MAX ZARA STERCK

: the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern The scientific explanation for some people is pareidolia, or the human ability to see shapes or make pictures out of randomness.

We find Max Zara at home busy working on multiple projects. She is an incredible young designer from the Netherlands who works between the Netherlands and London. She presented her second collection Pareidolia, which she revealed is very successful and it has allowed her to look past creating performance costumes and instead create everyday clothes which empower women.

To our question if she grew up in a creative environment, she responded that both of her parents are artists, and their home was always filled with art, and some of her relatives were professors. Which all makes sense, looking at Max’s approach to clothes making - it is highly observational. She deals with a lot of difficult 3D concepts, and she notes that nowadays, many designers tend to work mostly in 2D forgetting the dimensionality of garments.

She then let us know that she used to be a gymnast. Due to an injury she had to stop, however, this allowed her to focus on fashion design and find her true calling. And even nowadays she has this active approach, she would often times work with a live model where they would wear the basic fabric and Max would have to make conscious decisions about cutting and draping the fabric to accentuate the areas where fabrics move and this way build volume and mimic natural movement. Her favourite thing, and what made her start her own brand in the first place was that idea of empowerment, she loves seeing how her garments help women feel more comfortable. Max shared that she loved seeing the posture and energy shift which models had at her most recent collection. The moment they put the clothes she had designed on, they would lift their chins up, push their shoulders back, and radiate confidence.

She was always into making clothes. Growing up she used to collect leaves, and dying flowers into a herbarius, and that helped her shape her vision over the years.

Her most recent collection - Pareidolia takes inspiration from those childhood memories, she tells us, oftentimes she would see inanimate objects take the shape of dresses or tops before her eyes.

Pareidolia is the tendency for incorrect perception of a stimulus as an object, pattern or meaning known to the observer. For example, seeing objects or faces in clouds. Max uses abstract lines and shapes to gather inspiration and works intuitively constructing the garments, instead of starting off with a pattern, she allows the design to naturally evolve and take shape, this way she reinvents the traditional design process.

Sterck loves playing with shapes and silhouettes, and this is no surprise, her work is inspired by movement, but also looks very simple. She revealed the piece which best portrayed her brand was a long very simple-looking dress, which had a very technical aspect to it. While it might look plain, she told us that for her skills at the time it was definitely biting more than she could chew, she still managed to complete it, despite the complexities, and those experiences helped shape her brand identity.

We wanted a glimpse into the spirit which embodies the Max Zara Sterck brand, and she gave us Nery Oxman as an example. An American-Israeli designer and professor at MIT, she is known for her art and architecture that combine design, biology, computing, and materials engineering. Another perfect example was Emma Watson - not surprising considering her inspiration are strong, powerful women, changing the world, and Watson is the perfect embodiment - a womens’ rights activist, an actress, and one of the most influential people in the world. Max is a busy young designer, she is currently developing a new type of fabric which she will use exclusively for her next collection, she is working on show costumes, a collaboration which she is yet to reveal, we are really excited to see her progress in the upcoming months as the world slowly returns back to normal.

Photographer: Barrie Hullegie @barrie_hullegie Art director: Jordy Huinder @jordyhuinder Hair and Makeup: Laura Yard @laurayard Model: Laura Beuger @lauraquirine The Movement Models @themovementmodels