Celebrity Life

Shanyan Fok Koder and Richard Bassett explain how a Hong Kong art entrepreneur joined forces with a former special-forces soldier to launch a health and mental wellbeing app, Mentor360.

"Mental health and mental fitness are universal concerns," says Shanyan Fok Koder. "And regardless of your demographic, social status, your job or your age, it’s something everyone has to deal with."

Shanyan Fok Koder & Richard Bassett on Mental Health App Mentor360

The Mentor360 app dropped on World Mental Health Day in October, the cumulation of the last 20 months of work and conversations (usually across continents over Zoom) between former military man Richard Bassett and worldly art advisor Koder. A month later, I’m sitting with both in a North London café talking over slices of pizza.

Their app, they hope, offers everyone a holistic 360 guide and framework to “finding your formula” for mental and physical wellbeing. It uses a hybrid approach, with a core layer of clinicians and professional Mentors and then celebrity Ambassadors (who’ve publicly shared meaningful life stories) critical for building noise and momentum.

"I’d been in the military for a long time. And there were a couple of incidents in my life that made me want to create something," Bassett, the CEO, explains. "Firstly, it was my father committing suicide. Then my son had a bit of misdirection. And several of my friends in the military had PTSD issues or adjustment disorders."

"The biggest issue is why people wouldn’t come forward and say they’ve got a problem?” he asks.

“Unlike some apps, we’re not trying to get people hooked. Come on to it when you need it”

— Richard Bassett

The answer often lay in culture, lack of education or concerns about privacy that prevent many from seeking help. With that came Bassett’s idea of creating an app that functions as a “non-judgmental toolkit” with content validated by experts – who include coaches, performance psychologists, mental health-specialising nurses and a clinical psychologist.

Basset’s link with Koder came when his best friend, ex-special forces colleague and TV star Jason Fox, sat next to a pregnant Koder at a charity fundraiser for Born (which researches to prevent premature birth) in late 2019. As the pair talked about their passions for mental health and children’s wellbeing, the connection to Bassett’s idea became quickly apparent.

"Foxy told me that I have to meet his friend, Richard, who’s building this app," Koder recalls. "I was always wanting to support things that are very meaningful and close to my heart … and now Jason is actually our key mentor. The partnership between Richard and I was almost like two parts of a jigsaw puzzle come together."

Although some might go to the app for help with stress, trauma or even resources to help with suicidal feelings, Mentor360 is designed specifically as a three-dimensional offering that will also encourage fitness, workouts, performance and meditation or more clinical matters.

"We wanted to maintain the human factor as a constant throughout. So it feels like somebody has given you some advice rather than some process-driven machine learning," Bassett adds.

The co-founders might come from two different worlds, but the unlikely partnership speaks to the ubiquity of the issues at hand. Bassett’s 25-year military career saw him being appointed the first ever Command Sergeant Major within the UK Special Forces military group. "It was at that stage where I was asked if I wanted to run defence,” he says. “At that point, I thought, I’ve kind of had my fill of the military now, it’s time to move on."

Koder meanwhile grew up in Hong Kong and the UK as the daughter of Li Ka-shing’s "right-hand man" Canning Fok, carving out a career in the arts and taking over her family’s impressive collection. As a female art entrepreneur and mother, her challenges would be different.

"When I had the misfortune of losing three babies to miscarriage and dealing with that emotional fallout, it led me to want to support this as a cause," Koder divulges. "If there’d been something like this app available to me, I don’t think I’d have suffered as much as I did emotionally. It’s a topic that’s still very taboo, even in this day and age … and while you eventually find your own community, at the very beginning, you do feel very alone."

Both were clearly driven towards the app through deeply personal experiences. Bassett saw first-hand how soldiers who’d done several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered – his best friend, Fox, had left the forces with PTSD. Perhaps machismo or fear of institutional repercussions meant that the issue was often ignored or hidden in the military – but he hopes that Mentor360’s holistic approach can gently lead people to explore mental fitness alongside physical performance too.

The male-female perspectives of the pair offer a well-rounded, powerful tool. And while the wellness space is already crowded, Mentor360 stands out by being so broad, human-focused and non-prescriptive.

There’s been exciting traction too. Since its launch, the app has been downloaded in more than 176 countries, with the UK, the US and Australia leading. British schools have reached out and it’s one governance board away from being trialled within the National Health Service (NHS), which means added clinical risk management in the app. That has been an important validation, says Bassett, "especially when an institution like that has picked it out from a huge spectrum of apps on the market today."

Covid-19 and lockdowns have helped throw light on mental health, taking the conversation more mainstream. The timeliness has hit home; as Bassett says, “there’s a lot of people now struggling with the transition between Covid and normality”.

Koder tells us that the plan is to serve individuals but also institutions such as the NHS and the military. There’s also the option of “white labelling” it, so the app can be packaged and tailored to certain industries or corporate employees. In the future, might they look more global, with different languages and translations? Absolutely, the pair say, but they’re taking it “slow and steady”. There’s been interest from American corporations and Koder says that she’s keen to push into Asia very soon. Although going truly global might mean translating for languages, cultures and tone, as well as working with diverse psychologists, it remains a future ambition.

Mentor360 may be extra helpful in cultures where mental health is still relatively taboo. As Koder says, "I think, coming from our Asian culture, it speaks volumes to me – so much of our culture is about still performance or hiding a lot of what you’re feeling."

"Unlike some apps,” Bassett adds, "what we’re not trying to do is create a hook or get people hooked. Come on to it when you need it, and if you don’t need it for a while because you’re good, you can just put it away … We’re starting to see those patterns in the trend analysis."

To get a little personal, I ask what works for them individually to keep a healthy mind and body. Bassett’s formula revolves around daily exercise, time with the family, dogs and good sleep – even the occasional glass of wine on the sofa in front of a crackling fireplace. Koder’s happiness hacks centre around motherhood, being content and at peace in her skin, and looking at life with a certain romanticism: "I always love to see the poetry in my day,” she says, "and I think it’s important to just pause throughout the day, check-in and acknowledge that I’ve achieved these things and I should be proud of myself, rather than just rushing on to the next thing."

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Back in 2019, Kim Kardashian West expanded her entrepreneurial oeuvre with SKIMS – a shape-wear brand driven by function, inclusivity, and comfort. SKIMS's exhaustive range of sizes and skin tones swiftly won the hearts of the public, while its designs, informed by the expertise of red-carpet stylists, gained the cult following among the starlets.

This season, Lane Crawford is bringing SKIMS to Hong Kong. Starting on November 24th, SKIMS best-sellers and core basics will be available at Lane Crawford brick-and-mortar and online stores, encompassing the sizes US0-US24 and 12 skin-inspired tones. The line-up will include three core collections: Seamless Sculpt, Fits Everybody and Cotton & Cozy. “I think our customers will particularly appreciate the comfort, support and versatility of the pieces in the ‘Fits Everybody’ range because the pieces are more than just underwear and shapewear — they are wardrobe staples that make great foundations for a myriad of looks,” says Seville Chow, Senior Vice President of Fashion at Lane Crawford.

SKIMS Seamless Sculpt collection proved to work both on red carpets and in the office by countless celebrities and corporate women across the globe. Its introduction into the mainstream revolutionised the way shapewear is perceived, with the technology that creates smooth silhouettes and enhances the curves in a proportional manner. No more marks, lines, steel boning that would make one faint and fall off the balcony of a large castle into the sea only to be saved by Jack Sparrow.

The Fits Everyone collection is essentially Seamless Sculpt but in an underwear format, comprising separate tops and bottoms in addition to the beloved bodysuits. This range represents the ‘essential foundations’ equipped with a moulding construction for maximal support and an invisible feel. Despite being classified as underwear, SKIMS Fits Everyone bodysuits can be styled as tops with either high waisted jeans or even power suits, fully embodying the spirits of practicality upheld by the brand itself.

SKIMS Cotton & Cozy transfers the functionality and versatility of the Fits Everyone collection into the realm of loungewear, where the soft cotton jersey undergarments are complemented with ribbed leggings, knit pants, shorts and robes.

Fendi x SKIMS is real

More recently, SKIMS, in an effort to intrigue new segments by constantly reinventing itself, ha announced a collaboration with Fendi. Kardashian-West unveiled the first images of Fendi x SKIMS on her Instagram. The fimages feature shape-wear, underwear and some ready-to-wear staples in a monochromatic palette with Fendi logos emblazoned across each piece. This partnership does not mark first time the heritage Italian House collaborates with another high-profile brand. Earlier this year, Kim Jones joined hands with Donatella Versace to curate an immaculate show that fused the codes of Fendi and Versace in a beautiful ode to Italian glamour.

Fendi x SKIMS will drop on November 9

(Images of the collaboration courtesy of Kim Kardashian West’s Instagram)

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There’s no limits to Kanye West’s big aspirations: From his music and record label to his fashion line Yeezy to creative agency Donda to his expanding family with wife Kim Kardashian, the rapper has a lot going on. Now, there's news that Kanye’s has a new fashion line he’s been working on.

It’s been rumoured that the musician and designer is planning on launching a new clothing label since recently registering for the brand name Sunday Service, which was trademarked last week. Kanye’s intellectual holding company, Mascotte Holdings Inc., has just filed for Sunday Service to include bottoms, dresses, footwear, headwear, jackets, loungewear, scarves, shirts, socks and tops.

The name Sunday Service references Kanye's weekly worship gatherings, where he assembles a choir to sing gospel renditions of his music. The concept began earlier this year and was made popular through music festival Coachella. The weekly event has been attended by a number of high-profile celebrity friends of Kanye’s: the whole Kardashian-Jenner clan, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Chance the Rapper, Diplo, Jaden Smith and Courtney Love, amongst others.

 

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COACHELLA 2019. Sunday Service was so special to experience here at Coachella especially for my first time here! Kanye started Sunday Service for healing for himself and his close friends and family. He had this vision of starting a church for few years and it was magical seeing everyone else get to experience it. I’m so proud of you babe for doing exactly whats in your heart. The choir and band work so hard and have so much fun! It’s so inspiring to watch. Thank you to everyone who woke up early to spend Easter Sunday with us. It’s a memory we will cherish forever. ✨ 📷 @JimJoe @LiamMacRae

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Apr 22, 2019 at 9:51am PDT

The decision to expand his empire is likely the result of his retail success at Coachella during Easter Sunday service, when Kanye’s merchandise sold out quickly and went viral on the Internet. Each piece of clothing (including T-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants and ponchos) from the Coachella collection had a religious-themed message embroidered on it. Accordingly, the Sunday Service line is also expected to feature the same meaningful messages.

The new fashion line has piqued a lot of interest already, especially given the strong interest in Yeezy. Kanye's fashion industry experience over the years has got him multiple shows at New York Fashion Week, which made him a celebrity label to take seriously. There’s no word yet on when Kanye’s new collection will drop, but whenever that is, we know it's going to be a success.

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Floral scents for Her.

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