ZAM BARRETT

After graduating high school at age 17, he opened the Zam B. clothing Company doing custom designed clothing for men and women. He began producing collections and showing them on the local fashion scene with Pule International Modelling Agency, who hosted the Smirnoff Jamaica fashion Collections during that time.

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At 23 years old and wanting to be on the Global Fashion scene he closed the Zam B clothing company and enrolled in Fashion school at International Fine Arts College (IFAC) in Miami, Florida. Upon graduation, winning the award of best menswear designer in his graduating class, Zam moved to New York in May of 2001 and began producing his women’s collections with an original debut show slated for September 11th 2001.  The tragedy of September 11th took place and the show never happened.

 

For six years from 2001 to 2007, every season, Zam Barrett produced his womenswear collection that was shown during New York fashion week, Faith Evans and Alicia Keys were some of his early clients, along with Free of the then BET program 106 and Park along with a slew of other women who worked in the arts and entertainment industry.

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In 2005 He was hired by the revered research and design firm Crye Associates, where he became prototype specialist and pattern maker for clothing for the US Army, Navy, Marines and other specialized divisions.

 

Upon leaving Crye Associates, he took a job as a pattern maker for Menswear Company Jon Asche clothing in Brooklyn. The economic collapse of the subprime housing market  led Jon Asche laying off its team and for the first time, Zam became jobless.

It was this set of circumstances that led to the opening of Zam Barrett Dialogue, A BRAND borne out of conversations with friends, customers and continuous research as to what constitutes good fashion, what are the needs of the wearer and how best can they be provided.

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In September of 2010, a collection of 40 garments and accessories was shown during New York fashion week for the spring 2011 season. The show was a success and let to stores in Japan, London and Moscow picking up the brand.

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It was through the encouragement of the buyer of the now closed revered British store Pollyanna and good friend and master artisanal craftsman Geoffrey B Small that Zam decided to begin showing his collections at men’s market in Paris. The brand grew and was sold to seventeen different stores across the globe in London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow, Los Angeles and New York.

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In 2013 he opened Zfactorie Limited, the production arm and e-commerce division of Zam Barrett dialogue where all clothing and accessories for the brand are produced for men and women.

 

In 2021 after celebrating 20 years of Making and producing Collections in the United States and the New York fashion scene. He contemplated closing his company. However, it was then the vision came to him to continue the brand, but to focus on service to others.

 

He began pattern making classes to teach aspiring designers the skills. It led to a demand for sewing classes and the vision came to open a trade school, to teach the skill based aspects of fashion design. This led to the building of Zfactorie Educational and Resource Center, a 1500 square feet evening trade school that now has over 30+ students taking classes in pattern making, sewing, tech pack development and other skill based classes taught at the school.

 

Zam’s work has been featured in numerous magazines such as Vogue, Elle and publications such as Women’s Wear Daily. He had done work for music videos and TV shows such as the STRAIN and other Films.

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He has dressed numerous celebrities such as Will Smith, Ricky Martin, Shawn Periera, Cash Money Millionaires, Marlo Hampton, just to name a few.

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Outside of professional endeavours, Zam is a family man, married, the father of two sons and an ordained minister and assistant Pastor at Bethel Ministries in Christ, located in Queens NY.