Meet a Nasty Woman: 5 Questions with Ambika Singh
Meet Ambika Singh. Ambika is a Nasty Woman, a graduate of Dartmouth College and MIT's Sloan School, and Chief Bosslady of Armoire. Armoire is a “wardrobe as a service” - a virtual, curated closet aimed to make the modern woman’s life a little easier. Combining a sophisticated algorithm and high-touch personalized experience, Ambika’s business provides high-end, ready-to-wear garments for women to rent. Learn more about Ambika below.
What makes you a Nasty Woman?
I have the right to do the things I want for myself - work on the things I find interesting, love who I want to love, and build my family the way I choose and spend my time and energy the way I decide to.
Believing these things to be true makes me a Nasty Woman. Just by existing as described, I AM a Nasty Woman. And damn proud of it.
Share an experience that shaped your views or helped get you involved in activism.
From a young age, my parents were very clear with my brother and me that we had been, as a family, afforded an enormous amount of luck. Both of my parents come from a middle class, multi-generational army families in India, and had never traveled internationally until after they were married.
Landing up in America and having the “lottery ticket” as they called it to make a new life here has afforded us, and me, so many privileges. That cognizance has led me to try to advocate for others who perhaps didn’t get the lottery ticket - because I am in a position to share what I have.
What advice do you have for people who want to help enact change and push progress but don’t know how to get involved?
Find something that really moves you. To me, that means something I think about all the time. I’m curious about it. I want to learn more about it from wherever I can - other people, the internet, scholars. I’m obsessed with making the thing better. There are a lot of problems in the world that I recognize as problems, REAL problems, but only some that I am personally obsessed with changing. I think you should find your thing, and when you do, you won’t be able to not try to solve it!
If you could look into the future, 10 years from now, and see that real progress has been made, what does that look like to you?
I really, really want us to embrace humans. All humans. We are so alike. Any scientist will tell you that. In fact, did you know that we share 99% of our DNA with chimps? Chimps! Humans are the same, and the petty differences we fixate on to ascribe relative value to the people around us are tiring. I want us to ensure a human experience for all people - simple stuff that we want for ourselves. Basic needs first. Healthcare, food, shelter, clean water. Equal access to institutions, namely education and access to capital. The rights to do as we desire - who to love, where to move, how we spend our time.
And I’m really done with discrimination of any type. It’s just not working for me.
Share with us a favorite wine moment or memory, or pairing.
I love wine, and my mom in particular is a red wine lover and it is something we all share as a family. We have many hilarious stories of prioritizing the bringing of wine places, and it makes me chuckle because my mom doesn’t break many rules on a day to day basis but when it comes to wine.. Most recently, we snuck a number of bottles (one will never do), on a 6-stop, 5 types of travel journey to a remote Ecuadorian island - a journey that included a rowboat. When a helpful luggage loader grabbed her travel backpack - the one backpack with all her stuff, including the wine, and flung it on to the boat, we all gasped as the backpack bled red. Our worst fears were quickly abated when we found that only one bottle had broken. Clothes can be replaced. But the wine...
The NASTY WOMAN WINE you appear on the label of is called Boss Lady Bubbles. What does it mean to be a Boss Lady?
The Boss Lady is a historically heavy term that had a negative connotation with respect to a woman’s bossiness. I like being bossy. I also like being successful. And I work hard to make those things a reality. To me, a Boss Lady is putting in the time and effort to be the best person she can be for herself and her family. Boss Lady, I see you!
Ambika is the Nasty Woman featured on our flagship wine Boss Lady Bubbles.
Follow Ambika on Social Media: @ambikasi, @armoire.style