Creating menswear shrouded in anonymity and designed to allow an individual to be visible but remain unidentifiable, Nadir Tejani is the shy, young designer living in the shadows.
Treading a science-based path until he was seventeen, the now twenty-one year old chose to boldly pursue a different direction, turning to the less secure territory of fashion design. Spending much of his time at London College of Fashion in the studio working on his graduate collection, Nadir recently created a capsule collection for designer boutique The Sick Laboratory, his pieces scoring high in the popularity stakes with local trend trailblazers. Establishing a unique aesthetic that, when you scratch the steely surface, unravels to reveal more about his perceptions of society and less about the man behind the materials, this is a forward thinking designer for the non-consumerist.
i-D Online took time out with the introverted designer, as Tatiana Leshkina shot the first finished looks of his forthcoming collection with new face Danny Reed, at a South London warehouse space filled with foil!
How do you describe your aesthetic? It’s more about function than aesthetics; I ignore the human body and its limitations and instead I try to project a negative image of all those non-limitations.
What are your creative processes? I design garments, not styles; I work with patterns that when put together don’t resemble conventions but simply shapes.
What are your signature techniques? I’m eager to eliminate the visible features of clothing – hiding openings, fastenings and functional details; I am against ornamenting. I also work a lot with stretch materials as I think they represent the future owing to the different qualities they have depending on their weight.
Who and what are some of your most prominent influences in your work? A big side silhouette is fascinating to me; people like Kawakubo and Watanabe have a significant influence on my work. I am mostly interested in non-contemporary clothes that assume an identity of themselves; garments that change shape from a flat view when worn by a body.
Who do you design for? People who see clothes as an ecosystem; their own reality which is undisturbed by outer elements.
Who are the creative team you work with? For the time being I do everything myself; however, I constantly receive feedback from specific people who I feel very related to and with whom I share the same vision in different aspects of creativity.
How did you first meet Tatiana Leshkina? Tatiana photographed my first collection last year.
What is about her photography that suits your aesthetic? The fact that it has no regard for the clothes and filters through the core of my work.
What’s next? Finishing my graduation collection and trying my luck in the industry.
