TALK TO ME! CSM GRADUATES SPECIAL - ZIV GIL KAZENSTEIN

After the great masculine renunciation in the 19th century, I would say menswear was all about details and quality. It's a bit too boring my me. I thank Jean Paul Gaultier to be the first who brought the new elements to menswear designs. There are many other designers follow his way to create kind of a new man! I wouldn't say men should try to be feminine or dress very fancy but It's always great to have nice colours and patterns on the outfits. Ziv Gil Kazenstein draws my attention by his colourful prints and exaggerated designs. His collection for me is about naughty boys who are full of colours!!

As a new member in the industry, what do you think about the fashion world? 
It always been a love/hate relationship, but once you finish you get approached by many different people and there is a lot of support coming your way, so at the moment it’s a relationship full of love

How do you describe your style? 
In this collection I worked a lot with the idea of ‘good boy’ ‘bad boy’, like in the movie “the good son’ with Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood. I ‘m always interested in that idea and it always follows my design esthetic and style. In this collection it came through in the use of soft fabrics, colours and embellishment, mainly made out of silk, but the final look looked more disturbed and cute at the same time, like a rude colourful boy.
I’m also a print and textile designer for fashion and as you can see in my collection its always full of prints, embroidery and fabric manipulation, which always defines me as a fashion designer.

What is your opinion of being a successful fashion designer? 
Bless the ones who are. It’s a great achievement to be recognize and appreciated for your creation and vision, to get people interested in you, write about your work and above all buy it. No matter what you do in life you want people to like it and you want it to be desired by others. In this area its even more, it is always so personal and really feels like you are putting a piece of your self out there for everyone to see.

Who is your favorite designer? Does he/she inspire you when you do your own designs?
I got a few designers that I like and almost always waiting to see their collections on fashion week, two of them are Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane, but its not like they inspire what I do or my own designs, I just love them for what they do and how they make themselves look interesting and innovative.

Can you tell me more about the collection? Which is the iconic piece in the collection and which one is your favourite? 
It was a long process to be honest, and a very fun one. I really wanted to start from a personal place with this collection and I decided to look at my family tree. What I love about my family is the great diversity of cultures and nationalities we have and how at the end of the day even though we got this mixed background we create a hybrid tribe, a new tribe and that was the process of this collection, mixing different cultures together, I’m for example half German and half Kurdish Iraqi and a main part of my research looked into traditional Kurdish costumes and the Jewish communities of Germany. While I was working on my embellishments and prints I kept of thinking about the final result and how I wanted my boys to be the Alfa males of the group, so I knew I wanted the embellishments to be big and fur like. I also wanted to have a tribe of strong warriors (like the Kurdish warriors) and then the idea of Apes and monkeys came to life.

I think that the more Iconic look will either be the big Gorilla face long shirt or the monster face shirt with the furry chaps. I have to say I’m in love with all the items with the colourful print, I love that print. It has monkeys adoring themselves holding mirrors and grooming themselves with brushes and hair dryers.

There are many new and up-coming designers in the industry. Is there anyone that you really admire? 
I love the work of Craig Green, he is a Saint Martins graduate from a year ago.

As a CSM graduate, do you have any advice for other fashion students?
Always have fun and be true to yourselves.

What is your next plan now? Are you building your own label?
Find a job and earn some money, its crazy how much you end up spending on your collection, researching and sampling. Would love to do my own thing and I always thought it will happen in the far future, but with the way things happening now, who knows.

Ziv is a print designer as well!! To know more about him, please visit his website