Iron Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design · 2025
Gordafarid Clothing
by Mina Aliyari
- A' Design Award 2025 Iron Winner in Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Kahkeshan Shahab Danesh
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 45,604
- Verification code 6706FDC309 · Verify this award
About Gordafarid Clothing
Gordafarid is a garment created from reused Persian carpets. Damaged and unusable handwoven carpets form the torso and keep their original structure. The pants are made of linen with the draping technique, inspired by the clothing of Iranian tribes. A headband joins Iranian geometry with the origami technique. A shawl made of metal spring wires and fabric can be given different forms on the body. Variable straps allow changes in size and function. The carpet part can also be hung on a wall or placed on a floor.
Mina Aliyari and Shahin Nayyer's Gordafarid Clothing engages with the rich heritage of regional textile traditions and historical garment archetypes, reinterpreting vernacular dress forms through contemporary sustainable design methodologies that honor material culture while asserting present-day relevance and wearability. The ensemble demonstrates sophisticated understanding of garment construction as cultural preservation, employing what appears to be reclaimed carpet fragments, tribal weavings, or tapestry textiles in the strapless bodice construction—a gesture that transforms utilitarian or decorative textiles into wearable art while acknowledging the labor, craft tradition, and symbolic vocabulary embedded in these historical fabrics. The geometric medallion patterns visible across the bodice's patchworked surface evoke motifs common to regional weaving traditions, their concentrated chromatic intensity and varied pattern scales creating visual richness that contrasts productively with the muted earth tones dominating the lower garment and translucent shoulder wrap. The voluminous gathered trousers or sirwal-inspired leg coverings reference historical garment types that appear across multiple cultural contexts, their abundant fabric yardage and deep knife pleating creating sculptural presence and movement potential while maintaining contemporary wearability through elastic waist construction. The translucent organza or tulle shawl that drapes across shoulders and upper arms introduces ethereal softness and material transparency, its pale champagne hue mediating between the robust materiality of bodice and trousers while evoking traditional textile layering practices and modesty conventions reinterpreted as aesthetic choice. The magenta-burgundy headband provides a singular chromatic accent that draws the eye upward, completing the vertical composition and suggesting how minimal color intervention can activate an otherwise earth-toned palette. The compositional presentation—centralized vertical orientation, frontal pose with hands on hips, direct viewer engagement—evokes both fashion photography conventions and ethnographic portrait traditions, positioning the garment ensemble as simultaneously object of aesthetic contemplation and cultural artifact worthy of documentation and preservation. The neutral studio environment eliminates contextual distraction, focusing attention entirely on garment architecture, textile character, and the dignified presence of the figure who embodies these design choices. Technically, the work demonstrates accomplished integration of disparate textile sources into coherent garment narrative, successful negotiation of proportion and volume across body zones to create balanced silhouette, and sensitive chromatic editing that allows historical textile patterns to speak without overwhelming the overall composition. The design seems to explore questions of cultural continuity and material sustainability, asking how textile heritage can inform contemporary fashion practice, how garments can carry cultural memory forward, and how historical construction techniques and garment archetypes retain relevance when reinterpreted for present-day bodies and contexts. The ensemble invites consideration of fashion as cultural preservation practice, textile as narrative carrier, and garment construction as dialogue between historical tradition and contemporary innovation, encouraging viewers to contemplate the stories embedded in fabric, the labor preserved in weaving patterns, and the possibilities that emerge when designers approach heritage textiles with reverence, creativity, and contemporary vision.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This dress is a bridge between history and modernity
Reusing damaged and unusable handicrafts (Iranian carpets) and introducing them into the fashion industry without changing the original structure of the work, as well as the headband, which is a combination of Iranian geometry and modern origami technique
The items have multiple uses,
A springy and soft shawl that we can give different forms to on the body
. A carpet that can be worn or hung on the wall or placed on the floor as a work of art - Dimensions & Packaging
- Blouse : width 250mm x 500mm
Pants: width 700mm x 1100mm
One look size 38 - Tags
- Sustainable fashion, fashion design, clothing, cultural design, origami technique, persian carpet, redesign, draping
- Production Technology
- This garment uses environmentally friendly materials such as linen in the pants and carpet in the torso
The pants are made using the draping technique, modeled after the clothing of Iranian tribes.
The garment and accessories use variable straps to allow for changing size and function.
A combination of metal spring wires and fabric is used to create a flexible and formable scarf. - Design Challenge
- Our main challenge in this project is how to combine the main concept, i.e. free woman, with the identity of Iranian culture and art, and also the correct interaction of these two concepts with fashion with a modern approach, considering sustainable fashion.
Paying attention to the fact that not everything damaged is worthless and can be given meaning and life again by redesigning.
And another problem solved by the project is how to transform handicrafts into clothing while maintaining the original structure of the material and its harmony with the body's form and anatomy, which has turned it into a comfortable and stylish garment. - Project Duration
- The project started in May 2024 in Semnan and Finished in December in 2024 in semnan .
- Operation Flow
- Transmitting a sense of authenticity and beauty using an old Persian carpet, hand-woven trousers inspired by the Persian tribal customs, a red headband worn by Achaemenid warriors after winning a war, and a spring shawl that expresses limiting thinking like a cocoon wrapped around a woman, but a woman with her courage inspires freedom and beauty.
- Research
- Research and Investigations:
Historical facts about the clothing, arts and crafts of Iranian peoples throughout history have been made according to the different empires, and the commonalities and consequences of each part of their clothing have been considered. For this project, historical books such as the Shahnameh have been referred to in order to better understand the authenticity of Iran and the influential Iranian women, their role and power. - Inspiration
- The inspiration for this design is the expression of courage, freedom and beauty of women against anti-women thinking, who stand amidst the limitations of which the Maripach spring shawl is a symbol of these thoughts, and despite their wounds, which are shown on the torso of the dress with the damaged carpet, they inspire beauty and freedom.
Because of the social, cultural and artistic meaning of this work, we named it Gard Afridi, a symbol of a brave and free woman in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. - Image Credits
- Images #1 to #5 : Photographer Mahdie Jalali ,Gordafarid ,2024
Colors of Gordafarid Clothing
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We transform heritage materials and cultural narratives into contemporary fashion pieces. Our award-winning approach combines Persian artistic traditions with modern sustainable design techniques, creating garments that honor cultural identity while embracing innovation.
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