Yannik Zamboni wants you to think about your DNA. Sure, DNA is “what makes you, you,” per the famous adage. But its distinguishing power is also helpful for identification purposes, especially after an instance of sexual violence. That’s why the maison blanche designer, famous for winning season three of Amazon’s Making the Cut, has partnered to help launch Tags Against Crime, an awareness campaign stressing the importance of not washing your clothes after you’ve been sexually assaulted. Laundry tags inside the new Spring/Sumer 2024 collection remind wearers that genetic material left on clothing can be collected as evidence to identify and convict perpetrators of sexual violence.
Debuting alongside maison blanche’s Sunday runway show (which was, yes, titled “DNA”), the new initiative is the latest way Zamboni is using his “queer anti-fashion” label to help provoke social change.
It’s been just over a year since the Swiss designer won Making the Cut, and in the time since pocketing Prime Video’s grand prize of $1,000,000, he has wasted no time capitalizing on the momentum to push his conceptual brand further into the public consciousness. Last September, only days after the season finale aired, maison blanche staged its first official New York Fashion Week show in a Chinatown alley. This season, the brand is back, swapping out the gritty runway of a Manhattan street for the vibrant, sex-positive energy of legendary nightclub The Box.
For this latest collection, Zamboni stuck to the maison blanche codes, showcasing a plethora of body-revealing jersey sportswear alongside intriguingly deconstructed tailoring. (My personal favorite? A plaid cropped backwards suit jacket paired with matching high-waisted flared pants.) As usual, most of the gender-inclusive designs — shown on a cast that truly felt diverse (not just in race and body size, but also in physical ability) — were rendered in white, with a couple splashes of gray, black, and cream mixed in for good measure. But Zamboni also left room for expansion: Through a collaboration with a women-led knitwear brand from Madagascar, maison blanche debuted several hand-knit pieces that defied categorization: Was it a shirt? A dress? Or maybe a sweater? Either way, they looked kooky, cool, and above all, different. And as Zamboni jokes, “What’s wrong with being different?”
The day before maison blanche’s SS24 runway show, Them visited The Box to talk with Yannik Zamboni about his partnership with Tags Against Crime, how designing in white forces him to think outside of the box, and his unwavering commitment to sustainability.
You have a show tomorrow. How are you doing?
I’m nervous. I’m good, but I’m nervous. I think we leveled up from last year.
You’ve settled on this name “DNA” for the show. Can you tell me what inspired that?
One reason we called the show “DNA” is because we’re showing [the brand’s] actual DNA, which is deconstruction, a lot of shades of whites, fabric manipulation. But the other reason is that we’ve included an awareness campaign and we’re talking about real DNA and sexual assault. We’re partnering with Tags Against Crime.
I think it’s very important because the number of sexual assaults and all these [statistics] are very shocking. Like, 97% of all rapists walk free. One in five women will encounter sexual violence. One in five women will be raped once in their life. Almost half of all trans people will be confronted with sexual violence. It’s all so sad, so when I heard, I really wanted to do something.
I know when you first started the brand in 2020 that it was at least somewhat because of sociopolitical reasons. What was going on in your life — or in the world — that first prompted you to launch the brand?
At some point, when I was studying [fashion] and everybody was looking at pictures of architecture or something to get inspiration, I kind of felt nothing. Well, not nothing. But for me, that wasn’t really giving [any] inspiration. I realized very soon that everything that’s actually unfair in our society, that’s something that spurs me on. That’s something that made me want to be creative.
How would you say that extends or connects to your embrace of the color white?
That’s actually different. The color white is more because, during my studies, I also realized that when you take away the colors, the color combinations, the prints, and everything that makes something look so pretty, and you just look at the design, it’s quite simple. There’s nothing special anymore. I wanted to convince with the design itself, without all the distractions, just for myself. And after a while working with white, it just stuck.
How does your Swiss heritage influence your approach to design?
I think it influences it a lot, because Switzerland always pretends to be so forward-thinking and so open and blah-blah-blah. But looking at it closely, you see the same things you see in other places. The same problems that we talk about in America are happening in Europe, too. Most unfair topics [in any country] are actually global.
Your designs are genderless, and I’m curious how you approach that. I’m thinking about your winning finale collection on Making the Cut and how you specifically said that you were creating a genderless collection that was inspired by classic menswear.
I like to call it “all gender-inclusive” because, first of all, [among] my friends, there’s just a lot of different genders, so why focus on one? Also, there are more than two genders, so why should everything be divided in two? And also, this idea that our society has that clothes are for one gender, I just don’t believe in that idea, so I want to show that it is nonsense.
It’s been just over a year since you won Making the Cut and $1,000,000. How has your life and your brand changed in that period? Have you been able to feel any evolution?
Ultimately, with the money I got from Making the Cut, I could finally go into production. I could finally realize a full collection. So that changed a lot. Also, having Heidi Klum as a friend opens doors [laughs]. Yeah, it changed a lot. Totally.
In the Making the Cut finale, you revealed that you came from a marketing and sales background. I’m curious what eventually inspired your pivot to fashion design.
I was just really bored working in an office. Also, I feel that, as a designer, I’m able to change something, to contribute to something that’s bigger than myself. I feel like in the office job I had, that was kind of impossible.
Has that background helped as you’ve been scaling up your business?
It has! I always say I wouldn’t be where I am today without all those different backgrounds and educations that I have. Art school is great because you learn art. But you don’t get [to learn] anything about how to build a business. That’s all from marketing and from my commercial education I had before. It’s the boring shit, but it’s helpful now that I have my own business.
A lot of your brand is focused on deconstruction. Where did that interest come from?
Well, I’ve always liked to look at how other clothes are made, then pick them apart myself. Through that, I get new ideas and that’s why I like to deconstruct — especially older clothes, because the construction some years ago was much better than it is now. Now, it’s all fast fashion and everything is trash. But if you take old clothes and deconstruct them, you see the different layers and everything, so you can work with that and get new ideas from that.
Do you find that you’re automatically thinking about things in these inverted ways? Are you naturally like, Agh, a dress, but it’s made from pants, or do you start with a classic garment and then force yourself to think, How can I change this into something new?
I think it’s that [last] one. I’m always really just working with existing garments, then taking them apart and seeing what happens. Then, somehow, [a new piece of clothing] happens.
For some of the knitwear in this collection, I know that you collaborated with Made for a Woman, a women-led brand in Madagascar. How did this collaboration come about?
They actually wrote to me eight or nine months ago, but I was so busy, so I put the email away and kind of forgot about it. Then, we did the collection and we had our concepts, and I was like, “Okay, I need knitters.” In our studio, we’re better with woven materials, so I was like, “I need someone who is good at knitting." Then, I reminded myself: Somewhere in your emails you have the email from Made for a Woman. So I contacted them and they were super happy, and I was super happy to do this collaboration. It was really great because I just sent them my sketches, we chatted on WhatsApp, and they worked on it [in Madagascar]. They’re really amazing.
You’re also very committed to sustainability. A lot of your clothes are biodegradable and that’s always been a huge aspect of your approach to design. Have you found that it’s become any harder to stick to this philosophy as you’ve scaled up your production?
I think the point is that when you do the research, and you know the numbers, and you know how bad fashion is for the environment, you cannot just forget it. It is there. For everything I do, it’s like, Okay, this has an impact on our environment, so I need to keep it as sustainable as I can. And it is doable! Yes, it’s a lot more work, but it’s doable. It’s the same as having a diverse cast. Yes, it is more work. It’s much more work because we have to decide two or three months before what kind of body we’re going to put the clothes in, and then we have to work on that body. We cannot just do the collection in one size and then look [and choose] who wears it best two days before the show. That’s just impossible to do. It’s more work, but it's doable.
Speaking of the show, why did you decide to present at The Box?
I think, first, it’s about the [sexual] topic we have. I think it’s about people showing their skin, and sex workers, they’re more confronted with that topic. Like I say, clothes are not giving consent — that’s the person. And we should be able to wear whatever we want without being afraid.
Finally, what is your vision for the future of maison blanche as you continue to grow?
Well, we need to grow. We have a lot of requests [laughs]. But fashion is always about finding the balance to do the things you have to do to survive money-wise and the things you love to do for prestige or just because you want to do it because you’re involved or because you like it. So I think [my mission] is to find that balance so I can grow steadily, but not too fast.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
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