ZNZ in the Spotlight

It was a pleasure meeting with the Publisher of Infinity Magazine, but most of all it was very exciting being featured in their latest issue of the magazine (Issue 007).

Here are some pictures from the magazine =)

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Posted in: Behind the Label

ZNZ @ Infinity Magazine

Zahra had the pleasure of meeting with the Editor in Chief of Infinity magazine, Mr Prince Ademile Snr. Infinity magazine is a fashion and life-style magazine that showcases Afro Caribbean fashion, events and styles.
The magazine is fast growing and circulates across the globe, from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, to the UK, Holland and Australia.
As Zahra is from Nigerian decent and she tries to reflect her heritage in her designs. The ZBZ Limited Edition Collection has machine and hand embroidered pieces authentically from her home country Nigeria.
Make sure you pick up your copy of Infinity magazine for the latest in African fashion, it retails for £4 and is published quarterly.

Look out for ZNZ Fashion in the latest edition of Infinity magazine.

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Posted in: Behind the Label

Purple & Cream

On Zahra's last visit to her home country, Nigeria, she decided to expand on her dress making skills by spending one week 'interning' with her local tailor based in Aleshinloye market, Ibadan.
This was a great experience for her as she had had no formal tuition before this and really had the opportunity to consolidate her skills.
On returning home, Zahra ignited a new found love with  her sewing machine and embarked on a few dress making adventures. Some of these were for family, others for herself and some commercial. Nigerian traditional attire worn now a days are made from ankara, which is a cotton based wax print fabric or lace. Other popular fabric choices are guinea and linen. For more pictures of Zahra's personal sewing projects check out her Facebook blog page. Keep your eyes peeled for more exclusive pictures.

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Posted in: Behind the Label,Personal Projects

~City Lit~

The long summer break is a great time for Zahra & Zinah to bond with their sewing machines. It is often difficult juggling our university workload, our part time jobs, business and our social lives. However, we feel it is really important that we develop our technical fashion skills, which include pattern making, pattern cutting, garment making, finishing and much more.

Over the summer, Zahra attended a Clothes making intensive course at City Lit in Holbron where she learnt a lot about the art of pattern altering using industrial patterns, the importance of a mock up, finishing techniques and much more. By the end of the course, Zahra had completed a layered skirt made from Ankara (Nigerian fabric) , that she wore to her friends wedding in July.

The course had only three sessions which meant a lot of work had to be done at home during the week. To find out more about courses at City Lit, follow the link. Here are some pictures from the course. Enjoy!

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Posted in: Behind the Label

A sneak peak...

Here are some behind the scenes pictures from the photo shoot we put together for the Style In! competition... Enjoy and stay tuned for more exclusive pictures and videos.

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Posted in: Behind the Label

Patterns

Creating ones own pattern is rather challenging, and unless you are trained to make patterns, a lot of things could go wrong!

Our design patterns aren't really rocket science and we were lucky enough to have minimal pattern skills and some knowledge. Not to mention, we had some patterns as a guide. On that day, we were discussing the patterns and still haven't reached the challenging part (yet!) of fully making them.

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Posted in: Behind the Label,Meetings,Work in Progress

Logos, Logos and more Logos!

We have been out there for the past 2 years  (May 2009) alhamdullillah, and we've been known as ZNZ Abaya/ Fashion. We have done a Promo collection and a Mini Limited Edition collection, we put a lot of dedication, passion and love to bring our fashion label to life. 

We then realised our idea and our fashion label needed some changes. Minor and major changes. One thing we realised that time is very essential, and juggling University with our fashion label has proven to be rather challenging. In fact, VERY challenging. We went through the ups and downs (mainly ups, thanks to all of your support) and we just needed to slow down a little bit and take things step by step. So, the first step was to change from ZNZ Abaya/ Fashion to ZAHRA & ZINAH, simply because putting our name to the thing we love seemed rather more convenient. 

Then we had the collaboration thing going on, with ZBZ and ZNS and all being ZNZ and causing a confusion! 

We have grown up both physically, mentally and career wise, which means that we realised our logos not only caused confusions but also seemed rather...strange! Since the name change happened, the logo obviously had to change too. Design and name wise.

These were our first Logos:

All logos have been design by Zinah, being the Creative Director and all. But even she wasn't developed as a graphic designer and now learned much more thanks to her degree and has grown creatively. 

We needed a logo that is more recognisable and  represents both of us. So, we came up with the large Z (for both Zahra & Zinah) and the crown (because we're both Queens like that and also for 'Zinah the Warrior Princess...'). The ZAHRA & ZINAH writing on the other hand, was kept simple, classic and elegant, for many reasons (all having to do with graphic design and branding...). 

So voila, here is our new logo:

So now you know about the changes of our logo and the reason for our very final (yes we promise, this is the final!) logo!

Love,

ZAHRA & ZINAH 

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Posted in: Behind the Label