Sheila Sim returns to Chanel runway after a decade
Singaporean model-actress Sheila Sim walked in Chanel’s Cruise 2026/27 show in Sydney on Nov. 5, more than 10 years after her last runway appearance. Sim said returning brought back a part of herself she had set aside, and spoke of balancing motherhood with modeling.
Singaporean model-actress Sheila Sim returned to the runway at Chanel’s Cruise 2026/27 show in Sydney on Nov. 5, after more than a decade away. She said the moment felt like coming home.
Sim was among the models presenting the collection at The Cutaway, an underground venue beneath Sydney’s Barangaroo Reserve. She shared runway photos on social media and wrote, “It’s been over 10 years, and I honestly never thought I’d feel that again.”
“But the moment I stepped out, something in me came alive,” Sim wrote. “It felt like coming home to a part of myself I’d quietly set aside.”
Sim has modeled for more than a decade in fashion capitals including Hong Kong, Tokyo, Milan and Paris. She first walked for Chanel in 2010, presenting the Cruise 2010/11 collection at the opening of the brand’s boutique at Marina Bay Sands.
She also attended Chanel’s Cruise 2013/14 show in Singapore and its Spring Summer 2017 show in Paris. In November 2025, she attended the Cruise 2025/26 show in Singapore.
Sim reflects on motherhood and modeling
Sim has two daughters, aged three and six, with her husband, Deon Woo. She said she had long felt she needed to choose between being a mother and working as a model.
“For so long, I believed I had to choose: Mother or model. I could never understand why one had to cancel out the other,” she said. Sim said the invitation back to Chanel “means more than I can say.”
She thanked Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy, the Chanel Singapore team and those who worked behind the scenes. “I feel inspired. I feel like I belong,” she said.
Sim made her television debut in Mediacorp’s I’m In Charge in 2013. She later acted in the drama franchise 118 from 2014 to 2018 and the dialect series How Are You? from 2019 to 2020.
After a three-year break to focus on her family, Sim returned to the screen as Zhang Yinniang in Mediacorp’s Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story in 2025. She recently starred in family drama Brighter Days and is set to appear in the dystopian crime thriller The Leftovers.
