Dressed in Babes & Gents drop-crotch pants, Amir Hasanzadehzargari is enthusiastic as he tells me about his challenges and dreams, his unique and rocky road to launching Babes & Gents, an Ottawa-based clothing brand.
Launched last year, the company sells its clothes online at babesngents.ca. As of today, that is the only place you can buy Amir’s creations. His collection includes lines for women and men, and is surprisingly well priced. Most items, from hats to crop tanks to tees hover at around $30, although there are a few items, such as this beautifully designed, unisex tank that go for as low as $20.
Amir’s personal life motto and the brand’s aspiration are derived from these three words: passion, inspiration and warrior-like strength (both mental and physical). Intense and action-oriented, just like Amir.
“My mindset used to be math and sciences,” he confesses. That was his parents’ dream for him. “Two weeks before [my high school] graduation, before going to Waterloo for Engineering, a friend suggested I put my designs on clothes.”
Before that, he painted and sold his work in art galleries but he felt he couldn’t connect with people through the medium. After putting art on clothes, Amir knew he had found his calling. Still, his parents insisted he go to university.
“A month into it, I knew I couldn’t do it.” He dropped out a year later but doesn’t regret the experience because in the meantime, he was living downtown Toronto, becoming familiar with the street scene. Back in Ottawa, his parents asked him to give university a second chance, so he enrolled at the University of Ottawa for Business, but left a semester into it.
Immediately following these two stints at university, he started working on his brand. His artistic process begins with a general design that he sketches with broad strokes. Then, he finds an artist that is in line with his aesthetic and they collaborate on a final print. His shirts come from American Apparel and his pants are custom manufactured from Korea, a time-consuming but ultimately rewarding process.
His plan is to foster a local fan base, which will take time, but Amir is committed. His collection has already been featured at a trade show in Toronto, where smaller buyers look for brands to pick up. While Babes & Gents wasn’t picked up, Amir is dreaming big: his goal is to go to the international trade show in Vegas, “Magic Market Week.”
And selling in boutiques around downtown like in my personal favorite, Nrml, is difficult not only to get in, but also to break even. They require 50% commission, which would double the price of Amir’s clothes.
But like a true warrior, he marches on in the direction of his dreams. As he says so well, “street wear is for everyone who wants to shop at a boutique instead of the mall,” so check out his online boutique and represent Ottawa.
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