Marisa Zeman
Designer and jetsetter Marisa Zeman is making a splash with her new resort wear brand, Nude is Rude. She tells Adele Wong about the humdrum of university, her creative aspirations and growing up as the daughter of Allan Zeman, the king of Lan Kwai Fong.
I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I went to school here till I was 18. Then I went to Central St. Martins in London [for a foundation course]. It was too unstructured for me—I didn’t really love it. I found I used to learn more during my summer jobs. Whenever I came back to Hong Kong, I used to work for interior designers during my summers. I always found I learned so much more then.
I studied interior design at school, and when I came back from university I started working at Lan Kwai Fong [company] as the creative director. I was doing all the graphic design, which I taught myself. It’s the same with fashion as well—I’ve never studied it, so I’m sort of teaching myself everything. It’s so wonderful to learn.
I always highly recommend younger people to take advantage of summer jobs and internships. You’re actually working on real stuff, [especially] if you’ve got a good boss and teacher who’s gonna let you get your hands dirty.
I was always interested [in fashion and design]. When I was four years old I thought I wanted to grow up to be a fashion designer.
I was looking back at [my university work] and some of the project work was kind of dumb. There’s nothing that’s really applicable to anything.
I think Hong Kong has potential [as a world fashion capital], but I don’t think it’s there yet. I think people in Hong Kong are a little bit too label-conscious. They just want brands. Putting together a look that just consists of brands is what they think is style.
In other cities, people put together more individual styles. I enjoy going to the other cities for inspiration. When you see the same thing day in, day out, you need to get re-inspired elsewhere.