Interviewed by ShaKayla Eaddy

We sat down to chat with fashion designer, Zarah Spencer, creator of STARFISH MRKT. She reigns from Chicago, now making her mark in New York. She has built STARFISH MRKT from the ground up, from sold out drops to a collaboration with Jordan showcased during NYFW. With an education from both Howard University and Parsons and an unmatched talent that the fashion industry needs, she will go so far and she’s just getting started!

Q: Tell us about yourself, who is Zarah Spencer??

Originally from Chicago, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Science from Howard University and recently earned a master’s degree at Parsons. She created STARFISH MRKT two years ago. She is a lover of art, travel and is very curious about life. Her creativity relies on her curiosity.

Q: When did you discover that you were interested in fashion

Although she got her undergraduate degree in health science, she’s always had a love for fashion. From cutting up and bleaching her clothes as a kid to polishing her nails every Sunday starting in fifth grade to match her outfit for the following Monday, she’s been a fashion girl. She recently chose to start sharing her passion for fashion with others.

She has worked as a personal stylist for celebrities and athletes, she’s worked on the branding side of fashion, in retail and more. She has skin in the game when it comes to working in different avenues in the fashion industry and they’ve finally come together to help her get to where she is now.

Q: How would you describe your personal style?

Very eclectic. She states that she doesn’t have one specific way she likes to look. She values being comfortable, but how she showcases that varies day to day. Some days, she’s super done up and tailored, while other days her comfort is a pair of cool sweats, platform boots or sneakers.

She describes her style as lying right in the middle of being a super feminine girly girl and being a tomboy, with her style incorporating elements of both. There’s a lot of things from both masculine and feminine style that she likes to incorporate, which is what drives her when shopping and getting dressed.

Q: Who has inspired your style and career?

Her grandmother taught her how to sew when she was 16. The first garment she ever made was a pair of high-waisted wide leg pants, which were very trendy at the time, along with a matching top. She doesn’t love to sew, so she was a bit turned off from it initially. However, the more exposure you have to something the more you’re pulled in.

She expresses how there’s so many ways and entry points into the fashion industry. On a birthday trip one year, she decided to make a dress out of football jerseys and posted it on TikTok as a fit check. Everyone kept asking her where it was from. This was during a period of her life where she wasn’t really happy with what she was doing and was ready to take a risk. So, she made a few dresses and sold them. Every time she restocked, they sold out. She wanted to give what she was doing a name to make things more structured, but at that time she didn’t imagine it turning into the full fledged brand that STARFISH MRKT is now. She used to rework and sell tshirts in school and embellish pieces for people, so time and circumstance is what brought her to where she is now. It was always in her.

Q: When did you start STARFISH MRKT and what inspired your brand

Her brand started with simply making something she loved two years ago and posting it, and she continues to keep that as the main driver of her brand. The coolest part about STARFISH MRKT, for her, is that she genuinely makes things she likes.

Although this is a business, it’s very rarely about the saleability of an item. She makes things that she likes, and that has allowed her to build a community in the most authentic way possible. Her pieces land for who it lands for. She is not selling or pitching to people that don’t get it. With everything that she’s made, she feels that she has gotten better and continues to challenge herself, improving from one piece to the next.

Q: Which piece did you design for STARFISH MRKT that made you feel like you were on the right path with your brand?

Everything that she’s made over the last two years is very different, so it’s hard to choose one particular piece. After releasing the jersey dresses, she released distressed denim shorts that she reworked by hand. She feels that those two pieces were great affirming moments for her brand.

Starting with those two pieces and building an amazing audience, with people wanting to buy her designs and asking about new releases after pieces sold out, was validating. Although she didn’t have any formal fashion design training and was working with a seamstress from home, these moments affirmed her and made her feel great for working with what she had. They allowed her to see what she could create if she went all in.

After working in different positions throughout the fashion industry and being around so many different cool people and cool brands, she understood that there needed to be intentionality behind what she was doing, which was something she was nervous about. She didn’t want to make mini dresses and bodysuits, and she was curious about how things would work and who would take to it.

She states that STARFISH MRKT’s first two products were pieces she reworked and sourced herself, sourcing every jersey and pair of Levi’s. Seeing those pieces do well made her want to see where it could go. She wanted to inspire others and show them that all you have to do is do you. For her, it’s not a money grab, she genuinely enjoys creating and discovering cool things. At the time, she couldn’t afford the things she wanted, so she made them herself. The things she could afford were often cheaply made and didn’t align with her style. She’s always looking for something new, cool and different yet still practical. She enjoys juxtaposition, which is reflected in her brand and personal style. STARFISH MRKT is authentic.

Q: We love your maxi skirts, but what’s one of your favorite pieces that you’ve created?

The camo maxi skirt is a really major moment for her. She explains that it encapsulates her personal style: grunge, edge, streetwear and a little couture. She loves to see how people style the skirts.

She feels like the girls aren’t wearing skirts anymore. Although she personally loves baggy pants, she feels like there’s no in between, it’s either streetwear or super formalwear. She wants STARFISH MRKT to be that in between, she feels that the camo maxi is exactly that.

Even when shopping for herself, she likes to be challenged. She enjoys finding something she likes and feeling challenged on how she should style it and play with it. Those are the kind of pieces she strives to create.

She believes a good creative piece leaves room for the consumer to also be creative. If you purchase a piece and have to style it exactly how it was advertised, then it’s not a good pieces.

Q: Who would you love to see your pieces on?

Although she doesn’t plan to bring the jersey dresses back, she feels that seeing Rihanna, who is such a jersey girl, in the jersey dress or anything STARFISH MRKT would make her entire world.

She recently saw a girl wearing the Dune skirt in New York and told her she loved her skirt. Experiences like that are still so surreal for her. Her friends and family are always sending her pictures of people wearing her pieces, and to her, that’s cooler than seeing a celebrity in them.

Once she makes something and releases it, she usually doesn’t have any expectations for it. She likes it, she made it, and chooses to share it with all of us, hoping we like it too. But, she doesn’t expect for people to take pictures and post them. To see people posting in her pieces, it makes her happy to see that people genuinely liked what she created, took a picture and tagged, it’s a super cool experience and she’s super grateful.

Q: Tell us about your recent collaboration with Jordan? How did that come about?

The campaign, called Heritage Reimaged Fleece, featured a variety of reworked fleece Jordan pieces. The goal was to showcase the different things you could do with fleece. Jordan, selected several designers from different cities to reimagine these fleece products. Zarah received a variety of sweatsuits, hoodies, and more, in different colors. She was given the creative freedom to rework these pieces into six new looks.

She describes the opportunity and the experience as surreal because Jordan is her favorite brand. She loves sneakers, growing up she was the girl that would wear sneakers with her skirts. This opportunity aligns with who she has always been, and she used that as her inspiration for the pieces she created for the collection.

To celebrate and showcase the collection, Jordan gave Zarah a solo exhibition at Nike Headquarters in New York, to close out New York Fashion Week. It was a special night surrounded by her family and friends, showcasing her designs.

Another part of her collaboration with Jordan was a mentorship day, three students from her alma mater, Howard University, were selected. This included two current seniors and one recent graduate. They were given the opportunity to design pieces that will be showcased alongside Zarah’s pieces during the Jordan segment of Howard’s homecoming fashion show.

Zarah reflects on attending Howard’s homecoming the previous year and repeatedly saying that she wouldn’t return until she had something major to contribute to the experience. She describes the opportunity with Jordan as being a full circle moment, especially because she walked in the Howard Fashion Show during her junior year.

She states that the entire experience with the Jordan team has felt full circle. She has been extremely excited, and although it feels surreal, it also doesn’t feel far fetched. The opportunity makes sense to her, and it feels right.

She’s excited to be going back to Howard with Jordan and plans to host her first solo STARFISH MRKT pop up during homecoming.

Q: What made you decide to move to New York and attend Parsons for your master’s degree?

She always wanted to move to New York City. She loves Chicago and considers it the best city, but she feels that there isn’t enough creative infrastructure there for her at the moment. She felt that she was connected to everyone she could be within Chicago’s fashion scene. She grew up in the art world due to her grandparents. Although she continues to make great connections and recognizes the resources available in Chicago, she felt like she had exhausted all of her avenues in Chicago.

She attended Howard University knowing she eventually wanted to move to New York, but she didn’t know what for. Since New York is an expensive city to just move to without a plan, she stayed in DC, for a couple of years after graduating. She eventually moved back home, even though it wasn’t what she wanted at the time. Looking back, she’s glad she did because she feels that God knew she needed that experience.

She feels that moving back home is where she got some of her best experiences. She ended up working with Joe Fresh Goods for a while, who has turned into a mentor for her. He has become someone she can call when she’s unsure or needs advice on how to navigate different aspects of the industry. She realizes she wouldn’t have gotten that if she didn’t move back home. She feels that she moved back home and laid the foundation for where she is now.

One random Monday, she started thinking about going back to school, and by Friday, she had applied to Parsons. There was no downtime. She knew she was ready to move and decided to go to fashion school, but it wasn’t a formal plan or thought process. She figured she would apply and decide what to do next if she got accepted.

Around that time she had her biggest release of her Tyrant shorts, she used the majority of the money she made to move to New York. Those moments are what has fueled her time in New York City over the past year. She expresses how easy it is to get caught up in trying to align every step of your journey. While you shouldn’t be too impulsive, she believes you have to decide that you want to do something and just do it. You might be able to define the first two steps, but you have to move and take action. Her first year in New York has proven to her that success likes action.

She likes to describe herself as Type C. She can be Type A about certain things, but she has an impulsive spontaneous streak that fuels her fire. If she didn’t have that she doesn’t know how she would get things done. Although it can become a little chaotic, which is something she’s working on, she believes it’s something about the spontaneity that leads you from one thing to the next.

Q: What’s your favorite place to shop in New York and Chicago?

She used to enjoy shopping in person, but now she prefers to shop online. She says it’s too chaotic and no longer a fun experience when there’s too many people in the store. But, in Chicago, she would say that SVRN was her favorite boutique when they sold women’s clothing. They had a cool selection and she loves to discover new pieces and brands when she shops.

When it comes to online shopping, she’s been very deep into her secondhand bag shopping, she loves Vestiaire Collective, instead of doomscrolling she scrolls on there instead. There’s a multi brand store she loves called, APOC, that carries independent designers.

Although she doesn’t go out of her way to avoid buying things that she loves because other people have it, she loves to buy things that she’s never seen before.

Q: If we sat down for this interview again three years from now, what would you hope has changed in your career?

She hopes to have a solid team and a big beautiful studio. She also hopes to have used her gifts to create opportunities for other people. She wants STARFISH MRKT to be really big and believes that in three years, her brand will be very notable and recognizable.

One of her biggest goals is to build a team so she can delegate responsibilities and focus primarily on the creative side of the business. However, she acknowledges that this may be difficult because she likes to have her hands in everything.

She would love to establish a larger presence in other major cities and host an international pop-up in London or Paris. She also hopes to put on a show during fashion week and create unique experiences for people. She feels that a lot of the cool stuff is hard to get into, she would love to create a cool and creative third space for people in some capacity.

Another goal is to create something for kids. She reflects on how differently she would’ve approached choosing her college major for undergrad if she had known there were so many different ways you could work in fashion and art. She explains how there’s so many little pockets in this industry, people have the coolest jobs that you would never hear about, there’s so many ways to be close to something you enjoy without being the craftsman.

She wants children to understand that you don’t have to be the fashion designer to be involved in fashion and you don’t have to be the painter to be involved in art. She wants to figure out how to create something to show kids all of the cool ways you can be involved in these industries. She would, of course, start in Chicago because she wishes she would have been exposed to these different opportunities when she was younger.

People are even joining companies and creating their own jobs. Kids need to know that these possibilities exist.