January 16, 2018 |
Having just last year decided to break free from the traditional Fashion Week cycle and open his very first store in Forest Gate, the interior of which he designed and built with his own fair hands, Nasir Mazhar has quietly released his latest mini collection via Look Book, amid the noise and hubbub of the Menswear Shows. Available in store from February, the looks themselves are typically extraterrestrial, surrealist incarnations that, at first glance, bear some grounding to the natural world, but morphed and re-configured in a way that only Nasir is capable of.
And being Nasir, the accessories are typically strong. Head pieces are elaborate and tentacular, eye-masks look somewhere between the face of a blue bottle fly and an Olympic track cyclist, while huge, bug-eyed goggles, spiralled in white and red look as though they’ve been taken from a recently hypnotised Looney Tunes character. Elsewhere, a beaded head piece that sits over the face courtesy of a ball-gag, not unlike some tribal S&M gear, is worn together with voluminous trousers reconstructed from what appears to be a ribbed lampshade. Where t-shirts are worn, and there are plenty of bare chested-moments, they have been augmented with strips of fabric and MAZHAR badges that chime with corresponding patchwork on matching trousers – either full-length or cropped just below the knee. Plenty of beads here too, slung across the body like bandoliers to supplement vibrantly coloured shoulder bags, or tied around the waist. And the shoes? Pretty major. Big, platformed, strappy numbers that look like they could walk a post-apocalyptic wasteland for eternity.
In an exclusive chat with Ten, Nasir revealed what prompted him to start producing smaller collections, “the idea is to give myself more freedom to create work and release it as I please, rather than waiting the usual five or six months. I mean, it might be two collections a year, it might be five, but I also wanted to concentrate more on accessories again and I just feel it’s much more pleasurable to work when working on fewer looks.” On opening his own store space last year, Nasir spoke about the importance of creating something that defied the conventional and monotonous. “The vision is always to provide an alternative to the never ending stream of normality, to look at what is missing or what needs changing in our culture and address it. I wouldn’t say the shop has helped me develop that, but it’s definitely given me the independence and freedom to work at my own, natural pace”.
The clothing and accessories will be available to purchase in February, and will be exclusively at Nazir’s Forest Gate shop and online at nasirmazhar.com/shop
Photography Sam Bayliss Ibram
Styling, casting and set Nasir Mazhar
Make up Celia Hannah
Lighting assistant Steve Braiden
Styling assistant Jakub Nowacki
Shoes Newrock
Models Adam, Tim, Shay, Oliver, Esrom, James
