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Fashion Design Student Interview: When Poetry Becomes Fashion

Interview with Iftekhar Noor, Fashion Design student at IFA Paris

Q: Can you tell us about the inspiration behind One Thousand Poets?

Iftekhar Noor: Poetry has been my first creative gesture. I started my creative world with a feeling that I had to express in some way, and it got me to write a lot. Through poetry, I could process all these thoughts that were running around within me. Over time, as I got introduced to fashion, I understood that it is a storytelling method too.

I’ve always wanted to have my own brand, and I knew I had to start early to match my vision. I was interested in a lot of creative channels like writing, poetry, sculpting, fashion, and photography, and I needed a way to bring all of these works under the same umbrella through which I could work on these things simultaneously and toward building one single universe: One Thousand Poets.

 

Q: How do you combine poetry and fashion in your creative process?

Iftekhar Noor: Fashion and poetry are both forms of expression for me. The recent collection that I’m working on started with the idea of a sculpture that I made four years ago and a poem of mine. The title and the concept are directly taken from that poem. I think my first step in starting to work on a collection is to write, even before sketching or playing around with materials. I write down my thoughts on a piece of paper; they can take the form of poems or essays, and from that core concept, I try to build the fashion world around it.

I find poetry in almost everything, from a grain of rice to the sun itself. Poetry is not limited to words and alphabets in my pieces. The form is the silhouette, and the body becomes the carrier. My pieces are the kind of poems you can wrap around your body.

 

Q: How has your time at IFA Paris influenced the development of One Thousand Poets?

Iftekhar Noor: I had my first year with IFA online from Bangladesh, and I started One Thousand Poets back then too. During that time, I started learning all the digital tools, like Adobe. I had no clue about sewing or pattern making either. As I was learning these new skills, I got the opportunity to present a show in Dhaka and used my mini collection course to develop my first collection, Bezni.

Whatever I was learning, I was putting into practical execution. Since then, a lot of things have changed, and the brand found its direction along the way as we started to unfold multiple projects and chapters. As I learned new skills and tools and gained more experience, the brand evolved with them and gradually found its own language.

 

Q: How do you balance your studies and running your brand?

Iftekhar Noor: The whole bachelor’s journey was very productive for me. As I am at the end of my bachelor’s degree, the last three years have been very valuable as I look back. Everything that I was learning at IFA Paris, I was applying directly to my brand.

In a way, I was experimenting with whatever I was learning by putting it into practice. Most of the assignments that I was doing, I mapped in such a way that they could contribute to One Thousand Poets. I wasn’t doing an assignment just for the sake of doing it. I guess it made my work more serious to me, as it wasn’t only for my grades but was directly influencing my career. Because the brand and my education were moving alongside each other, balancing them felt less like managing two separate things and more like building one long-term project.

 

Q: What advice would you give to other students at IFA Paris who want to start their own creative project?

Iftekhar Noor: Fashion is a very broad term, as I’m coming to realize. There are so many things happening in the industry that I didn’t know before and am now starting to understand. It’s big enough to welcome anyone who is really good at whatever it is they do.

During these learning years, I think one of the most important things is to look for what is sticking with you as you are getting introduced to new courses semester by semester, so that by the end you know what you loved about it and can develop your own language. Not all the courses are going to come in handy for what you want to do, but it’s okay, find the ones that do and truly do. It is important to find out what we can contribute from our side, and the most important part is discovering what we have fun doing.

To start a creative project, the entry point should be good research about what you are interested in. Create honest work, take the step to do it, and stick with it through all the rough phases. Work with people. There are so many creatives around you. Talk about your project and collaborate with those people. The people around you are your biggest assets. Respect and value good work, and find the right people to work with.

Also, talk to your teachers, especially the ones who you feel may understand the concept that you are working on. They are more than happy to give feedback, and sometimes they provide great insights. Share ideas, listen to ideas. Gather as many perspectives as you can and stay in the radar of creative conversations.

And don’t finish the whole project in your mind. Leave some space to fill while you are doing it. You got this.
 

Q: What are your next steps for your brand and your creative journey?

Iftekhar Noor: The next steps for my brand are solidifying our brand structure and working on the three projects that we have planned.

First is launching our website this July. Then we are set to launch our second collection, Our Body Doesn’t Fit Into Our Childhood Anymore. This collection holds a very important place in my heart. It is also the graduation collection that I’m working on. The development of this collection took me more than a year of experiments and failures until I found the right techniques and methods to execute it. The collection explores ideas that have stayed with me for a long time, and bringing it together has been a gradual process of testing, rethinking, and refining.

We are also launching our first publishing project, a zine titled Body & Garment, which explores how the interaction between a garment and the body is not just about presenting oneself to the world, it is also about the intimacy it holds within.

Through Body & Garment, we are trying to bring various creatives together, inviting poets, essayists, photographers, illustrators, and visual artists to explore this dialogue between body and garment, seeing fashion from a philosophical perspective and not just through aesthetic value. We will launch our open call in July, while also reaching out directly to creatives within our network.

And for me personally, I just want to keep interpreting life in my own way, contribute something meaningful, and continue living as a creative.

 

From Classroom to Creative Practice

This interview highlights the development of a student-led creative project within the Fashion Design Bachelor at IFA Paris. Through One Thousand Poets, Iftekhar Noor illustrates how academic learning, experimentation and personal research can come together.

His approach reflects the school’s pedagogical focus on developing both technical skills and individual artistic identity, allowing students to build projects that extend beyond the classroom.

At IFA Paris, students are encouraged to explore their creativity and turn ideas into structured projects, supported by faculty, workshops, and industry exposure.

If you want to develop your own creative universe in fashion design or fashion business, explore our programs and join a school where experimentation and professional development go hand in hand.