A Woman of Two Worlds: Zolaykha Sherzad

By: Nina E. Rothe

Zolaykha Sherzad has done more for Afghanistan – with her sought-after, stunning fashions – than all the NGOs, documentaries and self-professed “helping nations,” put together. She has been called a “Cultural Ambassador for Afghanistan” and was featured in Time Magazine as one of their “Women in Luxury”. Sherzad divides her time between NYC and Kabul – where she was born – while also traveling the world to spread the word that indeed, Ikat, a complex weaving technique giving rise to warp-faced silk textiles ascribed to the Central Asia area, IS beautiful. With a background in architecture, it’s no wonder that she is building a bridge between Afghanistan and the West, through a return to elegance that showcases the beauty of a woman’s mystery, not what is obvious. Elan recently caught up with Zolaykha Sherzad at Engendered’s Fashion Conscience in NYC. She is as beautiful and kind as she is talented and it was a pleasure to sit with her for a few quiet moments before the show.

elan: What is elegance to you?

ZS: Elegance is really harmony between your culture and yourself. Afghanistan has so much pride and honor. If you look at the landscape it’s just dirt and rubble and right now it’s quite rough but within this roughness, within the drama and tragedy there is beauty. I like to work within this contrast. Always a balance, you can’t make it just all gold because that’s not real. To find the beauty within this minimum of material, minimum of resources. For me, Yohji Yamamoto represents elegance because elegance is not so much about ornaments, it’s what you manage to highlight of the human being within so that he or she has confidence, pride and ultimately, beauty.

elan: What are some of your most unchanging inspirations?

ZS: The most constant inspiration is my country, Afghanistan and within Afghanistan, its culture. The whole history of silk that traces back to the Silk Road. Afghanistan has been a crossroad from East to West in everything from calligraphy to craftsmanship of the embroidery, to poetry and textile. And then the people, who are really my main inspiration. The people who are working there, in the design workshop, to provide sustenance for them so that they can express themselves and find inspiration which may come through my brand, Zarif – meaning “Fine, Precious” in Farsi.

elan: You have been called a “Cultural Ambassador” as well as a bridge between Afghanistan and the world. What is your personal message regarding your unsettled homeland?

ZS: What is important is to take this work – the fashion that I’m helping to create – as an inspiration for the world to see Afghanistan as not only a country of war. Afghanistan has a past history of war but within this war people are living, people have hope, people are looking for joy, peace and they are working towards that. It’s not just warlords, it’s not just Taliban, so that is my main message for the West, to bring out those voices that are not heard in the media.

elan: What is lesson you have taken away from your displacement as a young woman?

ZS: It is to find yourself within yourself. I have found Afghanistan within myself now but I could not have done that if I had not gone back. You need to connect back to your birthplace in order to find your roots. I don’t feel myself displaced anymore. I love NY where I live, was raised in Lausanne, Switzerland where there is beautiful nature. I think the whole back and forth of displacement brings you back to yourself.

elan: What is the most moving aspect of the design process for you?

ZS: To present the work to a larger audience is really moving. Especially when it touches others… When I show my collection and an audience is moved by the work that has been done by Afghans back home that is something beautifully strong. Then when I work back home in Afghanistan with the tailors, with the embroiderers just sitting there searching, trying and testing, talking with the weavers… All that, the process is very touching. It’s like a book, when you have a reader. I feel like it’s not my work, I’m just a link, a piece of the puzzle.

elan: How many people work with you, in the Zarif Design lab?

ZS: I currently have about 50 people working there.

elan: So your clothes are truly couture!

ZS: Yes, we do a lot of custom work for the expat community in Afghanistan. The prices are high so it’s not really for the local market, but more for the people who are working there, the international community who would like to have a piece that is Afghani but at the same time that they can wear back in New York, Rome, Paris or London.

elan: Who is your target customer?

ZS: I think it could be anybody. It could be very simple people, or sophisticated people. I am very much inspired by Yamamoto and Issey Miyaki. Somebody like Yamamoto uses jeans and anybody, from any social level could wear it. That’s what I like.

elan: And your ultimate mission?

ZS: I am trying to find an identity within the culture.These days people in Afghanistan are wearing Chinese fabrics, clothes from Pakistan, which is fine, everyone wants to experiment with other cultures, but I’m trying to find something that could be authentic to Afghanistan, to that region without making it too folkloric or too local, giving it a look that is modern, contemporary. I am also bringing weavers from Uzbekistan to come train the weavers in Afghanistan – the Uzbeks have kept more of their culture. Bringing people from that region to create a bridge.