Sasha Nassar is an up-coming designer from Jaffa who now lives in Paris. She just presented her Autumn-Winter 17/18 at Paris Fashion Week. Rencontre.
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Sasha, tell us a bit about you: your background, origins…
My Name is Sasha Nassar,I was born in Jaffa and I’ll be 30 next week !
I did my BA at Istituto Marangoni, first year in Milan,second in London and third in Paris. I then carried on with a Master’s degree still at Marangoni in Paris.
I love to travel, and to discover cities,cultures and languages , that’s why I decided to change campuses
every year, and to study abroad.
I’ve been always attracted to fabrics and aesthetics. Since I was young, my main hobbies were to knit and to sew.
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Tell us about your brand, how it started, what is the concept behind it?
I started my brand back in September 2016. Actually, I never planned to have my own brand. During my studies I was sure I wanted to work for a big Fashion House.
Imagining to one day have my own brand was a bit of a surreal idea. The competition today is fierce, and it feels like every one wants to become a Fashion Designer. So I would ask myself why someone would want to buy my clothes when there are many more designers/brands ?
During my bachelor I won the Graduate Fashion Week International show in London.
I got a contract with the Danish company
Muuse to create a capsule collection based on my BA collection. I think that was the “starting point” for me and I started thinking about having my own brand.
But after experiencing some fashion houses in Paris (Acne studios, Cacharel, Julien Fournié), I found out that I couldn’t put into practice my creativity.
Therefore, after my Masters I felt that I should at least try to have my own brand.
For me to build something from zero and to learn new things while building my own brand, makes me really excited and curious about the whole process.
Not only the designing part. The 2 collections i created (SS17 and AW17) were both inspired by the place where I was born, Jaffa. I used elements like prints, embroidery which both were inspired by my city. My AW17 campaign was shot in Jaffa and presented during Paris Fashion Week early March.
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Do you identify with the current up-coming Middle-Eastern design scene?
Yes sure, I find that most of them like me are pushing the “Middle-Eastern” style, culture, vision. There’s one designer that I find very interesting: Nathalie Tahan. She uses Palestinian embroideries in her designs in a sophisticated and delicate way.
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Are your origins a source of inspiration for you? Do you like to present yourself as a Middle-Eastern designer?
Ohhh yes totally, I’m all into it. I feel that everything I’m doing in my life represent my origins. I think, even though I studied abroad and I live in Europe, my origins are my source of inspiration. Although I really like to combine them with a more European style. All the work that I’m doing on the fabrics (embroidery prints) they are mostly inspired by the Middle-East.
What are your ambitions and goals for your brand?
I’m gonna launch my online store in a month, and im very excited about it. I hope my brand will grow in terms of creativity, points of sales, to really spread it worldwide.
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Discover more about Sasha right here
Dafy Hagai
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