A Life Designed

Set to speak at a Connections luncheon next month, fashion designer Zarny Shibuya shares his journey from child refugee to celebrated couturier.

Breakfasts were usually filled with chatter around the table. But not this day. Zarny Shibuya couldn’t understand why. His mother, grandparents, aunt and uncle all appeared glum.

When the family arrived at the airport in the then Burmese capital of Yangon, the tears began to flow.

“My mother picked me up and I remember looking back at our family getting smaller in the distance,” Zarny, 35, says of that day in 1993. “I felt so scared. That’s when I realized that maybe this was my last day in Myanmar.”

While the 8-year-old would return to his homeland, it wouldn’t be for another two decades.

Zarny and his mother were bound for Tokyo to join his father, who had been living in exile in the Japanese capital for two years.

As young college students, Zarny’s parents were prodemocracy activists and members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s fledgling National League for Democracy party. Following a brutal crackdown by the ruling military junta, Zarny’s father fled the country in 1989.

“I remember my grandmother told me, ‘If you hear shooting, you need to get under the bed,’” says a dark-suited and immaculately groomed Zarny, sitting in CHOP Steakhouse, a setting far removed from the turmoil and bloodshed he left behind in Myanmar.



Image: Zarny Shibuya in Kayin, Myanmar, 2016

Even more incongruous is the path Zarny has forged in his adopted country (his family was finally granted refugee status by the Japanese government in 2001). After being approached by a fashion magazine editor at a Roppongi nightclub while a university student, Zarny soon found himself as an in-demand model and Shibuya street fashion consultant.

Since Burmese typically only have one name, Zarny selected his surname in homage to Japan’s youth fashion center.

“I took the name Shibuya because it was my first inspiration,” he says. “There was such an incredible energy there.”

Perhaps fittingly, Zarny’s final modeling job before focusing his efforts on design was for a billboard on the iconic Shibuya 109 building, the trend-setting fashion complex overlooking the area’s famous scramble crossing.

Zarny can trace his interest in clothes back to his elementary school days in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward, when he would iron his T-shirt each morning before heading out.

“I thought that if I looked fashionable and cool, with good T-shirts and good sneakers, I wouldn’t be bullied. It was my independent spirit,” he says with a whoop of laughter.

That singlemindedness has helped him find success and acclaim in the notoriously competitive world of fashion.

After a few seasons of dreaming up modish apparel for the youth market, Zarny, then 25, felt the moment was right to transition to haute couture, the arena of his inspiration: the late Italian fashion designer Gianfranco Ferré.

Having never studied at fashion school, Zarny wanted to immerse himself in the entire garment design process, from patternmaking to sewing. He was taken on by legendary wedding dress designer Yumi Katsura, regarded as the pioneer of Japan’s modern bridal industry.

For two years, he designed men’s suits and bridal gowns.

“I then realized that my designs on the runway had somebody else’s name [on them],” he says, “and I thought it was time to start my own company.”

The Zarny label was born. Over the last eight years, Zarny has built a business of online sales and private clients drawn from the upper echelons of Japanese society (Akie Abe, the wife of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has enlisted his services) and abroad. He has also expanded his lineup to include jewelry, accessories and cosmetics.



Image: Zarny Shibuya with his 2015 bridal collection

But he has never forgotten his roots, and his return to Myanmar in 2013 was deeply poignant.

“I could feel that this was the land of my blood,” he says. “It felt like a dream.”

He has since started a foundation at a Yangon temple his family supports for street children to learn sewing skills. Each spring, Zarny returns for Buddhist New Year to check on the project and teach the occasional class.

And last year, he accompanied Princess Yoko of Mikasa—for whom he designed dresses for the imperial abdication and accession ceremonies in 2019—on an official, weeklong tour of Myanmar.

Before the coronavirus pandemic upended life around the world, Zarny was preparing to launch his inaugural collection of longyi, Myanmar’s traditional sarong, in the country.

“I designed them for all people,” he says. “They’re very low cost and start at $3.”

Should the launch go ahead next year, it could be the first step toward Zarny’s next aspiration.

“One day, I want to be able to design for everyone,” he says, “from Japan’s imperial family to village schoolchildren in Southeast Asia.”

Going by his achievements to date, it’s probably just a matter of how soon.

Words: Nick Jones

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