Zery Zamry..Malaysia's up and Emerging Fashion Icon

To international fashionistas, Zery Zamry would be an unfamiliar name within the international fashion scene but in Malaysia, his name is already a household name in local fashion scene.

Touted as the next new fashion icon of Malaysia, Zery took his arts seriously and his hardwork pays when he won Jarum Berlian award in 2006, one of the most prestigious fashion awards in Malaysia, annually held to hail, celebrate and discover new talents in fashion designing. Previously, his entry in 2004's Jarum Berlian Award gained second place in the contest

Born Zeri Zamri in Kelana Jaya, Selangor on 31st December 1984, the last out of four siblings has a strong passion in economics and business-related subjects back in his schooling days. At the same, he has the equal profoundness in arts and design as well.

After finishing secondary school, he was in dilemma - either to pursue his studies in economics or fashion designing. The outcome? He chose fashion design instead of economics and enrolled in Diploma of Fashion Design at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Seri Iskandar Campus, Perak.

Combined strong passion in fashion with endless hard work, what would you get? Crowned as the Best Student of the Faculty that is.

Yes, Zery was crowned as the Art and Design Faculty's Best Student as well as the Excellent Achievement Award - New Young Talent in Individual category for his accomplishments that takes UiTM's name to a higher degree.

Given an option between designing womenswear and menswear, the 22-year old designer prefers to design womenswear because there are no certain limitations like menswear. At the same times it allows his creativity to flow freely, an essential need for every designer and artists should possessed.

"I can design anything I like for women," he said. "It is all because, nowadays we want to see what people like Ning Baizura or Siti Nurhaliza are wearing these days and whether the peasant girl look is still in or its way out."

"I don't mind being a slave to fashion," the highly-aspired designer added. "I will use all of my free time designing new dresses, apparels and others."

Known for the uniqueness of his designs, Zery tends to include details such as polka dots, and ribbons with staple colors of red, pink and black as his favorite working palette. Sexiness, glamor and vogue is must-have qualities of his designs, apart from incorporating simplicity, authenticity, quality, and originality in his designs. Apart from couture pieces and apparels, Zery also designs bags and shoes to complement his creations.

The designer prefers to stay true to his Malaysian heritage as well in terms of creating apparels and materials that he used. His favorite Malaysian costumes include Kebaya, Kurung and Sarong.

Last year, Zery's avant-garde reinterpretation of Kebaya, which is a combination of Malaysian Kebaya with the touch of Victorian period influence, known as Splendour of Nyonya Kebaya won him an award at the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week 2006.

Besides designing coutures for local celebrities to wear at award shows and highly-publicized social functions within Malaysia, the designer too sponsored his creations to certain public occassion such as the Dewi Remaja pageant, a contest held on annual basis by local teen magazine, Remaja to discover new teenage beauties from all over Malaysia. The pageant too has been a stepping stone for some of Malaysian actors and models to launch their career in the entertainment industry.

Most of Zery's authentic, sensual yet artistic creations have caught the attention of several glamorous Malaysian fashion editors and they even have appeared in glossy fashion spreads for notable local fashion magazines such as Eh!, Glam, and InTrend to name a few.Recently Zery was chosen as one of the finalists for the Malaysian edition of Project Runway, a US franchise of the famous American fashion designing reality show hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum.

The show will debut somewhere within this month and on 19 May, at the Faculty of Arts and Design, UiTM Shah Alam, Zery, who will be graduating this year with a degree in Fashion Design, will present his latest collection, Contemporary Kurung Exotica.

He also plans to start his first menswear line by this year as well as competing for the Piala Sri Indon, another prestigious fashion award in honor of the late Datin Seri Indon Mahmood, a fashion philanthropist whose aim is to preserve the art of Nyonya Kebaya and encouraged the growth of Malaysian Batik industry.

For those who are interested in viewing and purchasing Zery Zamry's couture or ready-to-wear pieces, do pay a visit to his boutique in Shah Alam and feast your eyes on the glamorous, or according to designer himself, VASS, and fashionable pieces of arts.

Zery Zamry Couture - 11A, Jalan Tuntung 20/11, 40300 Shah Alam, Selangor.
Tel: +60 017 6519056

text by shaiful....tq shaiful 4 the lovely write up!!