When Jenn Park, who oversees design and development at Maryam Nassir Zadeh, can’t be found at the burgeoning brand’s Lower East Side headquarters, the 37-year-old is most likely holed up at a midtown Manhattan library. “I love walking through the stacks, digging through old books and magazines, and scanning images for hours upon hours,” says Park, who often shares her quietly striking findings—a Hermès clochette from 2001, say, or a zoomed-in shot of a pair of strappy sandals photographed for a Vogue 1978 issue—with the 47,000-plus style enthusiasts who follow her archival Instagram account, @sculpting__in__time. “A neckline, the way the hair is falling, or how the light is hitting something in a certain way…” she muses, “all of these things are important to me.”
Though it now seems only natural that the self-described workaholic would have a career tied to clothing, Park—who grew in California’s San Fernando Valley sifting through vintage stores with her mom and “hippie aunt,” tearing out Prada and Marc Jacobs ads from magazines, and recording episodes of Fashion File with Tim Blanks on VHS—found her way to fashion in a roundabout way: “I took a film class and it’s like my whole world shifted,” she recalls. “It turns out I was a terrible photographer, but I think I knew at that moment that what I wanted to do, and what I was obsessed with, was storytelling.”
Fast forward to 2012, and the then-20-something began working in Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s Norfolk Street boutique. “I felt an immediate connection and was blown away by [the label’s] magic and beauty,” says Park. “I knew I wanted to be a part of it.” Nassir Zadeh felt similarly. Three years later, around the same time Park posted her first image to @sculpting__in__time, Nassir Zadeh asked Park to help out with research and concept direction—a role that eventually transitioned into a full-time position.
