25-year-old designer Yamuna Forzani is weaving glitchy dreamscapes for her own kind of queer utopia.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[4977,10088,10798,10943],"class_list":["post-69368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fashion","tag-lgbtq","tag-queer-fashion","tag-the-hague","tag-yamuna-forzani"],"acf":{"main_category":81,"legacy":false,"hero_title":"","subtitle":"25-year-old designer Yamuna Forzani is weaving glitchy dreamscapes for her own kind of queer utopia ","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"4","proportion":"natural"},"facebook_image":false,"related_articles":[68870,53091,43988],"next_article":[68870],"content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"
The fashion world is rife with designers who ascribe to the age-old adage <\/span>less is more<\/span><\/i>, but Yamuna Forzani is definitely not one of them. Weaving a chaotic world of glitchy neon knitwear that\u2019s as incessantly self-branded as the pages of your high school notebook, the 25 year old has honed an aesthetic that\u2019s instantly recognisable and incredibly playful. \u00a0\u201cI love busy, colourful fabric that just screams and almost gives you a headache,\u201d Forzani tells SLEEK. \u201cPlus the shameless branding of writing my name all over it. I think its fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"4","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" Born and raised in Newcastle, the young designer dabbled in London and New York life before settling in The Hague \u2014 home of Haagsche Hopje candy, the International Criminal Court, and the MC Escher museum. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those cities that seems like a sleepy town from the outside,\u201d Forzani explains. \u201cBut it actually has a really vibrant underground creative scene.\u201d A fact that’s in no doubt thanks to the wealth of talented alumni from the Royal Academy, where Forzani also studied. \u201c A lot of organic collaborations happen because of it,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd it\u2019s easy to gather people for projects, which is a dream!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"instagram","code":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BYJJXAlB8h_\/","settings":{"width":"10"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" Though she\u2019s beginning to make waves within it, Forzani doesn\u2019t consider herself part of the \u2018fashion scene\u2019. \u201cI’m more part of the LGBTQ+ scene,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s where I feel most alive.\u201d With the queer community, and the \u201ccreative, playful individuals\u201d that occupy it being the driving force behind Forzani\u2019s 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 \u201cgenderFULL\u201d rather than genderless). \u201cI want to celebrate people,\u201d she tells SLEEK. \u201cI design my clothes for everyBODY, all genders, all races, all shapes, all sizes.\u201d It may be unorthodox in an industry which still rests on binary fashion weeks, but Forzani\u2019s approach is a breath of fresh air \u2014 and as far as the traditional fashion circuit goes, the designer isn\u2019t interested. \u201cI never did a fashion week and I don’t really want to \u2014 it\u2019s expensive and elitist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"4","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" Forzani\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that in fashion everyone is ripping each other off,\u201d she admits. \u201cI didn’t expect anything to happen, and I wasn’t that bothered to take further action \u2014 I just wanted to speak my truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"4","caption":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" But despite her fervent beliefs, Forzani doesn\u2019t view her work as being politically charged. \u201cIt feels like these days everyone is quick to label their work as political,\u201d she explains. \u201cI 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.\u201d Political or not, Forzani\u2019s output definitely makes a statement. Her unique aesthetic is achieved through an equally unique technical process \u2014 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\u2019s work is first and foremost about people. \u201cMy main focus is always community and collaboration,\u201d she asserts. \u201cEspecially if you are queer, the world can feel like a lonely, scary place \u2014 I\u2019m trying to create spaces where people can feel comfortable and safe to express themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 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 \u2014 \u201cI’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.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n"}]},"yoast_head":"\n