Her career as a model began in 1984. At the time, she was a student at St. Margaret's Secondary School, the oldest girls' school in the Far East. She also had a weekend job as a salesgirl at the 'Blue Ginger' boutique, owned by Mrs. Eileen Abisheganaden. Mrs. Abisheganaden encouraged Nora to model, introducing her to Dick Lee of Carrie Models. Incidentally, Mrs. Abisheganaden is the mother of famous LA-based jazz singer Jacintha.
Believing she had supermodel potential, in July 1985 Nora entered the Glamour Awards Singapore contest and won 'Model of the Year'. Two weeks later, she won yet another prestigious title, the Studio M ‘Supermodel of the World / Singapore’. In 1986, Nora did a brief stint in modeling in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco where her exotic looks went down a storm with the local fashion scenes.
Shortly after, Marie-Christine Kollock (owner of Look Model agency, and a representative of a Parisian agency Glamour) sent Nora to the French capital to explore new opportunities. She arrived at the time when 80’s top models Anna Bayle, Mounia, Kirat, Toko, Dalma and Iman ruled the European runways. Paris was an exciting scene for such “exotic” looks, a staple in almost every fashion house. Nora was signed by l'agence Glamour and “was raring to go”!
At the time, the two leading fashion photographers were Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. One of Nora’s first modeling assignments was with Guy for Vogue Paris. After a go-see with Guy, she was booked for three editorial shoots at la Résidence L'Ermitage de Palm Beach and Miami, and to St. Martin in the Carribean. She later became Guy's muse (mannequin fétiche) and went on to become one of the first Asian models featured numerous times in Harper's Bazaar Italia, Vogue Paris and Italian Cosmopolitan.
Whilst in Paris, apart from appearing in many high-end European fashion magazines, Nora starred in two iconic Citroën AX TV ads, an ad campaign for Alain Manoukian, a print ad for Liliane Romi boutique, and for haute couturier Jean-Louis Faletta. In 1988, Nora did a major ad campaign for Rabarbaro Zucca, appearing in magazines, on Italian TV, buses and giant billboards - notably in world renowned Piazza del Duomo. In the same year, she was handpicked by Italian director Dario Piana to star in his stylish Giallo movie, ‘Sotto Il Vestito Niente 2’.
In the early 90’s, Nora lived in Bophutatswana (South African “homeland”), where she partied with the rich and famous at Sol Kerzner’s Sun City resort. She then relocated to the Big Apple where she landed a much-coveted Cover Girl cosmetics contract, appearing in an ad campaign along side supermodels Niki Taylor, Tyra Banks, Lana Ogilvie and Rachel Hunter.
In 1997, she achieved international fame as the first Asian model to front the Chanel 'Allure' ad, and a year later, she joined the ranks of L'Oréal Paris stars and earned recognition as the face of L'Oréal Feria worldwide, appearing on a huge billboard high above Times Square.
During the last two decades as a model, Nora has worked
with top photographers Guy Bourdin, Herb Ritts, Sante
D’Orazio, Matthew Rolston, Marco Glaviano, Michael Wirth,
Gilles Bensimon, Nino Mascardi, Andre Perlstein, Jacques
Beneich, Jeff Dunas, Michael Brandt, Peter Arnell, Mark
Law, Dominique Silberstein and Barbara Bordnick, appearing
in Vogue Paris, Harper's Bazaar France, Harper’s Bazaar
Italia, Marie Claire, Jalouse, Cosmopolitan, WWD, Glamour,
PHOTO France, Paris Capitale, Lui, Vital, L’Officiel Paris,
Guerin Sportivo Italia, Bucks, Details, GO, Cherie and on
the covers of Singapore’s very own Her World and Female.
Nora has been a resident of Manhattan for 20 years. She is
represented by Elite Model Management (New York) and
Heffner Management (Seattle), and more recently, has worked
with Tiffany & Co., Sephora, Hanes, Darby Scott,
Lacoste, August Silk and Sun Microsystems. Ever evolving,
Nora completed a two-year professional actor-training
program at the William Esper Studio New York, and landed a
starring role in two feature films, notably ‘Skin Art’
(1993) and ‘Into My Heart’ (1998). In 2003, she performed
on stage in Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan’s ‘Broken Bones’, a
dark drama about spousal abuse, at the Producers’ Club in
New York.
Further broadening her horizon, since 2004 Nora has enjoyed
great success as a broker with Halstead Property, one of
Manhattan's prestigious real estate agencies (where she is
also a VP), where she brings a worldly experience and
perspective to her work.
Rachel Tan, ex-editor of Her World Singapore describes Nora
as the epitome of the modern Singapore woman - an achiever,
a go-getter with a strong sense of purpose and drive who
wants to be a step ahead of her peers in all her chosen
path in life.
Défilés
Ungaro et Scherrer automne-hiver 1987
"I
chanced upon Nora Ariffin, a very beautiful and well-toned
Malay model from Singapore." -
AainaA,
'Life Etcetera', 2ème Festival International de la Mode,
Paris (1987)