The free-spirited photog and creative consultant Shala Monroque embodies an influential cool that secures her place as a global street-style fave and the goto guest voice in-between the covers of fashion bibles such as Vogue and the homepages of their digital platforms. The jet-setting former fashion editor and creative director waxes philosophical about life with us as capitivated ears…

What’s your favourite drink?

Sex On The Beach.

Title of your summer beach read?

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer. I picked it up at the airport; it’s about the accumulation of wealth in one small circle and how that affects political ideology.

What continues to inspire your curiosity through the prism of photography?

I mainly focus on portraiture. I’m interested always in people and the environment. Right now, I’m really fascinated by people back home in St Lucia, and the Caribbean as a wider space as well. Only just having come back as a returning national, I’m seeing things with a fresher, cleaner eye. And what I’ve found interesting so far is the influence of Jamaican music, particularly dancehall, on culture in St Lucia and the region.

A woman with a point of view is…

… a powerful ally.

ID the one garment or accessory, in your wardrobe, that holds the key to your aesthetic or personality?

It would definitely have to be this skirt that I have by Prada. It’s made from flattened bottle caps and plastic plates, so it appeals to my idea of reusing things and has a bit of shimmer to it. The caps have been painted and smudged, but the most interesting part of the garment is that whenever you wear it, it makes so much noise. People can probably hear you from two blocks away. It’s not just a garment anymore, it becomes a tool. I identify with that because it also personifies Mrs Prada’s take on fashion as a political scientist. It’s a skirt that engages people, which is kind of my personality.

In order to lead a fairly interesting life, what must first be embraced?

 Curiosity. It unlocks a sense of adventure and a bit of danger. It makes your life more exciting.

What’s your hack for surviving travel connections? Don’t drink too much wine at the departure lounge bars.

Going off the grid can be as simple as…

… coming to visit me in St Lucia. I’ll take you away.

If there were a memory you could relive on a loop, which would you select?

I was on safari with a large group of friends in Botswana. We’d all been drinking and dancing. Then our tour guide, who was also drunk, randomly decided that we should go down the river. Everyone was like “don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it”. That it was dangerous, that there were hippos that can chew one up alive, I went anyway — just me, the tour guide and travel concierge. So the three of us were on this boat and it was the most still river you’d ever seen, with no houses or development or lights there. There were millions of stars in the sky and when I looked down from the boat, I could see the sky repeated on the water and it was the most serene and amazing feeling, especially knowing that at any moment a hippo could break the surface of the water. The vastness of the universe and the fact that I was in Africa made it one of the most beautiful moments I have ever experienced.

Fashionable yet pennywise, how does one pull off such a combo?

There is that phrase we used to say, “Don’t follow fashion”, which is counterintuitive to being fashionable. But I think if you buy things that are too fashionable or too trendy, especially now with the speed of the Internet and how images get tired really quickly, you will tend to look dated just as quickly. So I always say classics. I never spend money that I don’t have on clothes. Ever, ever, ever! So that shapes how I spend my money. I’m very cautious. If you’re cautious then you’ll choose wisely, picking something that will last a very long time.

What can the social butterfly learn from the wallflower?

That sometimes listening is more important than speaking.