Arts Thread

"JUST DO THE DAMN LAUNDRY!!!" is my Final Major Project during my 3rd year of Fashion Design BA course. For this project, I designed a collection of 5 gender-neutral looks heavily inspired by my queer identity, Iranian heritage and neurodiversity. It tells the story of the overwhelming and mundane world of adulthood and how I view the world differently. Much like the story of Alice in Wonderland, it is about finding the fantasy and wonder within the frustrating reality. My main focus for the pieces was to re-create and re-imagine traditional and classic fabrics, in a new and sustainable way. For example, I created a denim-like fabric using 100% organic cotton, dyed and treated by hand. My obsession with plaid and checks also led me to explore different ways to create a plaid-esque fabric in knit. On top of that, I explored my absolute favourite knit technique, Intarsia, to knit my artwork. The main characteristics of this collection are layering and styling so each look is created using many different garments so you can mix and match the pieces and create so many different looks. In addition, every single piece in the collection is fully-fashioned making the collection zero-waste!

during this 3rd year project, I recreated the multicoloured jumper from LOEWE SS22 Menswear collection. 100% of the yarns are second-hand or headstock, sourced from local factories. I also hand-dyed some to match the colours of the original Jumper. The garment is fully fashioned and knitted on a domestic knitting machine.

This is a capsule project from my 3rd year BA Fashion Design course. I was mainly inspired by bedrooms and looked at different elements of them; such as bedsheets, sleeping positions, objects in one's bedroom, comfort, clutter, etc. My trips to the Weird Sensation Feels Good: The world of ASMR exhibition, as well as the Strange Clay exhibition, were also extremely inspiring when it came to sensory aspects, textures and colour of the garments. The look I created for this project consists of an oversized jumper and a knitted tabard; both are extremely textured and sensory. The jumper is knitted on a domestic knitting machine and the tabard on a Shima Seiki digital machine.

This is a project I have done for the British Fashion Council British Library x Supriya Lele design competition inspired by the current uprising of women's rights and human rights movement in my home country, Iran. Growing up in strictly theocratical and dictatorial Iran, I experienced discrimination and gender apartheid first-hand and used the experience as inspiration for this project. This collection explores the themes of authority, uniformity, forced coverings and the right to free expression. On top layers, the fabrics are a mix of military and dark colours, juxtaposing the intricate colourful patterns underneath. Additionally, I wanted to incorporate unconventional materials as an ode to Iran's rich culture of crafts; so I created copper discs, textured with dents and attached using crochet within the cutouts of the garments. All materials and yarns used for this project are upcycled, and some were donated by Stella McCartney.

"Who am I" is one of my projects during my second year BA Fashion Design. In this project, I explored and drew inspirations from many aspects of my identity, my interests, my values and my culture as well as own drawings and photographs to come up with interesting and playful knit and textiles designs. As a queer person, I am interested in breaking the "rules" of gender binary especially in fashion and explore fun, colourful and genderless clothes and this collection is all about that. "Who am I" incorporates my fun and colourful personality and aims to break boundaries in fashion. Sustainability was the core of the design process. All the materials used in the samples, are either second hand, dead stock or biodegradable and eco-friendly and all panels are fully fashioned meaning zero waste production.

'The Flow of Memories' is a diffusion line I designed for the brand, Christopher Kane as part of my second year BA Fashion Design course. Main concept for this project came from the feeling of nostalgia and homesick-ness I have felt over the last year; I used satellite pictures of my hometown to inspire me with details, shapes, colours, silhouette, etc. The main focus of the satellite pictures was the main river that runs through my city and has been the home of many of my memories from back home. The swirly and wavy path of the river, inspired with tubular and swirly details in my collection. Besides that, I created plenty of artwork from primary imagery to draw details and textures from and then created many knit manipulation samples; which I then moved forward to standwork on my body and then collages, which I then refined and created the final garments of the collection. I am so proud of this project because I carried the whole project out whilst being in lockdown and having no access to facilities, have sparked creativity and imagination that granted me a First for this project and amazing feedback from tutors regarding my innovative ideas.

The Abnormal-wear is an outerwear collection I designed during my second year BA Fashion Design course. It consists of 4 fantasy-like and exaggerated looks based on the concept of abnormality and monsters. Main inspirations for the collection came from my own experience in dealing with traumas and inability to express and manage my emotions due to being neurodivergent. I am showing this by overwhelming and oversized garments with weird and incorrectly placed/ missing details. My personal interest in monstrous creatures and abject art has also been a great inspiration; therefore, I used my own artworks around this theme alongside secondary image research to inspire me for shapes, details and colour palette. After a great deal of standwork, collaging and sketching, I finalised 4 looks and moved forward with one of them to construct it in 3D. The outcome is the toile of a voluminous and oversized outerwear garment, completely in sustainable material, that consists of two separate pieces; a puffer jacket and a puffer coat. The details consist of handmade buttons, screen-printed fabric and pockets.