Just as Hollywood has Rebecca Bloomwood of Confessions of a Shopaholic fame, Indonesia has “Miss Jinjing” – or Miss Shopping – who is nothing short of sensational when it comes to the art and business of shopping.

Miss Jinjing, whose real name is Amelia Yugia Masniari – Amy for short – made a name for herself with her 2008 book Miss Jinjing: Shop Till You Drop.

In her book, the 37-year-old talks about her hobby and her job – a dream job for many women – as a personal shopper. She also reveals secrets about the shopping habits of Indonesian elites and relates tales of her wild shopping expeditions across the world, from Milan, Rome and Paris to New York, Hong Kong and Singapore – and Bali and East Jakarta, of course.

(JP/Nayu Novita)

With a history of buying so much that she has literally fallen over under the weight of her purchases, her friends gave her the nickname “Miss Jinjing”.

“For me, the pleasures of shopping aren’t just associated with purchasing,” she says. “It’s the process of hunting that’s good.

“When I find what I really like – Wow, that’s really exciting! It’s just like having an orgasm!” she adds, laughing brightly.

Shifting dozens of bags from the Etienne Aigner boutique for family souvenirs back home? Check. Collecting dozens of “It Bags”, from Hermes to Louis Vuitton? Check. Buying up “bling-bling” jewelry from an infamous diamond smuggler? Check!

Her passion for shopping, which she discovered as a university student, means she has a wealth of information about what’s on offer, especially at the high end, and is intimate with the world’s fashion and shopping hotspots. So she started putting that knowledge to good use: Shopping for other people.

Who are Amy’s clients?

“The majority are women who have money and who live in the regions,” she says. “As you may know, regional autonomy appears to have created many new rich people. Although their houses are far away, don’t be mistaken, they have plenty of money, just like the people who live in Jakarta.”

There are several reasons they ask her to do their shopping, she says. Some don’t have time to shop, whereas others want a stylist helping them to dress well. Some are even wives of government officials, who want to keep their shopping hush-hush to avoid embarrassing their husbands.

A couple of years ago, when Amy’s husband Reinhard Hutagaol was transferred to Jambi, she had to sell her baby-clothing business to accompany him and their three sons. That was when Amy found another passion: Writing. She started pouring her experiences onto her private blog at www.belanja-sampai-mati.blogspot.com – or “shop till you drop”.

“I created that blog without any pretensions. I only wanted to use it as a channel for my writing hobby and to kill my boredom.”

Her shared experiences attracted thousands, who began reading her stories on the blog. In 2008, a publisher asked her to make them into a book.

“At first I turned down the offer because I was afraid that the book wouldn’t sell. But the publisher convinced me that it would be successful,” she says. “Among the 100,000 people who read my blog, would there be 10,000 people who’d care if I wrote a book?”

Yes, and more. The book became a bestseller beyond her expectations and shot Miss Jinjing to popularity.

But her new-found fame negatively affected her personal shopper business.  “In the past no one cared when I went to and fro at the airport carrying all those goods in my luggage,” she says. “Now all eyes were upon me.”

Her clients began to leave her. They didn’t tell her exactly why but she “could tell from their body language”.

“It may be that they felt uncomfortable because they were worried that their names would be revealed. One of them even said that our conversations would be tapped by the KPK [the Corruption Eradication Commission],” she says, laughing again.

Although fame limited her freedom to shop, it didn’t limit her enthusiasm. She used the extra spare time to work on her writing, which led to the recent publication of her second book, Miss Jinjing: Gossip Till Morning.

As the title suggests, the book is full of gossip about people in her social circle: sex scandals, plastic surgery and various relationships. The section on women’s shopping habits, however, is notably short.

“I discussed shopping in my first book. Now I want to write about other things. It’s still in the Miss Jinjing series, but the content is different,” says Amy, who writes regular columns on shopping for two magazines.

So does this signal her shift from shopaholic to writer?

“It’s natural that I would prefer to be known as a writer than as a shopaholic,” she says, adding,

“Writing is a skill and my passion, while shopping is my acute disease!”

Shallow as it sounds, Amy did have a “certain mission” in uncovering the habits of the wealthy.

“There are many young people who are obsessed with getting rich quickly or finding a rich husband.

Do you think that’s good? It’s crazy,” she says. “It takes a lot of work to achieve and defend [success]. There is always someone who will betray trust and a wife for status and a high position.”

She is now working on her third book, on being stylish whatever the budget.

“I want people to be aware that they can be stylish without having to be as rich as Adinda Bakrie,” she says. “Just understand the trends and learn how to apply these to yourself.”

She plans to start writing in English so she can reach a wider readership. To help make that happen, she is flying to London later this year to do a writing course.

“I want to be like Barbara Cartland,” she says. “Even when she was 90 she was still able to write books that could entertain and please many people.”

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