Interview with
Hushidar Mortezaie
Hushidar “Hushi” Mortezaie is a young Iranian-American fashion
designer based in New York. His designs are very much inspired by
his eclectic background: He displays the adroit skills and sensibilities
of the most established haute-couture designers of Europe, where
he spent some time after leaving Iran at the age of three. His conquering
spirit, passion and optimism are no doubt the product of his upbringing
in sunny California. The eastern motifs in his designs reflect his
deep-rooted love in his native culture of Iran, where he makes annual
trips to get inspired by the most diverse sources, be it a slogan
on a billboard or the colorful folkloric costumes of Iranian provinces.
Hushi’s self-described goal is to represent the image of a strong,
powerful Iranian woman, unlike the image of the oppressed or repressed
Iranian women portrayed in the mainstream Western media. Not surprisingly,
Hushi has been inspired by the great and powerful women in his life,
starting with his mom, who, despite all odds, encouraged him to
pursue his dreams. Hushi studied fine arts at U.C. Berkeley before
moving to New York to start his career. With no funds, connections,
or resources other than his own amazing creativity and perseverance,
and the kindred spirit he found in partner Michael Sears, Hushi’s
products have caught the attention of the movie industry and media
as well. His designs were personally handpicked by Brad Pitt’s stylist
for the star to wear them in the movie Fight Club. Hushi’s fashions
have been featured in W magazine, Women’s Wear Daily, and iranian.com,
to name a few publications. The following is an interview conducted
by Salam Worldwide with Hushi on June 10, 2003:
Question: How did you become interested in fashion?
Answer: When I was a kid, I was always interested in art and fashion
and I was always drawing. Also, my family would always play these
“Rang-o-Rang” music videos from the 70s with [Iranian pop singers]
Googoosh and Haydeh, and I was so inspired by them. I thought Googoosh
was the most amazing woman in the world and her fashion in the 70s
and 60s was just unbelievable. It had class and grace, and it combined
the East and the West in a very new way. I really appreciated the
images of strong Iranian women around me.
Q: How did you break into the New York fashion world.
A: I became a buyer for Patricia Field, who is a costume designer
for the HBO series Sex and the City. That allowed me to travel the
world and I learned more than I could ever have at any fashion school.
I started making clothes, which I sold to her. But I eventually
decided I wanted to do this for myself and so I opened a store in
the East Village with Michael Sears.
Q: How did your style shape itself and evolve?
A: In the beginning, the esthetic of my store was more the “crazy
fashion” indigenous to the East Village New York scene. I went through
different phases, from pop art to trashy rock’n’roll to urban break-dancing
inspired designs. Then, as I grew older, and I felt more acutely
the separation from my family, who had all stayed back on the West
Coast, I became more and more interested in searching for my Iranian
roots. My first trip to Iran [in 2000] was a big turning point in
my life. I was absolutely amazed and inspired. I found it to be
nothing like people said it was. I didn’t find it to be suppressive.
I found it to be really artistic, I found the youth of Iran particularly
amazing. People are loving to each other. When someone falls in
the street, they gather around you and help you out. In New York,
they would just walk over you. I felt connected to the country,
almost in a holy or magical way. I decided to express my feeling
through fashion. I started to do prints that were a reaction to
the stereotypes of “terrorists” or “oppressed women” which is how
Iranians have been portrayed in the media since the Hostage Crisis.
That’s never been the view I have of Iranian women, as submissive
or weak. In fact, I was constantly inspired by their strength and
endurance in the face of the most brutal repression, and that’s
what I tried to convey in my designs.
Q: Do you mix fashion with politics?
A: No, I never tried to be political. My designs and ideas come
from a more innocent place. It’s what I have observed in Iran, the
things that they have to live with every day, and that forms the
source of my inspiration.
Q: Then why the use of bits and scraps of the Iranian reformist
newspapers that have been banned in Iran as parts of your outfits?
Or the use of the hejab?
A: Because I wanted to take the very Islamic imagery that has been
used to stifle the women’s freedoms and use it as a defense mechanism,
give it a new punk identity. That which has been used to silence
them can now be used as a way for them to express themselves. As
for the newspapers, I never used those newspapers consciously as
a political expression. To me it was more of an exercise in pop
art. I didn’t even realize that’s how people may perceive it until
some of my Iranian friends pointed it out to me.
Q: A few years ago, Karl Lagerfeld used verses from the Koran in
his fashion collection and got a lot of heat for it. Would you ever
consider doing something like that and why?
A: No, I would never do anything like that because that has nothing
to do with fashion. In Iran, there are many different religious
groups and there’s many different classes of people: Christian,
Jewish, all kinds of people who are Iranian and we should all come
together and support each other because we all came from Iran and
that’s the most important thing.
Q: What do you think of the established Iranian designers, like
Bijan?
A: Bijan, I don’t really know what his story is right now. That
kind of fashion is not really my thing. I ‘m more into couture and
fashion as art, the type of things that you would see at a Paris
haute couture show. I do remember many years ago hearing something
about how you couldn’t go into Bijan’s store unless you offered
proof that your bank account was above a certain level. I don’t
know if that was just a rumor or if it was true but that kind of
thing certainly doesn’t appeal to me. Other things that bother me
is that he never uses his own culture, which I think is a duty on
the part of every Iranian to portray our culture positively especially
in this country, with those labels put on us. I remember an old
ad of Bijan that showed a woman in a chador and it was very pretty,
but the caption was very offensive to me. And the next picture,
it was the picture of the same woman, wearing a baseball cap and
Western clothes, and that was supposed to represent freedom. To
people of the older generation, like my grandmother, these things
are sacred to them. You shouldn’t disrespect them.
Q: As a designer, what are your goals? What is your idea of success?
A: To live easier, because it is very hard to be an artist and
make ends meet. A lot of times, I just do stuff for the sake of
art, and not for profit. I don’t do a lot of sales because I don’t
have backing or anything. I would say another goal would be to help
my family. More importantly, my goal is to be able to show the beauty
of Iranian culture.
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