Zarya Azadi, Yezidi-Kurdish Entrepreneur Uniting Kurdistan with Fashion at the House of iKons Virtual Fashion Show on February 27th
Zarya Azadi is a powerful force for women’s equality globally. She was born in the Kurdish region of Turkey in Diyarbakir and belongs to the Yazidi religious community. During the civil war in Turkey Zarya’s family fled to Germany as refugees in 1990. Zarya is the first woman in her family and community that decided to leave her parents’ home and to study abroad. This was very controversial at the time as the Yazidi community is very traditional. After many months of debate and arguments, Zarya convinced her parents to let her pursue her journey. With the mental support of her family, Zarya moved to Oxford in England and successfully completed her Bachelor’s Degree at the Oxford Brookes University in 2013. During her studies Zarya was working as a catwalk and fashion model in Europe. Today, she is a successful model taking her Kurdish Heritage and Kurdish Designers to the runway during London Fashion Week with the House of iKons. “The importance of this show as Kurds is to be able to participate at an international event representing our own heritage and identity. For the first time a whole solo segment will be dedicated to us and will not only feature Designers, but also Kurdish artists and music performances” – Zarya Azadi
Tell us about the upcoming show with the House of iKons.
The House of iKons upcoming virtual fashion show on February 27th with the beautiful title “Uniting The World of Creativity” will showcase a total of 19 international fashion designers, including 6 of my Kurdish fashion designers. Each of the designers sent between 1-3 outfits from their collection to create a beautiful virtual fashion film at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London.
Due to the lockdowns again our initial live show was postponed until September this year. This gave us only one month to prepare for the virtual fashion film. The CEO of House of iKons, Savita Kaye, was doing her very best to get this fashion film organized. With all the COVID-19 restrictions and new guidelines it was definitely stressful but worth it!
The filming was on the 20th February with a few models and child models, a few fashion designers that are based in London including one of my Kurdish designers Atelier by Khoshkar Horre, the hair & make-up stylists from Girl Meets Brush, our photographer J.Rosales Photography and of course the CEO as the creative director Savita Kaye were allowed to attend the hotel.
The fashion film “Uniting The World of Creativity” will be aired first on the House of iKons Youtube channel and will feature designers including:
- Sigrun
- Joan’s Bridal Couture
- Simi Sandhu
- Be Unique Be You
- Model’s Wardrobe
- N8 by Nathan Vandevelde
- Yadê Couture
- Korn Taylor
- G.Seven feat Yildizstoffe
- Inci Hakbilen
- Ethinicroyals
- Post Code Fashion
- Eye on Fashion
- Atelier by Khoshkar Horre
- Bahar Yasin Studios
- Dis is Me Couture
- á la Mode
- Love Collection by Emily & Anna
- Jugger Onate for Jil & Jug Dallas
The show is much more than fashion; share the philosophy behind your work.
The philosophy is in its title that Savita Kaye has chosen, “Uniting The World of Creativity” as each designer from all different parts of the World, including the Kurdish designers, have this amazing platform to show their unique creativity and their art. House of iKons is uniting all of these very talented emerging designers under one roof. Me and my Kurdish designers are very happy to be part of such an amazing opportunity. It is nice to be recognized with our art at an international event like this.
Atelier by Khoshkar Horre
What excites you the most about this show?
The one thing that excites me the most about this show is that we all, each and every one who is part of House of iKons have all worked so hard, some of us day and night, to get the outfits ready and shipped to London on time to get this virtual fashion film done. Well done everyone!
And of course when we get to see the final edited version of the virtual fashion film which can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video on the Rising Fashion channel which is also House of iKons new media partner to name but two of the places you will be able to find the show.
There is a lot of work that goes into organizing fashion shows amidst the pandemic. Take us through the process.
The process has definitely changed due to the pandemic. Certain decisions can only be made last minute as we have to wait for new laws or guidelines etc. This makes the whole process more and more difficult and complicated as we also are in constant communications with our production team, the hotel, designers, models, MUA etc., basically everyone who is involved in the show.
The House of iKons is an international fashion show, our designers and models fly to London from all around the world including the new Model Reality TV Show called Rising Fashion that can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video. Now with the lockdowns a lot of us couldn’t fly to London anymore so therefore the live show had to be postponed. As one of the Senior Managers of the production team of House of iKons, my main focus during the entire process was to get Kurdish fashion designers as part of our Kurdish solo segment “The Hidden Beauty of Kurdistan” as part of the House of iKons Fashion Week London. I am in charge of this part but also in constant communications with Savita Kaye. Currently we have a total of 8 Kurdish fashion designers who are all part of our solo segment. The pandemic didn’t make it easy for all of us to convince them to do a fashion show, I have to admit that. So the whole process of introducing the concept of the House of iKons, the Kurdish solo segment and the preparations for the new collections of each designer was already a lot. On top of that I managed to get the Kurdish TV Network Rudaw as our main media sponsor for the show. Rudaw is one of the biggest TV networks in our country. We also had a live interview planned in the Rudaw TV studio in Dusseldorf, Germany with me and two of my designers, á la mode also live on set and Atelier by Khoshkar Horre via Skype but that was also postponed due to Covid-19 cases.
So it is a constant process due to the pandemic but the show must go on and so do we.
What are you most proud of?
I am very proud of all of my Kurdish designers who are still so motivated and willing to do the show. Everyone has said this is a dream come true not just for themselves but also to be united as one nation at an international event in London. So I am very proud of each and everyone of them who took the risk in signing up for the fashion show, knowing that this might get postponed. This was communicated from the very beginning with everyone, that in case of another lockdown that the show will be postponed until we are finally allowed to get this show live on stage at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London!
I am also very proud of the CEO Savita Kaye to keep us all motivated to continue with everything and organising fashion films as a replacement for the live show. We have already done a virtual fashion film last September which was also free of charge for everyone and can also be streamed on the House of iKons Youtube channel and Amazon Prime Video on Rising Fashion channel.
I also want to give credit to the other two Kurdish designers who couldn’t take part of the fashion film due to health issues and shipping issues but who will be part of the live show in September this year, JoJo Braut & Abendmode and Joan Badrkhan Designs.
The other 6 Kurdish designers that have been listed above as part of the fashion film are: á la mode, Atelier by Khoshkar Horre, Bahar Yasin Studios, G.Seven feat Yildizstoffe, Inci Hakbilen and Yadê Couture.
What do you want the International Designer World to know about Kurdish Designers?
One of the Kurdish designers and representatives Bahar Yasin stated, As a Kurdish woman I have an amazing culture and my people’s culture is many times mistaken by other nationalities because globally we are not on the map. Getting recognition as a Kurdish designer is a step towards the right direction.“ We are empowering and inspiring women all around the world to shape their own lives not despite but because of their heritage. All we really want is to be part of the bigger picture, we want to show the international designers that a creative, unique, Kurdish fashion segment exists which is worthy of recognition and cooperation. By that we are showing the world and our own community the possibilities and chances in evolving our beautiful heritage.
What do you want the International Designer World to know about Kurdish Designers?
One of the Kurdish designers and representatives Bahar Yasin stated, As a Kurdish woman I have an amazing culture and my people’s culture is many times mistaken by other nationalities because globally we are not on the map. Getting recognition as a Kurdish designer is a step towards the right direction.“ We are empowering and inspiring women all around the world to shape their own lives not despite but because of their heritage. All we really want is to be part of the bigger picture, we want to show the international designers that a creative, unique, Kurdish fashion segment exists which is worthy of recognition and cooperation. By that we are showing the world and our own community the possibilities and chances in evolving our beautiful heritage.
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