IN THE WEEKLY HEADING "NEW BRAND" Wonderzine introduces young designers and tells you where and how you can buy their clothes. Our hero this week is the hatter Nazir Mazhar, who decided to make clothes at the intersection of street fashion for men and women.
Olesya Iva
Nazir Mazhar was born and raised in a Turkish Cypriot family in East London, where most of the modern young British designers live and work. Nazir started out as a hairdresser at one of Vidal Sassoon's salons on Brick Lane, moonlighting on Kylie Minogue's Showgirls tour, and sewing elaborate architectural hats. After two years working as a hatter in London theaters from The Barbican to The Royal Opera House, The Globe and The Royal National Theater, he is noticed by the stylists of Lady Gaga and Nikola Formichetti. This is how Nazir gets into the right environment. In 2007, his hat appears on the cover of Roisin Murphy's new album "Overpowered", a year later, Madonna appears in Nazir Mazhar's helmet on the cover of Dazed & Confused, in 2012 he was ordered hats for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in London, as well as design hats - Gareth Pugh and Henry Holland.
In 2008, Nazir received a grant from Topshop and the British Fashion Council and sews the first men's collection, which will be presented as part of London Fashion Week. Until 2013, the designer will arrange only small presentations of the collections, which are filmed by his girlfriend, director Grace Ladoya, one of the participants in the SHOWstudio video project by photographer Nick Knight. These presentations will each time accompany the performances of young London artists - the brand's alliance with music has become a strategically correct step. Looking back, fashion, and especially British fashion, was formed on the principle of communities around music: think of skinheads, mods, the punk movement and buffalo girls (the latter two were formed by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in the late 70s). However, Malcolm McLaren once said that fashion is the most musical form of art. For Nazir's last men's fashion show spring-summer 2015, the soundtrack was recorded by the gloomy British artist Skepta, who once went to the show of another young English industrial music brand Cassette Playa, which we also wrote about recently.
Thus, Nazir Mazhar follows the beaten track, forming a community around himself that actively supports the designer and spreads the brand's ideas, giving rise to a desire in people to be involved in the brand. It is not surprising that the girlfriends and acquaintances of the young designer go to the shows of Nazir, completely different girls and, what is important, not professional models: Asian women and mulattos, thin and with forms. Firstly, they suit the things that the designer offers: basketball shorts, hoodies, caps, garters, masks reminiscent of the respirators of ravers of the early 2000s, miniskirts, crop tops, wide pants, as in the TLC clips of the 90s. years. Secondly, they support the idea of cohesion around the brand.
In a short time, Nazir Mazhar made all publications talk about himself - critics are arguing whether the style of Nazir's brand will become as influential as the style of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Rick Owens. We think so. The logomania that Nazir proposes works for the brand with might and main - young people react to things with Nazir's logos in the same way as they did at Calvin Klein 20 years ago, feeling themselves part of one movement.
Nazir went on another path for many British designers, enlisting the support of the right friends from the fashion industry. We recently wrote about how the community helped Jonathan Saunders break through. So, Nazira's shows are stylized by the designer's friend, one of the main modern stylists, Englishwoman Anna Trevelyan, who is the fashion director of Machine-A and collaborates with Ashish. It is not surprising that Nazira bought one of the new and progressive London concept stores Machine-A on Brewer Street in Soho, where items of already proven designers hang next to Nazir on 600 square meters of the store: Ashish Gupta, Hussein Chalayan, Christopher Raeburn and Raf Simons …
Nazir Mazhar
In the last collection I put on masks on the models for a reason. They resemble rebel masks and symbolize a willingness to fight. It may sound strange, but by struggle I mean my struggle with other designers. I'm on the other side of the barricades. Now I am busy with shaping the wardrobe of the modern generation, its image and its uniform. And this wardrobe will be called Nasir Mazhar.
Where to buy things Nasir Mazhar
Nazir has more than 16 points of sale worldwide. Nasir Mazhar clothes and hats are available in many stores: Machine-A and Opening Ceremony in London, Henrik Vibskov Boutique in Copenhagen, Kokon to Zai in Paris, Space Mue and Addicted in Seoul, four stores in Hong Kong, Opening Ceremony in New York and Los Angeles, as well as New York VFILES, five stores in Japan, the Milan Wok Store and a number of other places that can be checked on the designer's website. In Moscow, women's and men's clothes can be found in September. The brand was purchased by Kuznetsky Most 20.