CJ Aslan Likes to Create Worlds

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN OUR SPRING 2024 PRINT ISSUE WITH LAYOUT DESIGN BY SHARLENE DENG

INTERVIEW BY SAHIR AHMED + PHOTOGRAPHY BY CJ ASLAN

I met CJ Aslan unexpectedly, in passing at a magazine’s fashion week party on the second floor of the Bowery Hotel. Waiting for a friend to use the bathroom, I went outside to bum a cigarette and there she was — said cigarette in hand — sitting on a bench. We broke the ice with the typical New York just isn’t the same and fashion week just isn’t that fun and how we even ended up there (it’s what we ‘do’). I told her that I like to tell stories. She told me that she “likes to create worlds.” By that time my friend had returned from the bathroom, so CJ and I bid the typical farewell — exchanging phone numbers and “text me, let’s hang out.”

I ran into her again in LA a month later at the Fonda. She’d been busy since I had last seen her: working on the shoes for London-based fashion designer Luis De Javier’s Los Angeles fashion week debut, and launching her FW23 collection at H.Lorenzo.

ASLAN World first gained notoriety for its maximalist chain mail gloves. The brand also makes pierced chain mail bags, a chain mail tie, a pierced camo hat, hair clip rings, and the spiny TEETH FLATS. She often teams up with musicians: a 14k gold mask for Future, a custom glove for Maluma, and rings for Kali Uchis are just a few of her notable projects. ASLAN is CJ’s imagination made tangible, a designhead pastiche of references ranging from her “tomboyish” upbringing adrenaline chasing in all its forms — from chopping down trees and axing them clean to skiing, surfing and anything having to do with cars — to the music she listens to and the sensorial experiences she’s had.

Sometimes she’s chasing a feeling, but she’s always creating a world.

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