Building Presence: Jozeph Diarbakerli on Power, Heritage, and Fearless Design

For Jozeph and Cintia Diarbakerli, fashion was never background noise. As children in a Syrian Armenian family who emigrated to Canada, they studied magazines as if they were sacred objects, dissecting every silhouette, every aura. Today, that obsession has crystallized into a brand launched in 2024 that is unapologetic in form, sculptural in attitude, and global in its ambitions.

Theirs is a design language rooted in contrasts: heritage and modernity, intimacy and spectacle, vulnerability and strength. Together, the siblings have built a creative partnership that thrives on trust and tension — and a brand that refuses to whisper when it can command.

Author: Your Syrian Armenian heritage and Canadian upbringing sit in tension and harmony. How do you decide when to let tradition lead and when to let modernity cut through?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: Heritage is in our DNA, it’s impossible to ignore. But living in Canada taught us not to be afraid of risk. So when we design, we let both sides live together — one makes the work soulful, the other keeps it sharp.

Author: Your pieces are often described as bold, sculptural, unapologetic. What is the emotion you most want a woman to feel when she enters a room in your design?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: The emotion is intensity. Nothing soft, nothing casual. Everything amplified.

Author: Launching a brand in 2024 is not just about artistry but about infrastructure. What has been the hardest business decision so far — and how did it shape your direction?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: We had to accept that saying no is a business strategy. That decision has shaped our identity as much as any silhouette.

Author: You speak about presence as a philosophy. Do you believe clothes can actually change the way a woman commands space, or do they reveal something already there?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: Clothes don’t invent power, they frame it. The presence is already inside her — we just give it silhouette, sharpness, a stage.

Author: As siblings in business, your creative partnership is rare. What is the greatest strength — and the greatest challenge — of building a brand together?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: Our strength is trust. We don’t second-guess each other’s vision. The challenge is intensity — we’re siblings, so nothing is polite. But that honesty keeps the brand sharp.

Author: If you could rewrite the global narrative of Arab and Armenian fashion in one sentence, what would it say, and how does your work embody that?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: The sentence would be: we are not defined by where we come from, but by the power we project. Our work embodies that projection on every runway.

Author: The industry is full of young brands that burn bright and fade quickly. What must you build now to ensure Jozeph Diarbakerli is not a moment, but a house that endures?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: Wait and see.

Author: When you design, do you begin with architecture of form, or with the emotion you want the garment to carry?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: Our process is emotional before it’s structural. We create the aura first, then we build the body to hold it.

Author: Looking ten years ahead, what do you hope people will say when they hear the name Jozeph Diarbakerli?

Jozeph Diarbakerli: Still unapologetic. Fearless. Pushing boundaries.

Interview by Oona Chanel