Farah Asnaashari is a designer and dressmaker whose boutique, Farah Studio, is new to the Byward Market. Her design ideas, both readymade and custom, are influenced by her life and her family, both of which she said she holds close to her heart.
Growing up in Iran, Asnaashari said her mother was a seamstress and sewing teacher. Asnaashari and her sister used to fight over the fabric their father would bring home for them.
“My mother taught me how to love fashion and to sew, and was always dressed very nicely, wearing beautiful dresses,” Asnaashari said. Above her desk hangs a portrait she painted of her mother, wearing a long gown.
Asnaashari, now 60, said the first serious garment she ever created was when she was 13 years old.
“My friend’s mother asked me to make her something as a gift. It was a red velvet fabric, I still remember the style,” she said.
Asnaashari moved to Italy in 1990, and lived and worked there with her sister for a while before moving to Quebec in 1994. She said she initially left Iran because of the political conflict, and then decided to move to Canada because she thought it would be a better place for her three children.
After about a year, they moved to Ottawa and she and her husband opened a shop in Westboro. Her husband knew nothing about sewing, but soon learned and came to love it, she said.
Having lived in three different countries, Asnaashari noted that all three cultures had their own unique trends and customs.
“In Italy, you know–in Europe, people are more fashionable and dressed up, even during the day,” she said. “In Ottawa, especially, people are much more conservative.”
However, according to Asnaashari, her homeland didn’t lose its sense of style even after the political revolution in 1979.
“Iran was different because after the revolution, women had to wear hijabs. So the women you would see there looked completely different than the ones you would see in Europe. There was always still room to be fashionable though, even in Iran,” she said.
Asnaashari added that growing up in Iran was very different then than what it is today.
“In my time, it was good. It was happy and safe,” she said.
Asnaashari said she wanted her clothes to be more than just static designs that apply to everyone the same.
“It’s not just a design. It’s not just a size. It’s based on the character and the shape of the person,” Asnaashari said. She added she wanted her designs, particularly the custom pieces, to suit the wearers.
“Style is wanting to look in the mirror everyday. It’s not wearing lots of makeup of expensive brands. It’s about comfort and expressing who you are inside,” Asnaashari said. She also described her personal style as simple with clean lines.
Now four years after the death of her husband and business partner in 2012, she said her son Keyvan, 28, has taken an interest in the business. Asnaashari said she welcomed the chance to continue to work with her family.
“It’s great, it feels right. It feels like you are sharing with them something important,” she said.
Asnaashari held a grand opening for her new shop in the Byward Market on Sept. 8. She said she hopes to continue designing clothes, but also hopes to someday teach sewing to the younger generation.
Despite Asnaashari being an experienced designer and businesswoman, she said what she is most proud of is her children.
“I think my biggest achievement in life is my children. I have these three amazing people that I love and that love me. It’s not always about business,” Farah said. “It’s about family.”
Influenced by her mother, having journeyed beside her sister, and now passing her knowledge down to her son, Asnaashari said she holds her quiet passion for family, life, and fashion close.
