ANNAFORA

Issue Based Assignment

ANNA FORA

For my issue based assignment, I decided to interview a local young Toronto designer, that goes by the name of Miada, who I have known for quiet a while. I chose to interview Miada for many reasons aside from personally knowing her.  She is a young female who has found her passion at a young age and is doing everything in her power to make sure her creativity comes to life. Miada made sure she put her self out there by networking and going to amazing events. Leading to meeting new people and other local designers that have more than enough experience so that she could grasp more knowledge from them. I wanted to know more about her journey and how she got to where she is now.

According to the ANNAFORA website:

“Created out of passion and love for art, ANNAFORA understands that every piece in an individuals closet should be viewed as aventure into self-awareness. With a keen sense of design and quality, ANNAFORA created high end and ready to wear attire for men, women, and gender nonconformingindividuals. It is believed that clothing should not be defined by gender, but instead by fit. ANNAFORA erases the barriers that gender conforming clothing had brought about bycreating designs that can be worn both by men and women. To do so, sizing in women and men’s will be available in order to cater to each fit. Inspirited by multiple artistic mediums, ANNAFORA is a comprehensive representation of present times through fashion that feeds the public with cutting edge and avant-garde clothing, and is a means of expression for the wearer.”

The first questioned I asked was, why design? She looked and me and smiled and said “why not? I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around my head, and some times there’s no way for me to kind of relax and clear my mind, designing does that for me. It helps me sort of clear my head and only focus on what’s in front of me. Also as far back as I could remember, I always had a thing with putting outfits together, I would cut up shirts and make something out of it, althought I wasn’t that good I always had a drive to make something, to be creative”  

Maida is a very straightforward person from what I came to know about her after years of knowing her. She is also very unique and has a sense of sureness about her self. So my next question was how she felt about being young and already figuring out her life’s passion and actually being able to do it. According tomaida she felt like she was one of the lucky ones “because not a lot of people my age or even people in there 30s, 40s, have found their purpose. When I was about 15 years of age I wanted to start my own line, but I clearly didn’t acquire enough knowledge to do so, I didn’t have the resources to do much except an old sewing machine. I didn’t have a job to buy a bunch of fabrics to start bringing my designs to life.” I then asked Maida how she started. She laughed and said “ I worked, worked, and worked, I told my self the only way I could do all the things I wanted to do, (have my own line and establish my own company) I had to invest time AND money, which meant that I had to find a job save money and try to bring my designs to life. I worked mostly in retail for about 3 years, starting at the age of 16, I am 20 now and even though I am more accomplished I still have a long way to go.”

The above part resonated with me the most about the interview because it is true; you have to invest time and money into whatever it is you want to do in order for you to actually get there. You need to be willing to sacrifice and push hard to get there. My next question for Maida was if she felt in any way that maybe her dream may not happen. “Of course, I think everyone has a low point in their journey where they feel like its just not going to happen for them, and I feel like that’s a normal stage. You will always have a low point which will result in a high point, giving up should never be an option though unless its not a passion of yours anymore because people do change, and their ideas of happiness changes with it.”

What’s interesting and really different about ANNAFORA is that her line is inspired by the universe and nature. Maida touched on this more when she said, “I like to think of my self as a spiritual person, I am self aware and I listen to the non existence”, I asked what she meant by that,

“I mean, I meditate a lot, I do a lot of yoga, like I said before I have a lot of thoughts, I am an over thinker, doing yoga and meditating helps me get in my zone and its in that moment that my creativity is at its peakest. As soon Imeditate and do yoga, I run and grab my sketch book and just draw and I am then able to design crazy things.”

Maida went on to say that her style/line is inspired by the universe, and eclectic things, its very out of the box and not everyone would be able to pull it of, not everyone would even be to much into it because its THAT different from what’s out there now. ANNAFORA is minimal when it comes to the outfits all around look, but the fabrics and execution is very much far from being minimal.

As to what’s next for ANNAFORA, amazing things I must say. Tomorrow actually, March 6th 2015, Maida will be a showing her line in Paris at the Capsule Paris Showroom! “I am supper duper excited about this, I mean Paris? How amazing, it hasn’t sunk in yet, I’m sure it wont sink it till the show starts, I will be along side BLANK BLANK, EYGLO, KENAX LEUNG, LEAF, and so much more!”

As a young female designer, a lot of locals in Toronto would generally look up to Maida so I asked what advise she would give to the ones trying to make it or to the ones who have no idea what to do for the future.

“My only advise really is to just follow your heart, might sound cliché but it really is true, don’t let others dictate your plan and mindset, just focus on exactly what you want to do, stay humble, do the right thing, don’t let money be the focus, always stay true to yourself, speak with integrity, and don’t assume, don’t let what others think get in the way, what people think of you is not your business and last but definitely not least, always have fun”

As this interview came to an end, I learned a lot more about Maida and her brand. I have so much more respect for her and her work, and I am proud. ANNAFORA will definitely soon be seen around the world, and Miada will only grow smarter and more creative, who knows what she will bring to the world next.