Noun: Nella Hassan
Omar: 35
hometown: Lahore, Pakistan
Currently live: In a pre-war four-bedroom apartment in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn with her partner, Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hassan, and two children.
Claim to fame: Ms. Hasan was the design director at Tanya Taylor, before starting her own women’s clothing line, The Other. In a reflection of her mixed-ethnic identity (her father is from Pakistan; her mother is of French and European Canadian descent), calligraphy blends traditional South Asian craftsmanship with modern designs and bright colours. “It’s fashion that explores identity through storytelling and craftsmanship,” she said. My father was an immigrant. He came here in the ’70s and greeted me. What is the story of a person born in this country? What is the story of belonging now? “
A great break: After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007, she worked as a designer for Tory Burch and Elie Tahari. But it was in Tania Taylor that Ms. Hassan felt her contribution was really appreciated. “Tania took a chance for me,” she said. Mrs. Hassan hand-embroidered crystal flowers on her velvet jackets and dresses. Michelle Obama, then first lady, wore one of Tanya Taylor’s dresses to a White House holiday party in 2016. “My voice was heard and my thoughts were correct,” Ms. Hassan said.
Latest project: In September, after two years of design, design and manufacturing, Ms. Hassan released the first collection of Øther, a series of richly embroidered and colorful plaid pants and shirts. The pants start at $155. One of her shirts, the Kurta Not a Tunic, the traditional long-collar shirt worn daily by South Asian men and women, adds subtle hints of Western attire: slits on the sides; Belt at the back of the belt. It blurs the line between East and West, traditional and modern, masculine and feminine.
next thing: Ms. Hassan explores mixed-race identity in an upcoming video series that asks a deceptively simple question: Where are you from? Ms. Hassan recently gave an interview to a New Yorker of Japanese, Chilean and Jewish descent, she said. “For her, where did the idea of nostalgia come from: eating octopus balls at summer festivals in Tokyo; her grandmother’s garden in Mirasol. For me, motherland is where I feel whole and full,” she told me.
dont waste: In 2019, Ms. Hassan started volunteering for Fabscrap, an organization that seeks to reduce commercial textile waste by recycling unused fabric. When she first visited his warehouse at Army Station in Brooklyn, she said, “My jaw snapped.” “There were garbage bags up to the ceiling.” I used what I learned: Every piece is custom made; reuse of discarded materials; A respectable traditional craft.