Koyur Abdul Weaves the World Through Streetwear

written by Sydney Ling

interviewed by Yoko Zhu

Instagram Website

Shot by Koyur Abdul. Modeled by @khannie_188, @kateshelley, @cailumkhan

Relaxed black-and-white fit. Clean-cut boldly-colored screen prints. Asian motif designs. Koyur Abdul seeks to create a world of cultural appreciation in streetwear. The 22-year-old Bengali creative from Manchester was originally a computing graduate before beginning to transition into fashion design. Koyur hopes to not only create South Asian representation in the street fashion world, but to build a brand that embraces all cultures and backgrounds. His first collection, “THE MOOD COLLECTION,” draws from the beauty of Japan that Koyur had originally captured in photos. Koyur plans to continue traveling, weaving more cultural influences into his quilt of the world.

Describe yourself and your clothing line.

My name is Koyur, I'm a 22 year old Bengali, I grew up in a small town in Manchester, UK. I graduated in 2019, I got a degree in BSc (Hons) Computing and Networking Technologies. I released a clothing brand in March, named after myself, Koyur. I design streetwear using the photos I took whilst travelling and applying different cultures to my designs to embrace cultures and show people my journey. I want to expand eventually and become a full time creative!

Pictured: Koyur Abdul

What’s the inspiration behind the project? Tell us about the process of creating the designs.

My main inspiration is the fear of doing a 9-5 my whole life and not taking risks, I'm currently a graduate network engineer and I enjoy my job, I just can't see myself doing it my whole life and I feel like I'm made for something more, no disrespect to those doing a 9-5 though, I respect the grind.

I would like to be a full time creative eventually, God willing. I've always had a passion for creativity. I enjoy fashion, photography and graphics designing so I thought why not merge them into one. The brand itself is inspired by travel and cultures. As I travel to a new country and as I experience a different culture, I will make a collection based on that country.

Before I make any designs for the clothes, I look for the materials that I want to work on. I want the materials to be ethically made, as sustainable as possible and mad comfy as I'm a man of comfort. Then when it comes to designing, each hoodie and T-shirt that I created had a photo that I took with a word, in Japanese, next to the photo. For example , my black and green hoodie, has the Japanese word 元気 which means "energy" as the photo is of Shibuya and it's chaotic and filled with good energy. I named this hoodie GENKI as it's the transliteration of 元気. I've also added embroidery of the Japanese text on the back of the hoodies, I added this to add a second texture to the hoodies. I designed this collection whilst I was in Tokyo for an internship. There's more to my design process but I don't want to bore you guys.

My logo is a post stamp and it's inspired by the country that I make a collection on. This logo is inspired by your typical Japanese post stamp with my own little twist. My logo is always going to change with every collection I drop. I want to create a brand that embraces all cultures, plus it gives me the opportunity to travel more and learn more about cultures. I currently have 3 hoodies and 2 t-shirts in my collection.

What barriers have you faced?

Barriers? Hmm, I didn't face many barriers to be fair, thanks to my parents, they give me the freedom to try out things and do things that I actually enjoy, whether they think it's good for me or not, they want me to find my own path, so big shout out to them. The main barrier was working my day job then going straight to work on this project, it was tiring, I barely slept, living off like 3-5 hours of sleep, it was draining, I can't lie. Another barrier was learning how to use new software, wouldn't exactly call it a barrier though as I enjoyed the learning process and it was quick to overcome. I learnt how to use Adobe illustrator to create my logo and learnt how to use Adobe Premiere Pro to create my clothing brand trailer so that was fun.

Why is South Asian representation important to you?

South Asian representation is important to me as I know we don't get the representation that we deserve. You tell me, how many South Asian streetwear fashion designers do you know? I don't know any but I know there are people out there working hard and not getting the recognition that they deserve! I know many South Asian creatives, they're crazy talented too but yet I hardly see any media representation. I don't understand it, especially for where I am from, the UK, South Asians are the largest majority ethnic group according to the 2011 census, but for some reason it seems as if we get no love from the creative industry. I've seen some representation of South Asian in the Hollywood film industry but I don't think it's a big thing to celebrate as most of the character roles that I have seen have come from stereotypes such as being the computer hacker, the doctor or that funny guy with the "accent". I feel like we're more than that. Although thankfully, in the Hollywood film industry, there is some progression, you have actors such as Riz Ahmed and Kumail Nanjiani who are playing big roles in big movies, so that's nice to see. South Asians are more than just stereotypes and tokens!

How do you hope to represent your community?

I'd like to represent my community by showing people that you can actually get far by doing something that you enjoy, as clichéd as it sounds. In my town, my community is filled with South Asians and it's unheard of that someone can make it big from being creative. Typically, the mindset is, study, get into college then university, get good grades and get a job, then your life starts, that's boring to me, where's the fun in that? Don't get me wrong, I've been in education my whole life, I got a degree and I got decent grades but I just felt as if something was missing, I felt like life is more than chasing money and being behind an office desk my whole life. I want to create my own path and show people in my community that it's possible, chase a passion and not money, see how happy you get, the money will follow through naturally.

“I felt like life is more than chasing money and being behind an office desk my whole life.”

What do you wish people to take away from your art?

I just want people to see my journey - I feel like that is art in itself - seeing someone grow creatively. I'd love it if people could see me travel from country to country and see all the new things that I have learnt!

Are there any future plans? List any upcoming projects, designs, etc. 

I'm still learning, I'm a beginner to this, I got way more to learn about the fashion industry and because I have high expectations of myself, I'm always challenging myself to improve on my craft I don't want to give away too much but I plan on visiting most of the countries in Asia and then move on to the next continent and add more to my collection. I also want to eventually do other things besides fashion designing, I want to create sculptures and paintings but I have so much to learn before I get into that.

“I just want people to see my journey - I feel like that is art in itself - seeing someone grow creatively.”