As preparation for LFW continues, we are meeting up with all the designers set to showcase at the ' A La Mode show. This week we caught up with Cyprus based designer Zerrin Akinci. She gave us a little insight into her brand and where she gets inspiration from.
Your passion is to create the unique, what does unique mean to you?
Your passion is to create the unique, what does unique mean to you?
As a designer, I design with the passion to create as unique as the soul, as fitted as the skin and as unique as my clients. I believe each of us has different fingerprints that are born and live with us till we die. Like the fingerprints we have, we are all solitary both insight and out-sight , we are solitary in characters and in styles. We have no likes-no equals. With these beliefs, ZA by Zerrin Akinci offers its innovative and reflective designs for the believers of what you wear reflects your iner-ness.
Cyprus is a small place where did your big dreams come from?
Cyprus is a small island which is divided into two parts as North and South Cyprus, and where there is almost nothing about fashion sector. However I belive that dreams are something that come from inside to outside, not from outside to inside. It is something that’s in your karma, and it’s your dharma.. Nevermind where you were born, you came to this world with a dharma- aim of life. When you find what it is, each day you wake up with a different energy with the happiness of taking steps towards your dharma. Sketching has always been a passion for me as long as i remember.At 16, I became second in an international design competiton, just missing out a placement in New York fashion school. After completion of my BA in PR and MA in marketing communications, and 3 years of experience in trade marketing, I quit everything and headed to USA to follow my childhood dream. Living in a small island has both advantages and disadvantages for me. Nevertheless, Living in Cyprus absolutely increases my motives to network and work harder and harder to reach my goals.
You often use loud and vibrant colours in your designs, is the woman you imagine wearing your designs loud and vibrant in her personality?
ZA woman is a fashiontrendsetter rather than a follower. She is modern, elegant and vibrant. ‘What I wear reflect my own inner-ness’ is her fashion moto. She is aware the fact that image is important in today’s world but more than that she believes in style personality.
If you can have any celebrity endorse your brand who would you pick and why?
Definetely I would like to work with Alek Wek. Apart from the fact that she was my inspiration when i was sketching on my desk in highschool years, I find her story of immigration from Sudan during the Civil war and that she was discovered by a model agency while shopping in London Market very inspiring. Her re-definition of the standards of beauty in fashion is very similar to my fashion attitude about inner beauty. Her ethnic background, and her standing on the stage in style and as black and beautiful as she can, goes relatively with my designs. Also her social responsibility as a human being in helping to raise awareness about Sudan, about AIDS, as well as the plight of refugees worldwide, makes me admire her more . Simply, as she is the message I am trying to give about fashion, she is the one I would like to endorse my brand.
What are your current inspirations for your future collections
For my future collection I am inspired by envelopes. And the meaning of this white piece of paper for the people. Theme of my collection is ‘an envelope…all I am waiting for…’ During at some phases of our lives, we are all waiting for an envelope. We might be waiting for a love letter from a lover, or just a hello from a family member abroad. It might be an acceptance letter from the university… an envelope… Sometimes It is all we are looking for..to have a new beginning..or an end..
How does it feel to be coming to showcase to your collection during LFW?
AMAZING JI am ver very excited about this show
Where did the Eastern and Mediterranean influences come from?
I am a mediterranean who believes in the protection of evil eyes, dreamcatchers etc. I like to read and learn about spirituality, different cultures and beliefs.
You evidently have many eastern inspirations, you studied in America, did that influence your designs in any way?
I simply describe myself as an international designer educated in the West who looks to the East for the inspiration.
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