AZARA
“Scarlet” in Farsi
A collection inspired by the pomegranate’s crown and by the vessels that nourish the heart.
The heart cannot function without its vessels, just as our own hearts cannot thrive without the paths that lead us to others.
The explicit form of the organ and the emotional connection it symbolizes are both represented in the shape of the pomegranate, a symbol cherished by the Iranian people.
I had already begun conceiving this collection before traveling to Iran with my boyfriend in March 2019. It didn’t take long for the connection to reveal itself, between the physical shape of the heart, with its intricate “lines of access to the rest of the body,” and the pomegranate, the country’s quintessential fruit, as well as with the deep bonds we formed with many of the people we met during that richly inspiring month.
I was inspired, then, to create this collection around the poetic duality of the physical heart – pomegranate and the metaphorical heart – the soul of Iran.
As a culture, we have charged the very muscle that gives us life, and fills us with vitality, with deep symbolic meaning. This became the starting point for a collection that also represents a bridge between peoples: travel as the essential movement that stretches our hearts toward others, like a bloodstream that connects us and allows us to live more fully.
Just as the pomegranate bears, in its crown, the umbilical cord that ties it to the tree that gave it life, the heart too would be useless without the arteries and veins that connect it to the body, giving it purpose and vitality.
That connection is metaphorically reflected in our own need for bonds — for without them, the heart withers and fades. And one of the best ways to keep it alive is through travel, through encounters with people who are often hidden or overlooked by the world, yet who have so much to offer us.