How Fashion Designer Golnar Ahmadian Turns Opposites Into Art

Soft or hard. Structured or organic. Askew or straight. Golnar Ahmadian’s artistic depth lies in her deftness at navigating the lines between fashion’s many visual and textural contradictions. The Iranian-born, Canada-based designer behind accessories label Lo’bat and ready-to-wear fashion line Golshaah has illustrated her talent in tying together opposites in utterly distinctive and wearable ways, creating an all-encompassing stylistic language of her own.

Ahmadian, who splits her time between Tehran, Iran, and Toronto, first entered the collective fashion consciousness mid-pandemic, when her strikingly distinctive earring designs from Lo’bat—a name inspired by an old-time Persian compliment that means “beautiful lady”—soared in popularity as above-shoulder accessorizing became a major moment. The limited-run handmade pieces were crafted from an asynchronous combination of metallic-coated recycled paper materials and polished, oversized candy-hued stones, whose surprising featherlight weight made them a pleasure to wear. They were just the thing for grabbing attention on a Zoom call.

“Fashion always had a big role in my family, but I only thought it would be a hobby for me,” Ahmadian explains. She studied architecture and worked as an interior designer, yet says she’s been endlessly inspired by her ultra-stylish mother and was inclined to make her own clothing growing up. But it was when she learned about the process of papier-mâché while working at an interior design firm that she began to craft jewellery pieces for herself. Only after moving to Toronto from Iran to study Fashion Management at George Brown College did she decide to forge a new path, with a little nudge from her social media community.

“Before I moved, I started to share my daily outfits and the jewellery I was making online, and it got a lot of attention,” Ahmadian says, adding that her studies helpfully coincided with the momentum of her emerging brand. “That was challenging, because normally people learn from and work for other brands before starting their own. But I had the opportunity to do both at the same time.”

Lo’bat’s early collections quickly brought on success, particularly in the Middle Eastern market, despite the fact that oversized earrings were a relatively new trend at the time. Her designs have been inspired by figures and forms from her heritage—the dazzling angles of Persian architecture and the work of the Iranian contemporary artist Fereydoun Ave, for example. The brand’s Nargol style had two visual cues close to her ancestral culture: the pomegranate and the Hand of Fatima.

Ahmadian launched the brand Golshaah in 2019, and earlier this year, she created the Lo’bat x Golshaah collaborative earring collection. The artfully minimalist and contrasting metal-and-dark-wood jewellery designs are an aesthetic parallel to Golshaah’s dramatic, non-conformist looks.

Ahmadian works with a team in Iran on the sculptural pieces, using locally sourced wood hewn by skilled craftspeople. “You can see the art that they make with their hands,” Ahmadian says in a reverential tone. “How they play with wood and bring anything out of it.”

The sway of Iranian customs also peeks out in other ways throughout Golshaah’s pieces, particularly through an attention to the allure of addition. “Growing up in Iran, I had to wear a hijab and head scarves. I feel like that somehow influenced me in starting to play with fabrics and with layers,” she says. And the label’s distinctly high-end-yet-wearable nature also draws from her home country’s sartorial heritage. “In Iran, we pay a lot of attention to how we wear things when we go out, even if you’re just going to the grocery store. It’s a really important part of our culture. You can be overdressed, and that’s very normal.”

The name Golshaah is derived from the beginning of her name, Golnar, and the word “shah,” which means “king.” Needless to say, she finds dichotomies attractive. “I like it because I can see so many of the designs as unisex pieces,” she says.

For the fall/winter season, Golshaah presents a double-layered shirt style in a variety of colourways, from high contrasts such as pale pink and soft green to more conservative combinations such as dove grey and white. And the offerings become increasingly antithetical from there. A classic camel overcoat is subverted, thanks to squiggly gathered sleeves, a gesture that takes the stuffiness out of the outerwear and makes it unique. Similarly, the brand’s voluminous sculpted dress—a silk-satin design that’s at once romantic yet daring—is a legitimate conversation starter. “This dress was the beginning of me designing dresses for events,” Ahmadian says. “I wasn’t sure what reactions I would get from it.”

Her most recent brand iteration is a Golshaah interiors collaboration with Toronto design firm Studio Benu. The resulting furniture, mirror and lighting collection falls under the name Condesa, which is inspired by a trip to Mexico that Ahmadian took with Studio Benu founder Neda Zavareh. It’s yet another example of how international inspirations come together in Ahmadian’s multi-disciplinary oeuvre.

Unsurprisingly, the praise has been piled on Ahmadian. Her recent work boasts even more clever juxtapositions, such as half-skirt pants, dresses with necklines fashioned from waistbands and garments made from a quirky amalgam of silhouettes such as a skirt made from a pattern of two shirts. Such purposefully unexpected details on otherwise utilitarian apparel reveal Ahmadian’s mettle when it comes to fashion alchemy, mixing intention with irreverence.

“I believe nowadays you can say the same story in different ways with craftsmanship, with silhouettes, with the details that you can add to tailoring,” she says. “So, at the beginning, I was doing that with embroidery, knitwear and stuff. But eventually, I [wanted] to use this simple fabric, but tell [the story] with…volumes, playing with fabrics. There are already so many designers, and so much clothing. If I want to add something, I have to make sure it’s meaningful, it’s something that can stay in people’s lives for a long time and it’s going to resonate with them.”