(Article) Michael Ziyani Clothing – A Timeless Culture

Written By: Ms. Niki of Houston TREND

The saying goes two heads are better than one, but plaster a third pate onto the canvas and watch as a masterpiece unveils. There’s a reason why good things come in threes. Clothing designers, Michael, Chris and Courtney are the founders of a rocketing clothing line out of Houston, TX, self-entitled Michael Ziyani Clothing, taken from the names of co-founders Michael Harris and Chris Ziyani. Glancing over the three gentlemen speaking above the ruckus of a video shoot for their clothing line, the young men seemly have a love for fashion, all draped in pieces from Michael Ziyani and each toting a scarf on some part of their body and photo shoot ready. Michael Ziyani clothing currently resides at Freestyle Clothing in Deerbrook Mall and Shannon’s Streetwave in the Willowbrook Mall area.

These fashion forward designers, started out hand painting t-shirts after their high school art teacher felt they needed a more focused outlet, in lieu of causing mischief in the class room. “We were kind of more advance than our other classmates, so we would finish our work earlier and the teacher said that we were starting to act up, so he gave us another project, which was hand making t-shirts”, says Courtney. A time where hand-painted t-shirts and a pair of clean denims matched with any pair of the beloved Air Force 1s, was the gear of choice back in the day. It was a style coined by many authentic clothing lines, including Miskeen, which happens to be a favorite clothing line amongst the guys. Their hand painting skills emanated over others, as their designs were more detailed and clean cut because of their actual artistic capabilities.

From there, Michael, Courtney and Chris knew that there was a much bigger depiction surpassing hand painting and they admit that the technique was an avenue to a greater plateau. “Our initial thing was to do graphic design, hand painting was a side hustle, says Michael. “It was a beautiful accident.” A beautiful accident well induced coupled with passion and creating the ultimate dream. Not wanting to establish the clothing line on a certain date, the clad decided to use, 19845, to represent the build of a timeless brand, these numerals are also posed on many of the Michael Ziyani shirts. Courtney explains, “19845 are our births years combined. Since it was destined for us to do this, we said we couldn’t just pick one date that we started it was meant to be like this, so we just put it all together.”

Michael Ziyani Clothing was able to set up shop this past year at the 2012 Magic Trade Show, hosted, in Las Vegas, a major venue where top clothing designers from all over the country go to exhibit their fashionable designs and of course partake in heavy networking. “It’s the ultimate fashion experience. The super bowl of fashion and for us to go there and been a part of it, was a great experience. We got to leave the city and tap into the fashion world, we got to interact with people from all over; the UK, Africa, Amsterdam, Hawaii, New York, just all over,” says Michael.

Michael Ziyani reflects a barrage of sequences that range from urban street ware to a more classy panache, from a day time soiree or a night out on the town, straight to into GQ mode. “The name alone doesn’t section you in a certain group, it opens up a ray of things. Michael Ziyani can be urban it can be classy, upscale or high fashion,” states Michael. The Michael Ziyani Clothing collection, infuses intricacy with ruggedness, style and hip hop, a brand consistently evolving with no intent of perishing but aging with time, hence the moniker, a Timeless Culture. “One of our motifs is timeless culture, we try to use different types of culture and incorporate them into our designs,” speaks Courtney.

When Michael Ziyani are designing authentic clothing of a timeless culture, how do they articulate their ideas to design some of their popular chemises? Courtney enlightens, “You have to start with a theme, based off that theme you come up with an idea and then you freestyle off of it. A lot of the freestyle is what you think looks good or goes with the theme, yet it still has a meaning to it at the end of the day because it all ties in with the theme, like timeless culture, so it may be the shirts with the roman columns, the stone print, it might be the Medusa. It’s all of different cultures, but it still ties into fashion.” One would think three individual artistic personalities and different visions of fashion could presumably cause a slight strife amongst the triad, but the guys insist that it’s a brother ship as well as a business. “It’s going to be friction but at the day we have to handle business. We mesh rugged, not well but rugged,” says Michael.

Establishing their clothing as a popular men’s line, Michael Ziyani is now in preparation, designing their women’s line. “That’s a totally different field. Obviously it’s going to be a challenge, we’re not women we don’t exactly know what they like, I just know what look good on them,” tells Courtney. “I know it would be what I would want my woman to wear,” interjects Michael. If many have seen or rocked any Michael Ziyani clothing, then rest assure that the women’s line will be certified. “It’s going to be an actual women’s clothing line. We’re going to start off with shirts first and we may actually change the name for the female line,” says Courtney. “We have a lot of plans in the making right now,” adds Chris.

Unable to wane Michael Ziyani down to one word or expression, the men collectively came up with a few tags that are sure to resonate over time. “Exclusive, street chic, unique, classic, the BEST,” but it was Michael who signed off with a message to any and all readers, rightfully optimistic about the future that is Michael Ziyani.

Michael Ziyani doesn’t have an expiration date, it’s not something that will just be popping for a year or two or three and then that’s the end of it. Nah, Michael Ziyani will be timeless.