Vancouver Fashion Week SS27 interview w/ Fashion Designer Naya Ahdab

Please share a bit about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career. Looking back, are there any signs in your young years that this would be your future.

I grew up feeling different because of my experience as a wheelchair user. Over time, I realized that this difference could become one of my greatest strengths. When I entered fashion, I understood that I did not have to create what people expected from me or limit my work to my disability.

Throughout my journey, I have always known that I wanted to transform my unique difference—and my disability—into something meaningful. For a long time, however, I was unsure exactly what form this would take. More recently, this path led me to win the second prize—the Prix Coup de Cœur—at the IFM Entrepreneurship Awards, in partnership with the fashion house AMI Paris. This recognition has strengthened my ambition to develop my own brand and establish a genuine identity for it.

How did you learn your skills?

I began my journey in fashion at Parsons Paris, where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design. This program allowed me to develop my creative vision and aesthetic language while building a solid technical foundation in tailoring and garment construction. After graduating, I began participating in various fashion competitions. Notably, I won the David Delfín Prize in Spain, followed by the WARD Prize at the ITS 2025 competition.

A year ago, I joined the IFM to pursue a Master’s in Fashion Management, aiming to complement my creative background with skills in management, entrepreneurship, and brand development. This program is now enabling me to better understand the complexities involved in building, managing, and growing a fashion house.

How would you describe your brand?

I want my work to break stereotypes, question assumptions, and take subjects that may initially feel deeply personal and reveal how universal they actually are. I want fashion to challenge the way we think, look at others, and judge bodies and their place in the world.

What comes easiest to you as a designer? What is hardest?

Storytelling comes most naturally to me. It is one of the main reasons I chose fashion in the first place. I love the idea of telling stories through clothes, whether they come from my own personal experiences, the lives of others, or stories that are no longer being told.

The hardest part is finding a balance between my work and my personal life, and learning when to stop. I am rarely completely satisfied with my designs; there is always something more I want to explore, create, or push further. Learning to accept that a piece can be finished, even when there is still more I could do, is an ongoing challenge.

Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?

My inspiration comes mainly from personal experiences, everyday objects, and observations of human behaviour, particularly through the lenses of sociology and psychology. I am fascinated by the meanings we attach to objects, the way we interact with them, and how something ordinary can become a starting point for questioning social norms.

My work often begins with a question rather than an answer. I want to challenge people’s perceptions and invite them to look at familiar things differently, without necessarily telling them what to think.

Colour is part of this process, but I am equally interested in the construction of a garment, its volume, and the way materials can be manipulated. I particularly enjoy working with striped jersey, exploring how it can be distorted, transformed, and used to create unexpected shapes.

Readers would love to know more about the collection you will be showed at Vancouver Fashion Week FW27

My collection is called Levez-vous, a title that plays with the paradox at the heart of the collection. It speaks from a position I have inhabited my entire life, but its message is not limited to me. Sitting is universal. We all sit, and at some point, we all have to sit. We sit for different reasons, in different ways, and in different bodies. It is an ordinary, universal position, yet the way we occupy it can become a source of difference, judgement, or exclusion.

This collection explores that contradiction and questions how we perceive disability, the body, and what is considered normal. Why can the same position be perceived so differently depending on who occupies it?  What once made me feel separate is, in fact, something deeply shared.

Through object-inspired silhouettes, volume, and the transformation of everyday forms into garments, I want to approach these questions with both seriousness and humour. My aim is to make the familiar feel strange and the serious feel playful, creating clothes that invite curiosity and conversation without targeting a specific audience. Ultimately, I want people to feel welcome in my clothes, while leaving room for them to draw their own conclusions.

You can expect a collection that explores the relationship between clothing, the body, and space through jersey, knitwear, draping, volumes, and evolving silhouettes. The chair is a central symbol, representing rest, work, connection, limitation, and freedom.

Do you have a favourite look in this collection?

I would say the sofa dress. It is funny, direct, and almost impossible to misunderstand, which is exactly what I love about it. It takes an everyday object and transforms it into something unexpected, blurring the line between furniture and clothing.

It was also technically very challenging to make, which makes me appreciate it even more. I love when a design can communicate an idea immediately while still requiring a great deal of thought and experimentation to bring it to life.

Where can readers purchase your designs?

I am not selling my designs just yet, but I hope to introduce a made-to-order model soon. I want to take the time to develop the right approach to production while staying true to the ideas and values behind my work.

What’s next for you as a designer and your brand?

My main focus is on developing the production side of my brand, gaining more visibility, and building recognition for my work. I want to find ways to bring my designs to a wider audience while preserving the experimental nature of my practice.

I also hope to explore menswear, which is a territory I have wanted to venture into for a long time. I see it as another opportunity to question established codes around clothing, identity, and the body, and to continue exploring the boundaries of what fashion can be.

Links -

• Website - www.nayaahdab.com
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nayaahdab/
• Contact - naya_dab@nayaahdab.com