Anett Csizmazia, the ingenious mind behind ZIA Budapest, is a Hungarian fashion designer who is part of Budapest Select, a fashion project that consists of a three-year strategic agreement between the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency (HFDA) and the prestigious Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), in which Hungarian brands are invited to present their collections during the Milano Fashion Week.
This year, seven Hungarian brands (Abodi, Cukovy, Elysian, Kata Szegedi, MERO, THEFOUR, and Zia Budapest) showed their Fall Winter 2021/2022 Collections in a Digital Collective Fashion Show; thus during the following weeks we will present exclusive interviews with the prestigious designers of these brands.
As you have figured it out, we are going to start this series of interviews with Anett Csizmazia from ZIA Budapest; but, before we get to her interview, let us present what Zsófia Bata-Jakab, the CEO of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency, told us about the Budapest Select collective show presented during the Milano Fashion Week on March 25-28, 2021:
“It was a great pleasure and honor that we were able to attend the first digital Milano Fashion Week with the Budapest Select collective show where Hungarian designers presented their fall-winter collections and participated with online content on the event’s official platform.
Thanks to the joint international mentoring program with CNMI, we were able to observe the development of the Hungarian brands on the catwalk for the fifth time in Milan. We are proud of the results so far, as MFW has already brought a long-awaited breakthrough for many Hungarian brands.
We launched a webshop in December called Budapest Select concept store where the previous collections of the designers who appeared at the digital fashion week are available among others so anyone can discover the unique works of Hungarian brands online. Those interested can view the designers’ collections at the digital Budapest Central European Fashion Week on the event’s official Facebook page”. Zsófia Bata-Jakab, CEO – HFDA, 2021.
Anett Csizmazia − ZIA Budapest | Exclusive Interview
VT: How would you describe ZIA Budapest?
AC: ZIA Budapest is the first Hungarian highstreetstyle fashion brand from Budapest. The brand easily combines contrasts with contemporary and classic features, which are elegantly balanced in an easy-to-fit highstreetstyle style. ZIA’s message is to strive to distance ourselves from the fast fashion market and buy value and timeless design pieces that can be adorned with materials and in-style for years in our wardrobes; classic, minimal yet average pieces are what ZIA offers at affordable prices. All the pieces are designed, crafted, and born in Hungary.
VT: What is the #highstreetstyle?
AC: The brand easily combines the contrasts between contemporary and classic features, which are elegantly balanced in an easy-to-fit #highstreetstyle style.
VT: Why the minimalist silhouettes are important for your brand and aesthetics?
AC: Because of the timelessness. Stylish, unique, well-combined basic pieces appear in every collection, with what ZIA wants to emphasize: timelessness, showing that minimalist fashion can be both trendy and timeless.
VT: How do you embrace trends and sustainability with your brand?
AC: Our principle is not to buy too many useless clothes, which in 1-2 months will be forgotten and still in the bottom of our drawer; instead, we strive to build a wardrobe that is timeless, conscious, and doesn’t follow fast-fashion trends aimlessly, but reacts to the actual trends practically and stylishly.
We don’t make stock, and we always buy enough materials to fix limited edition pieces. It is really important for us to use quality materials and that is why we only buy from European companies, for example from Italy and Greece.
We try to make visual communication online but if it is necessary, we use recycled paper for our marketing materials. Our brand works together with a Hungarian local sewing company, and with this, we support the local small businesses, we monitor the production process, so every piece is unique and of good quality. We made a unique logo with a Hungarian textile designer, and this symbol will continue marking sustainable or recycled goodies in the future.
VT: What can you tell us about the relevance of the following signature pieces: Cruz, Barcelona, Kimono?
AC: With three signature pieces, ZIA burst into the Hungarian public awareness – ZIA Cruz, Barcelona, Kimono – these three pieces have appeared in every collection ever since, evolving inspired by the travels, journeys, and own experiences.
ZIA + HFDA + Budapest Select
VT: What is your relationship with the HFDA and the Budapest Select?
AC: I was in the 2nd Hungarian fashion mentor program organized by HFDA. The mentoring program is designed to impart theoretical knowledge in key areas of brand development that is essential to building a successful brand. Domestic professionals will develop participants through workshops and face-to-face meetings while at the end of the program, the best performing brands will be able to continue a joint international mentoring program with the agency and the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, this program is going on now with other Hungarian brands.
VT: Let us talk about your collection for the COLLECTIVE FASHION SHOW – FW21/22. What did you like the most about it?
AC: I have a lot of emotions whit this. I am very proud because we were part of this. We had a hard half-year working on this collection, and I was a little bit sad because I could not be there in person, but the Camera Moda and HFDA team made a very special and cool show.
VT: What is the story behind City Legacy?
AC: We live in a cosmopolitan city, but our instincts would like to go back to a more natural and authentic world where we were not surrounded by a lot of things, and everything was easier and clearer. ZIA Budapest is continuously building and monitoring itself. During our production process, we focus on making the world a nicer and better place.
We make timeless and quality pieces and these dresses will be the ornaments of your wardrobe forever. We believe that buying a ZIA designer piece is a good investment in sustainability and trend; it is a way you can stop buying fast pieces forever.
Sometimes, taking a step back can also mean taking two in the right direction. C I T Y L E G A C Y collection is a trip back to our core. It is embracing our true love for clean, masculine, oversize, vintage lines with intricate feminine details. It’s being sustainable and conscious through timeless designs and ethical practices.
Each piece is a limited edition. Designed, crafted, and born in Budapest.
VT: Which advice would you give to all those teenagers who are thinking about starting a career in fashion-related activities?
AC: I don’t want to say clichés like dare to dream, or never give up…
The fashion profession and market is a very hard market, in the future you have to work a lot more than you thought in school. And it is not even a nice and kind profession. 🙂
But I believe in constant, hard work, and the most important: show your own world, not what everyone else is doing, that’s where fast fashion is.
Before we go
Stay tuned with us to keep knowing better the rest of the Hungarian brands that are part of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency (HFDA), and, in collaboration with the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), presented their FW 21-22 collections during the Milano Fashion Week.
Thus, as we all love fashion, let us keep in mind the message of ZIA Budapest in the voice of Anett Csizmazia: we have a beautiful world that we all must preserve, so let us do our best to be kind to each other, let us work hard to pursue our dreams, and do not waste time in fast-fashion forgettable pieces.