EMERGING TALENTS: A PLATFORM FOR THE NEW VOICES IN DESIGN
Apr. 20, 2018
MILAN DESIGN WEEK
LONDON/MANCHESTER, United Kingdom
GIVING VOICE TO YOUNG MUSLIM SOULS TO BE ABLE TO VISUALLY EXPRESS THEMSELVES....
I PRIDE MYSELF AS BEING A YOUNG IRANIAN WOMAN, SHARING MY OWN STORY AS A VOICE FOR YOUNG MUSLIM GIRLS ALL AROUND THE WORLD.
MAKING CHANGES IN THE WORLD MEANS MORE THAN JUST DESIGNING CLOTHES TO ME.
'B E K H O
M O R E H E N A' IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES IN THE WORLD.
THIS IS WERE IT ALL BEGINS....
LONDON, United Kingdom
MILAN, Italy
The EMERGING TALENTS PROGRAM, presented by HAY, is a daily performative presentation during Salone del Mobile di Milano, biggest international design exhibition worldwide, of emerging talents selected from recent graduates of the world’s top design schools. Nine young designers, selected by a group o
f international advisors, will be awarded a bursary to attend the world’s most important design summit in Milan, and given a platform to present their work to some of the leading voices in the industry.
LONDON, United Kingdom
It was after the two intense years of personal growth and journey of self-discovery through her faith and culture. After visiting Iran after many years with the help and winning the Janey Ironside Travel Award, when Hosseini finally found her inner self and saw the real beauty in her own faith inste
ad of the misconception of Islam in the media in todays society. “Let us not be fooled by what is being shown through social media and let us only judge with our own minds with being shown the truth.”
It was then that Hosseini decided her life journey to be one that steps forward about the covered truth and to influence and make positive changes in the world as she states ‘I’m here to make positive changes in the world. I want to use my talent as a young designer / creator to do something good in this lifetime’.
LONDON, United Kingdom
LONDON, United Kingdom
LONDON, United Kingdom
Internship
LONDON, United Kingdom
BRANDING AND IDENTITY
ENGINEER DESIGNING
HIJAB/MODEST CONSULTATIONS
REVOLUTIONISE DESIGNING
COMPLEX PATTERN CUTTING
COMPLEX LEATHER CONSTRUCTION
MACHINIST
STYLIST
HIJAB/MODEST DESIGNING
Photography
VIDEOGRAPHY
CAD
Adobe Premier Pro
illustrator
Final Cut Pro
Photoshop
InDesign
Special Affects
English
Native language
Persian
Native language
Arabic
Basic knowledge
French
Basic knowledge
MILAN DESIGN WEEK
MILAN DESIGN WEEK
Elsewhere during Milan Design Week, fashion alumna Zahra Hosseini will show her performative presentation B E K H O M O R E H E N A. The project focuses on her journey of self-discovery through her Iranian heritage and Muslim faith. The presentation includes garments that young Muslim women can wear
that help them keep their modesty while also expressing their personality.
B E K H O M O R E H E N A will be part of the Emerging Talents Program at Palazzo Clerici and will be exhibited on 18 April from 11am – 6pm.
Elsewhere at Milan Design Week, RCA fashion alumna Zahra Hosseini is one of nine young designers handpicked to show as part of the Emerging Talents Program, presented by Hay. Zahra will be showing her performative presentation ‘B E K H O M O R E H E N A’ which centres on her journey of self-discovery
through her Iranian culture and deeper meaning of her Muslim faith.
Zahra’s work reclaims the beauty of Islam, in particular the peacefulness of ‘Azan’, the Islamic call out pray, recited by the Muezzin. Her performances include garments that young Muslim girls can wear to feel connected to modesty decreed by their faith and explore the opportunity clothes give to express their inner self.
First up was Zahra Sooty Hosseini, whose modern Iran-inspired pieces were entirely interchangeable. Sat centre stage in a pool of Sooty’s designs while the fashion pack took their seats, the models rose to show the versatility of the garments as a call to prayer rang overhead - dress transformed into
prayer mat, prayer mat into slick hooded suit, suit into cape and back into mat for the models to pray. Particularly pertinent considering the recent attacks, Sooty’s work is a reminder about the way Islam is so often misconceived in the western world.
INTERVIEW WITH ZAHRA SOOTY HOSSEINI
When it came to the runway shows, gone was the one look per designer system of last year. But that didn’t mean it was a straightforward, walking up and down affair either – the first designer Zahra Hosseini kicked things off with a performance, where three women unfurled the skirt of a fourth into a
prayer mat and fell to prostrations.
Women’s wear student Zahra Sooty Hosseini, who interned at Gareth Pugh and Aitour Throup, focused on modest fashion and worked jersey, coated cotton and velvets into a series of floor-length abayas and hijabs — some adorned with shiny black or green accents. She mounted a conceptual display depicting
Muslim prayer.
Zahra Hosseini’s collection, inspired by religion, offered a moment of real contemplation.
Opening the show was Zahra Sooty Hosseini’s all black collection. Her presentation ended by creating a prayer mat from the clothing of one of the turban wearing models, as they gathered to pray. Pieces were decoratively bonded with shiny PVC and foil, while covering the female form completely.
ZAHRA SOOTY HOSSEINI HIGHLIGHTS
It’s a funny thing, faith. Some people worship five times a day in the direction of Mecca, others every so often at temples of subculture, art or hedonism. What connects these seemingly opposite ideologies is a sense of belief in something greater than oneself. Young people, we’re told, lack that abi
lity and deeper spirituality — some critics will go as far to say that the Internet killed it. We’ve even been led to believe that today’s kids, who go out of their way to avoid eye contact and are so tactless that they would turn the Queen’s funeral into a meme, are essentially politically and socially apathetic, obsessed only with Snapchat and selfies.The show opened with a Muslim call to prayer, with a group of women in leather-trimmed black robes unfolding a central figure’s skirt to create a mat for them to pray together. It was the work of Zahra Hosseini, an Iranian-born student, who wanted to celebrate her Islamic heritage.
Before attending the show I received an email warning me to arrive early due to extra bag checks in the wake of the recent London terrorist attack. After delays and a very late start to the show as a result, Sooty’s fashion performance was an even more poignant opener, for it presented her adaptable
modern ‘dress’ for muslim women via the medium of prayer, complete with the call to prayer, facing towards Mecca.
If your collection was going on a trip somewhere, where would it be going?
Around the world to give out a positive message and bring peace to the world.
So your collection is a message of peace?
Yeah it is for me, that was the most important thing, to show the beauty that I see as a Muslim w
oman and in this day and age the darkness of it is over powering the beauty, which is not the truth.
When you started this collection was there one image on your mood board that you based your collection around?
No, it was a self-discovery journey, I went to Iran last year and I went to all these spiritual places that really changed me, and opened my eyes, it made me believe in my own faith. It was a moment for me. I saw the beauty in Azan and I really wanted to bring that beauty back.
What’s next?
Anything could be next, I really would love to be part of a community that really does positive changes, and be part of something special in the world. I’m on a journey and I don’t know what’s going to happen.
INTERVIEW WITH ZAHRA SOOTY HOSSEINI
The dramatic opening women’s wear presentation, by Zahra Sooty Hosseini, featured turbans and all-black gowns in draped technical fabrics gathered around a central figure, whose structured dress folds later fanned out as a mat on which models could congregate while going through the motions of the Is
lamic call to prayer.
First up was womenswear designer Zahra Sooty Hosseini, whose four-part gown design was showcased as audience members trickled it. Worn by a model sat with her head bowed down in a prayer-like position, the show began as three fellow models entered the runway, each helping to unclip the gown's billowi
ng skirt so that it spread across the catwalk resembling a prayer-mat before all four women began to utter a series of prayers in sync. It was a powerful introduction to the innovative and politically motivated collections which followed.
Zahra Sooty Hosseini opened the show with the Islamic call to Prayer. A group of female figures clad fully in black proceeded to perform the prayer in unison and the room fell silent. Some found it emotional, while others felt unnerved by the unfamiliar. Hosseini’s choice to put her identity boldly a
t the center of a fashion presentation acted as a foil to the recent radical Islamist attacks in the UK. The effect was nothing short of powerful.
Zowie Broach, RCA Head of Fashion, says, ‘It is fitting that this Show takes place at the very moment when the UK decides on its future Government. Since the UK voted to leave the EU last June, students have been asking urgent questions about owning their own culture that haven’t been asked for gener
ations. They have been pushed to ask deeper questions about fashion within the current political climate and its power to effect change in this unsettling landscape’.
