New York City designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh has a special place in fashion girls' hearts. Her clothing, with an emphasis on sheer fabrics and light, body-skimming silhouettes, manages to be sexy and sincere at once. Her basics are never actually basic, with playful twists like tiny ribbons on a T-shirt or an entirely backless tank top. And her colorful, oversize scrunchies? They're affixed to every other ponytail and low bun at New York Fashion Week.
Now, the pieces that made Maryam Nassir Zadeh (or MNZ, as her self-named label is known to fans) such a cult-hit are going mainstream—and in the form of a vacation-worthy capsule. The designer teamed up with J.Crew on a line of sun-soaked staples available online today.
The J.Crew x Maryam Nassir Zadeh collaboration, like the Americana brand's capsules with NYC jewelry label Catbird and Ukrainian designer Anna October before it, takes the best of the independent brand and imagines it in new contexts. Both J.Crew loyalists and the aforementioned fashion girls will find something to stash in their carry-on. There are peek-a-boo mesh bags, polka-dotted, ruffled bikinis (and a matching slip dress), breezy linen pants, and yes, those fan-favorite scrunchies—plus two oversize floral hair clips.
Maryam Nassir Zadeh (the designer) says her designs and J.Crew's, led by womenswear designer Olympia Gayot, are more alike than they may seem. Timelessness, ease, and a devotion to the classics are their foundation. "[We both] feel very New York and modern, and though we love clean, minimal classics, we also love texture and use of embellishment to create something more special and worth collecting and investing in," the designer says.
It's not hard to imagine the brand's longtime fans packing these pieces for a weekend in the south of Spain—and then re-styling them into a chicly undone city errand outfit. That's a testament to the sunny campaign images, as well as the collaboration's balance of MNZ's intellectual DNA with J.Crew's signature prints.
"The collection feels very MNZ but it is also elevated because it is made so well, production-wise," Zadeh says. "The collection feels like it has a strength to it, opposed to an etherealness of most MNZ signature pieces."
Of course, Maryam Nassir Zadeh wasn't only thinking of her downtown flagship's regulars when she and Gayot worked on the collection. She also had potential new fans-in-waiting at the forefront of her mind.
"What I hope to hear from shoppers who [see me] for the first time through this collection is that they appreciate that designers known as niche or indie have a strong perspective and voice to reach culture and the masses. Big and small brands that are like-minded align creatively as a force to make beauty together," she says. They'll also convert some shoppers into full-time fashion girls in the process, scrunchies and all.
Shop Editor's Picks from the J.Crew x Maryam Nassir Zadeh Collaboration
