity and spaces today. The L’Oréal years taught her storytelling and identity. The art practice taught her how objects inhabit space. The expatriate childhood taught her what it means to make somewhere feel like home.
She also wishes she had spent less time comparing her timeline to others. In creative industries, it is easy to feel behind. To feel like clarity should have arrived earlier and progress should look different from how it actually does. Her counsel to anyone starting out is both generous and grounded: stay curious and trust where that curiosity takes you, even when it does not make complete sense. Clarity often comes later, when you look back and realise everything was quietly leading you exactly where you needed to be.
Success as a feeling, not a milestone
Earlier in her career, success for Twinkle looked like an achievement. Milestones reached, a career profile built, recognition earned. Something visible and external that confirmed she was on the right track.
Today her definition has shifted to something quieter and more meaningful. Success is having the opportunity to create work that genuinely improves someone’s everyday experience, whether that is styling a family home or transforming a commercial space into somewhere people enjoy spending time. If someone walks into a space she has worked on and immediately feels comfortable, inspired or simply happy to be there, that is the kind of success that matters most. It cannot be photographed or quantified. But it is felt the moment you walk through the door.
The people who made it possible
Twinkle closes with a gratitude that is both deeply personal and genuinely felt. She begins by honouring the memory of her late father, whose guidance she credits with opening doors at exactly the right time and carrying her through every season of her life. She thanks her husband, her most consistent and unwavering supporter, who through every career change and new beginning has simply said: go ahead and build the career you dream of. I will always be right here. She acknowledges her mother, her brothers, her in-laws and the wonderful friends who have continuously supported and encouraged her throughout her journey. Their presence, across every chapter and every transition, has been a gift she does not take lightly.
And she thanks every client who has trusted her with their home or workspace. Inviting someone into such a personal process is a privilege, she says, and a responsibility she never takes for granted. Every project, every conversation and every opportunity continues to shape her, not just as a stylist but as a person.
That is the kind of practice Twinkle Suba Shah is building. One space at a time. One feeling at a time. One story at a time.
Twinkle Suba Shah is an Interior Stylist based in the UAE. This piece is part of The Minds Behind the Build, PAGES’ ongoing series celebrating the founders and leaders shaping the built environment.
