Following an international career in Persia and Vienna, Austria, Monir Zandghoreishi (pronounced Mo-Neer Zang-or-eh-shee) moved to Seattle in 1987. As a highly respected and talented couture designer, she specialized in creating gowns for women for their weddings gala events. Later, she became Dean of Fashion for for the International Academy of Design and Technology (Academy - Seattle), which was later renamed Sanford- Brown College. Monir Zandghoreishi’s innate flair for fashion, coupled with bold pragmatism, has always driven her to conquer new frontiers. As of late, she has undertaken a new after- school program with Step-It-Up Camp designed to teach young people to sew.
At first, Step-It-Up Camp was the brain child of her son-in-law Maurice Leary to provide after-school athletics to high risk students. Maurice started out with 16 kids to help them develop their skills and to stay out of trouble. Maurice himself had experienced a hardscrabble past and knew one way to get kids on the right path was by mentoring them and giving them another road map to grow stronger and more resilient every day. He set up his fledgling sports program with two after school sports clubs in basketball and volleyball. Soon he thought it would be great if other programs beyond sports were offered—the kinds of programs that taught kids skills for life. He came to his mother-in-law, Monir Zanghoreishi, whom he had long admired and asked her if she would consider teaching kids how to be fashion designers.
Monir Zandghoreishi knows more than anyone else how learning how to sew is more than just a skill. By embracing the language of sewing, a person could go anywhere in the world and be able to make a living. Monir has a deep understanding what it takes to survive—she had endured her own tumultuous arrival to America. She had lived in Iran during the revolution and the time when the Shah was ousted. She feared for her life and the safety of her family. Iran was at war with Iraq and the city where Monir lived, Teheran, was bombed night and day. Monir escaped the terror of Iran and found asylum in Turkey. Soon afterward she moved to Vienna, where even though she could not speak Austrian, she was able to work as a seamstress to support herself and her three daughters.
Monir’s ability to sew had allowed her to weather the storm of emigration from county to country and provided her with enough money to flourish. She knew that she could teach this important life skill to other young people. As the new Director of the Fashion Club for Step-It-Up Camp, Monir has a mission to teach students the language of sewing so they always have a skill to fall back on, no matter where life takes them. At first Monir’s sewing program was a pilot project with Everett Middle School, but now it is expanding to teach people of all ages how to sew.
Monir, who has had many years of experience, understands that becoming a fashion designer is one thing, but learning how to sew for survival, extra income and profit was quite another. Year after year, she had
Step-It-Up Camp | The Language of Sewing
By Patricia Vaccarino