Meet Vardi Murad of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vardi Murad.

Hi Vardi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started working in fashion when I was around 16, and since then I’ve kind of just followed whatever felt right – styling, designing, making things, assisting during fashion weeks, and slowly understanding what my own visual language is.

A few years ago I randomly decided to move to LA. It wasn’t really about the “American dream”. I just wanted to live somewhere where I understood the language, and somehow that simple decision turned into one of the biggest chapters of my life.

I’ve been here for around three years now, and being an immigrant and an artist at the same time is a very weird balance. You’re surviving, creating, learning a new culture, and learning yourself all at once. Sometimes I feel like being an immigrant means you become your own mother and your own kid at the same time – taking care of yourself, pushing yourself, making mistakes, and figuring everything out alone.

At this point I don’t really separate things into good or bad.The last five years from 22 to 27 have probably taught me more about myself than anything else. Two of those years were still in my homeland(Armenia , Yerevan) , and the last three have been here in LA. I think you never really know yourself until life puts you in situations you couldn’t plan for. You can always say, “I would do this” or “I would never do that,” but when you’re actually in it, that’s when you really find out who you are.

I’m still only 27, so obviously I’m still changing, but I know myself so much better now because I’ve seen myself in hard situations, weird situations, beautiful ones too. I know what I can handle, what I want, what I don’t want, and what I keep choosing anyway. For me, that’s a victory.

And maybe this life I’m living now is my version of “hardcore delusion” – believing deeply in what I’m building, even when it doesn’t completely make sense yet. Sometimes it’s magical, sometimes it’s messy, sometimes it’s hard, but I love that balance.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s definitely been far from smooth, but honestly, what even is “smooth”? Looking back, I realize there were moments where I probably had a 1% chance, and at the time I didn’t even think about that 1%. Somehow, it still worked.

That’s why I’m grateful. I really believe the universe can redirect us for our own good, even when we don’t understand it in the moment. I’ve always had this feeling that I’m God’s favorite, and I love that feeling.

I think every path is hard in its own way. You just choose your hard. I chose mine, and I’m really grateful for it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now in LA, most of my work is styling and creative direction, but at the core I’m a designer. Styling comes very naturally to me, and I enjoy it, but when I’m styling I’m often already thinking like a designer – changing things, rebuilding looks, imagining what I wish existed instead of only working with what’s already there.

Building my own clothing has been more complicated. I tried different ways of producing pieces remotely, including working with people back in Armenia, but I realized pretty quickly that my design process is too hands-on for that. I don’t really work from a classic formula where I can just send a perfect sketch and wait for the result. I need to touch the fabric, change things while I’m making them, destroy something, rebuild it, see what happens.

So now I’m starting again here and making things with my own hands. That’s probably what I’m most excited about right now – returning seriously to designing and building my brand from the ground up.

What I’m most proud of is being a creator in general. I don’t really want to fit into only one title. Styling, designing, making, creative direction – for me they’re all different parts of the same world I’m trying to build. I think that’s also what sets me apart: I’m not only interested in making a good look, I want to create the whole world around it.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think the most important quality for me is trusting my intuition. Even when I don’t fully know how something will work, I usually know when something feels right for me. I’m also very persistent – if I really believe in something, I’ll keep finding another way to make it happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vardimurad.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vardimurad/?hl=en