“I’m a textile girl.” Maryam Nassir Zadeh brought some of her very first designs (some made with materials from her good friend Susan Cianciolo) to her Lower East Side store to demonstrate that statement and show the continuity between her past and current work. Her fall 2024 collection is partly inspired by a recent visit to Rajasthan – note the citrus-colored Indian materials with metallic threads that make wispy bra tops, luscious bags and boxers (the It item of summer 2023) , but it builds on themes the designer has been playing with as she continues her quest for self-rediscovery.
Revisiting some of her bold designs, Zadeh evokes not only her own catalogue, but also a lost New York. Those gold fabrics evoke the Dosa era of the late 1990s, while the designer’s brave independence connects her to the heyday of Mulberry Street and its environs, where independent, female-led boutiques like À Détacher and Mayle were destination spots, just like Zadeh is now on the market. Norfolk Street.
There are custom-made trousers and peacoats to match the autumn offering. In addition, a quality jersey is used for the color-blocked ‘sweat’ parts and a padded Members Only-meets-aviator jacket. Overshirts, good for layering, are made from denim, corduroy and suede, the latter of which also appears on skirts, tops and fringed scarves that can be worn as a garment and are styled as such in the lookbook, which is included in the South of France. Zadeh’s work and ethos have an essential sunny appeal, and the non-seasonal looks (mesh pop-overs, a lace dress, sheer chiffon shirts with subtle color combinations) command attention. Some dresses and knits are even so airy and light that they almost look like garments.
As such, they harken back to MNZ’s last runway show, for spring 2023, when the designer presented mainly unsewn and ad hoc-looking ensembles (skirts that did not completely circle the body, tablecloths), using (but not cutting) fabrics from her beloved textile collection. This was a radical step, a reset, that spoke to the art of decorating and dressing as an individual and playful act. Speaking of her fall lineup, Zadeh compared some pieces to gift wrapping; it’s not that they are graceful, but they are pleasing to the eye. Zadeh’s special touch, her understanding of the It factor, has some of the same fragrance properties: evocative, beautiful and ethereal.
MNZ achieves more with less. However, Zadeh’s reductionist tendencies are not in the service of minimalism, but of form and making. They even seem to extend to gender. “I put the men in more feminine things and the women in more masculine things,” she noted. This fits the designer’s expansive atmosphere. “It’s a full-circle moment,” she said. “I realize the value of time – I have been a collector – and how elements of the past have a lot of depth, and they continue to infuse my work. In a way, it feels like just yesterday that I was attracted to certain things [that] I feel so holy now.” Fashion can’t save souls, but it can capture the spirit of the times in ways that connect the present to what has come before.
