MUSICAL FASHION
interviewed by Casey Martin l photos Daniel Hager
Maiah Manser , a Seattle transplant from Bend , OR , has known since the age of 4 that music was her destiny .
She has been featured on RevoltTV ’ s Sounds by the Sound and Nancy Guppy ’ s Art Zone , booked at festivals like Capitol Hill Block Party and Bumbershoot , and has just finished her debut EP , Second Skin , with producer Buddy Ross ( Frank Ocean ). She is the true definition of an artist on her way up . But music isn ’ t the only thing Maiah is passionate about . She is a lover of all types of art , especially fashion , and stresses the importance of unity within the creative world . Maiah is a warmhearted soul , and it was such a pleasure to chat with her .
On your website , it says you knew from a very early age you wanted to sing . When did you decide fashion was a passion as well ? I started singing when I was 4 but that ’ s also when I started drawing and really got into it . It was all from a very early age . I remember that when I was around 8 or 9 , I was trying to draw my own fashion line .
As a child , did you go outside fashion trends or try and fit in ? I was always trying to find something new or go outside of trends because I didn ’ t come from a well-off family . I tried trends , but I couldn ’ t afford them . So I made up my own things and sometimes they were really silly , but I was creative in that way . When I was in middle school , I had these white tennis shoes and I felt like everybody was starting to get into saying acronyms . So I colored them in highlighter yellow and wrote like “ lol ”, “ rofl ” and “ lmao ” on them . I wrote stuff all over those shoes , and I thought it was super cool but maybe it wasn ’ t . I ’ m not quite sure . But yeah , I couldn ’ t quite fit into a mold .
Why did you initially move to Seattle and what made you stay ? I moved to Seattle to attend Cornish College of the Arts . What made me stay was meeting such a massive number of artists of all different kinds in the city . That ’ s the thing that I think can be overlooked . As a musician , I still need help from visual artists , designers and dancers ; we all go together . You grow a community together and it can be a wonderful thing and really help everybody . What do you bring to the Seattle scene and how do you involve
30 l VILLE l FASHION ISSUE