Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 36
Occupation: Textile and fashion designer.
Instagram: @mozhdehmatinofficial
Hometown: Lima, Peru.
Studio location: Chorrillos in the South of Lima, Peru.
Describe what you make: I design contemporary wardrobe with traditional Peruvian techniques and work with artisans around the country to preserve their crafts.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Garments made with rubber from trees in the Peruvian Amazon.
Describe the problem your work solves: Losing traditional crafts. I started visiting native communities in 2008 when I was studying fashion and realized that a lot of the ancestral textiles in different areas of Peru where not the priority to preserve anymore and most of the younger generations where moving to the capital without this knowledge, so I thought: “What can I do to contribute to the preservation of these techniques?”
Describe the project you are working on now: Building an art residency in the Amazon with the Rubber Community I work with. It’s truly a dream to create a space for different artists and designers around the world to work with a natural material. Also, my next SS25 collection.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: Launching our SS24 collection in collaboration with artist and friend Minami Utsustsu on April 15. After a trip to Japan, when we visited The Tower of the Sun by Taro Okamoto together last year, we did some drawings and hand-painted them in Peru with a local community. We also created a few intarsia hand-knitted garments and beaded accessories which we co-created with the women of the Shipibo Community in the Peruvian jungle.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Music, good energy, good light, and my dog Melon.
What you do when you’re not working: Mostly traveling because my studio is at my home and I’m very dedicated to my projects 24/7. Whenever I have the chance, I get out of town.
Sources of creative envy: Anni Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Helio Oiticica
The distraction you want to eliminate: Social media.
Concrete or marble? Concrete.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Forget.
Aliens or ghosts? None.
Dark or light? Light.
All images courtesy of Mozhdeh Matin.
