The fashion world is rife with designers who ascribe to the age-old adage less is more, but Yamuna Forzani is definitely not one of them. Weaving a chaotic world of glitchy neon knitwear that’s as incessantly self-branded as the pages of your high school notebook, the 25 year old has honed an aesthetic that’s instantly recognisable and incredibly playful. “I love busy, colourful fabric that just screams and almost gives you a headache,” Forzani tells SLEEK. “Plus the shameless branding of writing my name all over it. I think its fun.”
Born and raised in Newcastle, the young designer dabbled in London and New York life before settling in The Hague — home of Haagsche Hopje candy, the International Criminal Court, and the MC Escher museum. “It’s one of those cities that seems like a sleepy town from the outside,” Forzani explains. “But it actually has a really vibrant underground creative scene.” A fact that’s in no doubt thanks to the wealth of talented alumni from the Royal Academy, where Forzani also studied. “ A lot of organic collaborations happen because of it,” she explains. “And it’s easy to gather people for projects, which is a dream!”
Though she’s beginning to make waves within it, Forzani doesn’t consider herself part of the ‘fashion scene’. “I’m more part of the LGBTQ+ scene,” she explains. “It’s where I feel most alive.” With the queer community, and the “creative, playful individuals” that occupy it being the driving force behind Forzani’s entire practice, the young designer approaches fashion from a different perspective. She showed her last collection at a vogue ball, for example, thanks to her ties with the Rotterdam Ballroom scene and Kiki House of Angels. Her clothes are not gendered (Forzani describes them as “genderFULL” rather than genderless). “I want to celebrate people,” she tells SLEEK. “I design my clothes for everyBODY, all genders, all races, all shapes, all sizes.” It may be unorthodox in an industry which still rests on binary fashion weeks, but Forzani’s approach is a breath of fresh air — and as far as the traditional fashion circuit goes, the designer isn’t interested. “I never did a fashion week and I don’t really want to — it’s expensive and elitist.”
Forzani’s unwavering principles are at the centre both of her design process (she works with biological cotton from Italy in combination with sustainable and vegan neon acrylic) and the way she puts herself out there. She’s outspoken on Instagram, taking to the social media platform to voice her opinions on LGBTQ issues and to call out the Dutch brand that copied her designs. “It’s no secret that in fashion everyone is ripping each other off,” she admits. “I didn’t expect anything to happen, and I wasn’t that bothered to take further action — I just wanted to speak my truth.”
But despite her fervent beliefs, Forzani doesn’t view her work as being politically charged. “It feels like these days everyone is quick to label their work as political,” she explains. “I prefer to say that my work has very strong ideologies, starting with the way the clothes are made, to the models I choose to wear them, and the context I choose to show my work.” Political or not, Forzani’s output definitely makes a statement. Her unique aesthetic is achieved through an equally unique technical process — a circular knitting machine with an incredibly small needle gage, allowing for a detailed jacquard fabric where each individual computer pixel can be translated to a stitch. And aside from proving knitting is an art not solely reserved for OAPs, Forzani’s work is first and foremost about people. “My main focus is always community and collaboration,” she asserts. “Especially if you are queer, the world can feel like a lonely, scary place — I’m trying to create spaces where people can feel comfortable and safe to express themselves.”
With such commendable intentions and even more covetable inventions, Yamuna Forzani is certainly establishing herself as one designer worth watching, as her current to-do list attests testifies — “I’m organising a Kiki function, making custom pieces, doing styling jobs, making a wedding dress and moving into my new studio! I’m always running around like a mad woman carrying 5 IKEA bags on a bike.”