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Natalie Shirin Nazemi

@natalienazemi

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German-Iranian Costume Designer and Textile Artist,
Photographer of the intimate
Founder of @shirinsbliss
There is no end to anything round

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In the last few months I had the great honor to be a part of the Design Academy NOVA, co-hosted by Zalando and VORN — The Berlin Fashion Hub (@vornfashionhub)

To not only receive the knowledge about the current landscape of sustainable material innovation but to be able to directly work with materials that normally would not be accessible to individual designers was incredibly valuable.

Here are some photos of my black sheep wrap skirt, again with @cloudwool as its base and the curvey edges needlefelted with Pomeranian Corse Wool from @benther_berg_schafe .
The waistband was made from Mirium by Natural Fiber Welding (@nfw_tech ). Mirium is a plastic free, plant-based alternative to leather made from rubber, plant oils, waxes, natural pigments, and minerals.
For some extra whimsy, I used @_valupa_ s bubble buckle as a closure. Not only does it give you some playfulness it is also completely compostable and can be playfully exchanged with differently textured and colored surfaces that are 3D printed. The materials are derived from renewable sources, like polylactic acid from corn, to replace petroleum-based plastics.
The turtleneck uses a super soft lyocell that @circ_earth has created from recycled polyester and cotton. With their revolutionary hydrothermal technology they can now successfully separate and recycle polycotton blended fabrics, the most common, yet previously impossible to recycle, textile combination, back into high-quality, virgin-equivalent raw materials. In this case I got to test a completely biodegradable lyocell rib material. It was combined with a wool rib which was given a pink hue with a natural avocado dye.

I previously introduced you to Fritzi and my motivation to meet her in person stems from a conversation with Amir.
Meeting a shepherd in Gilan, in the North of Iran, Amir was told that most his wool gets thrown away.

With currently around 60 percent of Germany’s wool going to waste and under 15 percent of European wool used within the textile industry, I want to bring attention to this beautiful, versatile and very functional material and accentuate its value by going back to its source.

continued in comments… by @natalienazemi

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8 months ago

Design Academy NOVA co-hosted by Zalando and VORN – The Berlin Fashion Hub features Designer Natalie Shirin Nazemi @natalienazemi and Model FAITH @janice__faith__ via @wirsinduns LGBTQIA+ modelling agency

Video by: @_beyond.binary_

@itsclo3d @cloudwool.textiles @circ_earth @_valupa_ @nfw_tech @berlinfashionwe @insidezalando by @natalienazemi

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8 months ago

Welcome to The Sheep Salon 🧖🏻‍♀️🐑

In the coming days you will be introduced to the founding story of our salon. For now I want to introduce you to the first pieces. All of them paying homage to our first star client: Fritzi, the Pomeranian Coarse Wool Sheep from @bentherbergschafe in Hanover.

We first met Fritzi last spring. Her sociable spirit charmed us instantly and she took a particular liking to my husband. With the two of them bonding, I had time to take some portraits and impressions.

Alexandra and Arno generously introduced us to everyone by name. Quite some characters we met. All of them gently grazing the surrounding solar panels, keeping them in pristine shape by munching away on some delicious dandelions and other delicacies.
We left with our hearts warmed and friendships shaped (particularly between Amir and Fritzi).

In the end I had the pleasure of creating Fritzi’s portrait from her own beautiful wool.
In the salon I coloured her gorgeous hair crown with a lush natural avocado pink.
I could present her portrait on a long wool coat made from Cloudwool.
As Fritzi likes colours (something we have in common), the coat had to be joyful.
Next to the avocado pink, the salon added a warm sunshine yellow, for accents on the belt, by using the dried weld plant. Then we created a grass green, to lounge on, by overdyeding the weld with indigo.
With the sky as a backdrop to complement her unique features, indigo was used to get an early evening shade.

Fast forward to Faith meeting Fritzi and the rest is history. Two modeling shooting stars were born.

Our client, with roots in the Benther Berg hills and dreams that have taken her all the way to Berlin Fashion Week and Vogue Italia, has one mantra for you: „Play radically!“

Model: FAITH @janice__faith__ via @wirsinduns LGBTQIA+ modelling agency

Images by Zalando for Design Academy NOVA, co-hosted by Zalando and Vorn-the Berlin Fashion Hub

Foto 1-3, 11 by Roberta Pittau
Fotos 5-7 Clara Borelli
Fotos 4, 8-10 Natalie Nazemi

#circularfashion #circulardesign #regenerativedesign #naturaldyeing #woolfelt by @natalienazemi

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8 months ago

Das Kinderfest in der Staatsoper: 10. Mai, 11:00 und 16:00 Uhr

Noch schnell dabei sein! ✨
Morgen öffnen sich unsere Türen wieder für unser beliebtes Kinderfest! 🎉

Dieses Jahr tauchen wir ein in die spannende Welt der Monster-Forschungszentrale. Euch erwarten:

🌟 Eine großartige Show auf der großen Bühne!
🌟 Zahlreiche Stationen im Foyer, die zum Mitmachen und Entdecken einladen!

Sichert Euch noch schnell Tickets! Wir freuen uns auf einen tollen Tag gemeinsam mit Euch!

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Stiftung Niedersächsischer Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken sowie der Hannoversche Volksbank.

Fotos: Bettina Stöß by @natalienazemi

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5 months ago

The other day I read through some of Toni Morrison‘s essays and speeches, collected in the publication „The Source of Self-Regard“. I came across this speech of hers from 1995 that eerily resonated with our current times and our opera:

„Fascism talks ideology, but it is really just marketing—marketing for power.
It is recognizable by its need to purge, and by its terror of truly democratic agendas.
It is recognizable by its determination to convert all public services to private entrepreneurship, all nonprofit organizations to profit-making ones—so that the narrow but protective chasm between governance and business disappears. It changes citizens into taxpayers—so individuals become angry at even the notion of the public good. It changes neighbors into consumers—so the measure of our value as humans is not our humanity or our compassion or our generosity but what we own. It changes parenting into panicking—so that to vote against the interests of our own children; against their health care, their education, their safety from weapons. And in effecting these changes it produces the perfect capitalist, one who is willing to kill a human being for a product (a pair of sneakers, a jacket, a car) or kill generations for control of product (oil, drugs, fruit, gold). When our fears have all been serialized, our creativity censured, our ideas ‚marketplaced’, our rights sold, our intelligence sloganized, our strength downsized, our privacy auctioned; when the theatricality, the entertainment value, the marketing of life is complete, we will find ourselves living not in a nation but in a consortium of industries, and wholly unintelligible to ourselves except for what we see as through a screen darkly.“

Excerpt from Toni Morrison‘s speech at Howard University on March 3rd, 1995.

#Hannover #Germany, 2026 @staatsoperhannover

Photos 1 & 4 by Bettina Stöß @bettina.stoess
Photos 2, 3 & 5 by @natalienazemi taken in Ballhof Eins by @natalienazemi

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5 months ago

We started rehearsing Homo Oeconomicus while the war between Iran, Israel and the US broke out.
I cannot thank Helena enough for this work that captures so much of the brutal absurdity that is the direct result of our current systems that favour the self-interest of the powerful over care and community. While there is a rush from one disaster to another form of distraction there is so many possibilities of thriving directly under our nose. Thank you for all the kind and caring humans that held space and nurtured it with love.
Thank you for this beautiful team that dedicated their energies and care to share with you our Homo Oeconomicus:

Homo Oeconomicus, an opera composed by Andrea Tarrodi @anki_svan with a libretto by Helena Röhr @helenarohrdirector
#Hannover #Germany, 2026 @staatsoperhannover

Musical Direction: Hyerim Byun @hyerimbyun_music
Director: Helena Röhr @helenarohrdirector
Stage: Maike Simon @dukala_maike
Costumes: Natalie Nazemi
Light: Uwe Wegner
Children Choir: Tatiana Bergh @tatianabergh
Dramaturgy: Ann-Christine Mecke
Inspizienz: Kerstin Mertl
Costume Assistants: Kalina Krutisch @kalinakrutisch Wiebke Wenger @wwiebke
Stage intern: Johanna Plainer
Costume Intern: Lisi Schäfer
Xchange: Matthias Brandt

Homo Oeconomicus: Katharina von Bülow @katharinavonbuelow
Adam Smith, Philosoph und Wirtschaftswissenschaftler: Jonathan Winell/ Aljoscha Lennert @jonathanwinelltenor @aljoschalennerttenor
Margaret Douglas, seine Mutter: Sandra Janke @sandrajankeleadership
Melissa Wright, alleinerziehende Mutter: Ketevan Chuntishvili @chuntishvili_ketty
Alfred Wright, ihr Sohn: Alisa Gromova / Antonij Molleker
Stockbroker, Broken Stockbroker, Sisters to Melissa: Kinderchor der Staatsoper Hannover ( Aurelia, Johanna, Frieda, Cass, Angelina, Clara, Rieke, Eva, Marlene, Sofia, Mathilda, Maditha, Florentine, Maria, Eileen, Marie Claire, Alexandra, Ekatarini, Greta, Maribel, Elisa, Maja, Logan)
Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover

We have four more shows coming up of Homo Oeconomicus:

17.05, 22.05., 25.05. and the 31.05.

All photos except for last by Bettina Stöß @bettina.stoess taken in Ballhof Eins by @natalienazemi

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5 months ago

Two weeks ago we premiered Homo Oeconomicus.
I think it’s rare to encounter an opera about our modern economy where the 18th century meets 2008.
Then add our choir of 15 girls as broken stockbrokers during the stock market crash of 2008.
A true testament to Helena Röhr’s unconventional and deeply engaging way of thinking and creating opera. The piece has been slowly shaping up in Helena’s imagination since 2015. For a year, Maike, Helena and me got to be in a continuous exchange to read through Helena’s developing libretto and exchange our thoughts and ideas.
Parallel, Helena met up with Andrea Tarrodi in a deeply collaborative process.
Andrea composed the music for this extraordinary opera that gives so much space for our truly powerful and playful girls choir lead by Tatiana Berg.

I am so thankful that Maike introduced me to this unique project with a truly caring, compassionate and generous team. Thank you Helena for your trust, kindness and inspiring direction.
Thank you, Ann-Christine Mecke and Bodo Busse for inviting this team to the Staatsoper Hannover.

Our beautifully poetic stage was designed by Maike Simon and Hyerim Byun conducted the opera with creativity, excellence and wit.
Thank you Kalina, Wiebke and Lisi for your daily creative and practical support.

I loved everything about this work.
From the bottom of my heart a tremendous thank you to our workshops who inspire me on a daily basis with their outstanding work and deep collegiality. Love is put into every detail. Thank you Julia for your deep humanity that is a big part of your excellent work. Katharina Leu‘s gorgeous hand painting on Margaret‘s dress is a true standout. Thank you Veronika for the labor of love that has elevated this already gorgeous dress. Marte and Andrea, thank you for fitting all the choir costumes with me with so many smiles shared.
I love pitching little quirky ideas to Eckhard who doesn’t miss a chance to add a touch of play to a garment. In this case Alfred‘s vest got to reference his Pyjama made of stars later on in the opera by adding a small stargazing telescope patch. „We are all made of stars“ after all.

(…continued in comments) taken in Ballhof Eins by @natalienazemi

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6 months ago

We traveled through Sanandaj in the Kurdish parts to Gorgan in the Turkmen area and down south, passing culturally rich and historical cities such as Kashan, Yazd, and Kerman.
In Yazd we entered an antique store in the old bazaar where an old brightly painted metal plate caught my attention. The seller instantly told me that it was sold to him in the 50s by an art student who needed money to buy her paints. The plate, painted with a traditional, poetic bird motif, would become the base inspiration of my Mina dress, later hand painted by the Tehran artist Nasser Towfighi.
Close to the bazaar, I met the ikat weaver Hamid Ghazanfar, whose elegant articulation had an ancient melody to it. Rhythmic and light like a gymnast doing a floor routine. He would later weave two custom ikats in the collection‘s colours.
In Shiraz we walked through my favourite gardens and rested by Hafez’s tomb. My dad started conversing with a singer who would come here daily, as a part of his disciplined practice, to serenade the master poet. I remember my dad and him sitting next to each other, their backs facing the tomb, viewing the garden, as the heartfelt sounds started to erupt into a soft lament. Meanwhile I lay in the grass absorbing.
Somaie Saedi, the curator of the Fars Carpet Museum, generously shared her knowledge with us which would later become a foundation for my bachelor thesis ‚the relevance of craft techniques within a contemporary design context‘.
Later I would develop my own weaving technique for which I arranged a clothes rag as a weaving frame on which I would weave yarns of cotton, strips of tulle and duchess satin.
I also started to develop a cutting technique, based on photographic material, trying to imitate the magnificent tiles of mosques we had encountered.
In Sanandaj, a 92-year-old shared
his daily routine of walking the mountains, before attending his stall in the bazaar, selling beautifully patterned blue and white wool blankets. A sense of vulnerable resilience and openness despite ongoing conflicts disturbing their community and a deep rootedness in the land was palpable in our encounters here.
(continued in comments)

#Iran 2014 by @natalienazemi

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9 months ago

My main inspiration for the collection was the warmth and beauty that I encountered on every day of my journey through Iran with my dad. There was something in me that belonged here so deeply while at the same time growing up in such a contrasting country and not expanding my Farsi language skills since my time of preschool in Tehran somehow had enlarged a gap in communication for me to truly belong. Having my dad alongside me bridged the gap for a while and I held onto it. For the first time I got to have some time alone with my grandma and I savoured our little conversations even if I didn’t understand perfectly. My favourite part of the day would be stepping down the stairs from my room to the entrance hallway where my dad and uncle would have their daily breakfast tea. I would be greeted with: “bahbahbah Natalie khanoom, khub khabidi?”

My uncle coming home after selling mushrooms in the early morning hours with my cousin, welcoming the food my dad would always prepare with so much love. My uncle would joke around lovingly and my dad would take it the wrong way and little quarrels would start. I would start giggling and in the end we all would laugh and enjoy another round of tea until we would step into the hayat. Our eyes and hearts finding joy in watching the newborn cats from our neighbourhood playfully wrestling and jumping about. My grandma had given them all names. The cat mom was named Barbara after my beautiful friend from my Foundation Year at Ravensbourne College. They had never met each other but my dad must have forwarded her my stories from London. My grandma’s house always felt like home. And her presence so fierce with an inner strength and wittiness unmatched, has had my admiration. So I called my graduate callection after her: Janjan joon, Janjan beloved.
(Continued in comments)

#Iran 2014

Photograph by: Kin Chan Koedel @kinbykin
Model: Diana @dnsskmn
Sponsorship of loden material: @steiner.lodenmanufaktur
Painting by: Nasser Towfighi taken in Iran Tehran by @natalienazemi

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a year ago

Janjan Joon #london #england #tehran #iran 2014

11 years have passed since I have made my graduate collection at the University of Westminster.
What has stayed most with me from that experience are all the helping hands and the memory of traveling through so many different regions of Iran for its research with my dad. I told my dad that I am interested in exploring the traditional craftsmanship of regions such as Yazd, the Turkmen and Kurdish areas.
So we sat together and my dad started mapping out where we had friends that we could stay with along the way. In the end we expanded our journey beyond my collection and I got to have two incredible journeys throughout the country traveling 13 different cities with my dad.

All following images of my collection were shot by the beautiful storyteller and vastly talented photographer Kin Chan Koedel @kinbykin.
I was assisting Steven Tai @steventaistudio for his Hyères Competition and I got to meet Kin there. He generously offered to shoot my collection at short notice and later send me these beautiful analog photographs of lovely Diana in my collection. Thank you both so much, after all these years, they still make me happy.
Check out Kin’s important and exceptionally beautiful work.

Photograph by: Kin Chan Koedel @kinbykin
Model: Diana @dnsskmn

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#craftsmanship
#localcraftmanship
#fashiondesign
#textiledesign
#textilepainting
#yazd
#westminsterfashion taken in London, United Kingdom by @natalienazemi

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a year ago

In old Sumerian Ki-ang was “to love”- strangely, the word meant “to measure the earth”. Love was not a feeling or an emotion as much as an anchor that rooted you to a place.
From Elif Shafak’s ‘There are rivers in the sky’

These days were humans lives and earth seem to be disposable, I wonder how we want to talk about that anchor. An anchor that to me is the very base of a dignified life. Despite only living in Iran fully for pre-school or amadegi, the getting ready, my root has always felt to be in Iran. It is ingrained in every fibre of my being.
Except for some long summers and other numerous short trips, I cannot share the experience of living my adult life there and so of course my idea of being there is somewhat isolated from reality. Despite all that Iran to me is love. The countless people that have welcomed me like family, surpass a lifetime of love you can wish for. I care about its people and every bit of its so beautiful land that has suffered from so much negligence. I am trembling every day now at the thought of politicians bullying their way through what appears to be a playground that they roam with free unabashed cruelty.

These images are excerpts from our ‚Maria de Buenos Aires‘. We asked ourselves throughout the whole process, how will it end? What will we leave the audience with? How desperately I wanted to see hope poking through. But how can there be hope when you destroy the anchors?

Photo 1,2 & 6 by @julialormis by @natalienazemi

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a year ago

‘Thus, from your intimate goodbye on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, crossing the simple frontiers of death,
I shall bring your dark song.
It will be as old as God and have two old bruises:
On the right, hate, and on the left ternderness. And to the hard and sweet ghostly sound of its echoes, the Marias-to-be climbing up Santa Fe towards a new day,
Will tremble and hurry, not knowing why.

Now that the time has come, dark fog and black nightshade
A plume of night-dew, and your voice, Maria-like,
Will come up with your memory, here, small and one, now
Now that your time has come, Maria of Buenos Aires.’

Maria de Buenos Aires, Operita in 16 Scenes by Astor Piazzolla with a Libretto by Horacio Ferrer
#Hannover #Germany, 2025
@staatsoperhannover

Director: Amna Shadad @amnamuhmd
Musical direction: Piotr Jaworski @piotrjaworskiconductor
Choreography: Lilit Hakobyan @lilit_____hakobyan
Stage: Pascal Seibicke @pascalsei
Costumes: Natalie Nazemi @natalienazemi
Dramaturgy: Sophia Gustorff @sophiagustorff
Light: Uwe Wegner
Stage Assistant: Lydia Peters @lydia.peters_
Costume Assistant: Patricia Tuijp @patricia_pvm
Inspizienz: Anastasiya Bob @ana.s.bob
XChange: Matthias Brandt

Cast:
Maria: Raquel Camarinha @raquelcamarinhasoprano/ Beatriz Miranda @beatrizmirandabn
El Gorrión: Lluís Calvet i Pey @lluiscalvetipey_baritone
El Duende: Ole Xylander
Dancers: Keren Leiman @keren.leiman, Gonçalo Martins da Silva @_goncalomds_ , Francesc Nello Deakin @francescnello
Bewegungschor Staatsoper Hannover: Maria Charishkou @maria.hariskou, Elizabeth Woodman @elizabeth.ann.wo, Marianne Besser @marianne_besser

Staatsorchester Hannover

Stunning hair, makeup + masks by Annika Berends,
Constanze Bernard and Vanessa.

Photo 1 by @julialormis, rest by @natalienazemi

Men’s tailoring by Eckhard, Rico, Marte and the incredible men’s tailoring department. Women’s tailoring by Anne, Julia and the fantastic women’s tailoring department.
Beautiful Moth brooch by @farnoush__handcrafted
Wonderful painting work by Katharina Leu and Natascha.
Marvelous cat hat and millinery by Daniela and Sina.

Thank you @laurajberman for the one of a kind piece and Frau Meyer for the great support. taken in Ballhof Eins by @natalienazemi

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a year ago