New Wave. Maryam Nassir Zadeh SS23

September 13, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic of New Wave filmmakers, has sadly passed away today. He invented a resolutely modern, intensely free vision of film-making. Godard’s storylines mixed up time and space, changing the idea of a fixed narrative. He filled cinema with poetry and philosophy. Also, his sense of visual aesthetic, from “Breathless” to “Pierrot Le Fou“, has left an ever-lasting legacy. If there is one designer who conveys that Nouvelle Vague style with ease, even subconciously, it’s the New York-based Maryam Nassir Zadeh. Whenever I see her collections, I have an impression of watching a pack of contemporary New Wave women (and men) materialize IRL.

Zadeh began her show notes with the word “waves”, and she was thinking not only about the azure waters lapping on Mediterranean shores (the designer spent part of the summer on the idyllic Greek island Hydra) but also of time. In 2013 Zadeh first dipped her toe into design with accessories and then moved into clothing – and MNZ quickly created a niche in the downtown scene. “What I’m known for is making timeless, elevated basics,” she said after her spring show, which veered from that formula this season. It was a full-circle moment: Zadeh came back to the Sara D. Roosevelt handball court where she had shown before, located just across the street from her studio; the cast and audience were full of friends. The lineup was infused with the freedom of summer dressing—or undressing—the instinctual improvisation of wearing a towel as a sarong, say. Modesty is not a consideration in the MNZ universe, which is body positive and empowering, and that is an extension of how Zadeh lives her life. On vacation, she said, “I was dressing in ways that were like half naked, half covered.” But that’s only part of the story: “I feel like there’s a fusion of the domestic element of my life [as a working mother], but then there’s sort of a tension between that and being free.” The idea of domesticity came through in a literal way; the designer worked with interior textiles like tablecloths and bath towels. Similarly, the idea of finding “space in between” was evident in such garments as half skirts. How these will translate on a rack would be a question, save for the fact that they might not ever land there. Zadeh explained that many of the materials she used have been in her personal collection for decades. Not wanting to cut them up, she worked around them, allowing the textiles to guide the patterns and some no-sew pieces in ways that she feels will lead her in exciting new directions. Thus her reworkings represented a dialogue with fabric and the sum of her past experiences and relationships. It was the lightest pieces that best captured the ephemerality of memory and emphasized the space that exists between the body and the cloth. A polka-dot dress, for example, was the color of sky in the early morning; a yellow woven men’s shirt was tethered by knit cuffs and collars. Layering heavier materials over lighter ones was another way to emphasize the delicacy of the fabrics. Garters and bras added a whiff of the boudoir to the proceedings. A jersey dress with a beautifully shaped scoop neck in front and back was paired with a bra, which by now has fully come out from under. The idea of apron skirts and tying things on is one that is surfacing in many collections. In some ways this harks back to classical precedents and manipulation of material rather than construction. “I wanted to be natural,” Zadeh said, and there’s nothing more so than the human form, which was the designer’s focus this season. What she calls her reworks are works in progress – as is life.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Always In The Sun. Maryam Nassir Zadeh Resort 2023

August 1, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maryam Nassir Zadeh‘s resort 2023 collection looks like the inside of a well-packed luggage that’s on the way to a summer-perfect, beachy, breezy, always-sunny destination. Sheer camisole tops and slouchy pants that feel just the right kind of vintage-y. Over-sized t-shirts, wrap skirts and denim bermudas in faded neutral colours, looking as if left exposed to sunlight for days. Charming accessories that seem off-and-odd-but-oh-so-good, like the blue taffeta bracelet-scrunchie, funky ornate belts and necklaces with big, ceramic beads. Groovy, hand-made macrame appeared in form of sachets and eclectic inserts, (not) randomly placed on a men’s leather biker jacket’s back or at the pants’ waist. And of course the latest addition to Nassir Zadeh’s brand: the blue towel with MNZ’s logo, made from the finest frotte, resembling the one that would lie by the pool in some lovely, off-the-track boutique hotel by the French Riviera or somewhere in Sicily.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Chic Awkwardness. Maryam Nassir Zadeh AW22

February 16, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maryam Nassir Zadeh‘s style and aesthetic language (re)defines what New Yorker women (and men) really wear, love and want. Trying to understand the nuance of the label can be like cracking a secret code – and the autumn-winter 2022 collection is quintessentially MNZ. To her and her community, a sort of chic awkwardness – which never feels like a costume! – is everything. Here is Susan Cianciolo, the godmother of all Lower East Side style, in a plaid scarf wrapped around her head, and a leather, boxy skirt set. Putting Drake Burnette in a slender ringer tee and charismatic long pencil skirt means something. Lexie Smith’s sheer butter-colored trousers under a sort of uncanny work dress are intentional; layering coats for Angel Prost mimics Prost’s own magpie style. On the whole, these clothes come with a gentle handfeel, lent by shell buttons on a lichen short sleeve shirt and the Sharpie-drawn logo on a tee. Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s clothes, always styled in a seemingly spontaneous and intuitive way, help build character which is 100% authentic – and mysteriously quirky.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The MNZ Cool. Maryam Nassir Zadeh SS22

September 10, 2021 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maryam Nassir Zadeh is the queen of contemporary New York cool – there I said it. Her clothes – recently also for men – are the perfect balance of odd and classic, and the way they are presented is beautifully inclusive and inspiring. Her spring-summer 2022 collection was presented at the brand’s newly reopened store. Surprisingly, it also marked her first show in the space; she described it as a homecoming. “It was really important for me to have the show at the store, to celebrate that it’s still alive and celebrate the community that has supported us since the beginning,” she said. That spirit was felt both in the audience and the impactful cast, including MNZ regulars like Susan Cianciolo, Paloma Elsesser, and Lili Sumner as well as Zadeh’s husband, Uday Kak, and Andre Walker. Zadeh’s impulse to go “back to her roots” via the setting was mirrored in the clothes, too. Her early collections were quite minimal, and through the years she’s experimented with bolder colors, prints, silhouettes, and styling. But as life inches towards normalcy, she’s feeling for an aesthetic reset – something cleaner, easier, purer. That doesn’t add up to our standard definition of minimalism; the way she put it was “playful, but restrained.” That odd balance is Zadeh’s signature: classic-ish button-downs and denim shorts were styled with her cult PVC wedges and glass jewelry, yoga pants were “spiced up” by leather medallion belts, filmy translucent skirts and dresses revealed bright bikinis underneath, and crisp 9-to-5 chinos flared over neon kitten heels. The unlikely pairings and delicate sensuality seemed to reflect how so many women want to dress in 2022: not trendy or overly referential, but not basic; sophisticated, but not stuffy. It’s a modern vision of “femininity” rooted in individuality and curiosity, not overt sex appeal or convention. That said, Zadeh was even more excited about her menswear offering, which grew significantly for spring. The guys in the show wore raw-edged suede shirts, color-blocked polo knits, and raw denim jorts with sharp blazers, often with bits of colored glass strung across the chest. The impression was unprecious and, like the womenswear, a bit sensual; she felt the knits in particular would bring something new to the men’s market. Still, Zadeh makes a point not to separate garments by “men’s” or “women’s” on her website. Ultimately, all of her garments – from suits to bikinis to see-through minis – will be worn by people of every gender identity.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Curated Wardrobe. Maryam Nassir Zadeh Resort 2022

July 22, 2021 | Design & Culture by Ed

Contemporary, New York chic? It’s Maryam Nassir Zadeh‘s brand. The designer comes at her collections from multiple vantage points: as a designer, as a retailer (her Lower East Side store is set to reopen soon), and as a true lover of clothes. She has an epic personal archive filled with labels she discovered early on – Nassir Zadeh was one of the first New York stores to sell Jacquemus and Eckhaus Latta – as well as designer treasures and vintage finds she’s collected over the years. As for her brand’s archive, she’s been busy revisiting and editing every piece she’s ever made, plus dozens of prototypes and one-offs, to get it to a place that reflects her tastes today. Post-pandemic, she’s leaning more minimal, but not in a stark or staid way; there’s a delicateness to it, even in the menswear. For resort 2022, she tried on almost every piece she’s kept, one by one, and re-cut the best ones to create the ultimate “curated” MNZ wardrobe. Her past few collections have followed a similar approach, initially due to the constraints of the pandemic; in 2020, her team didn’t have the resources to create brand-new samples with brand-new fabrics. But Zadeh didn’t think that resort would have turned out “better” if it was entirely new stuff. The time and care she put into hand-selecting the clothes – and occasionally redoing them in different colors or fabrics – amounted to a collection heartfelt and personal. Diehard fans might spot a few of her “greatest hits,” but Zadeh and her stylist, Thistle Brown, re-styled each piece so they’re hardly recognizable. Several dresses were transformed into skirts thanks to artful knots or belt bags around the waist, while a neon orange midi dress was shown with a full skirt underneath, sort of like a petticoat. Beyond showing you how to wear the new pieces, Zadeh hopes it will inspire her entire community to get more creative with their MNZ favorites at home. A few looks were styled with bikinis, now a brand signature, or asymmetrical bodysuits in mushroom-y colors. They lent an undone, balletic feeling to the skirts, sort of like a Lower East Side spin on a dancer’s uniform.