Her Dress is NOT Too Short!: Spotlight on Maya Ginzburg’s Outrageous Basics

Following a recent presentation at Phassion McGill’s SS26 Runway and an appearance on the debut season of Project Runway Canada, Montreal-based designer Maya Ginzburg’s success speaks for itself. Her pieces turn classic silhouettes into “outrageous basics”-- unique garments that catch the eye without surrendering practicality. 

Maya Ginzburg has always been drawn to individual creation. In her childhood, making things served as a form of creative coping–a way of soothing herself when she felt out of place among her peers at school. Making things was always something she did for herself, until university, where this creative coping was met with creative solidarity.

“I first started becoming a part of all these creative clubs and extracurriculars, meeting people who were often not doing a creative degree and going through similar emotions as myself and finding a common way to express that.”

After joining these clubs, meeting like-minded creatives, and starting to design for events like the Vogue Charity Fashion Show, Ginzburg realized that making clothes was something she could also do for others, not just herself. However, her journey as a designer wasn’t linear; in fact, up until graduation she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to fully commit to design or seek work in editorial and creative direction. 

It seems that design picked Maya, who, after applying to numerous creative assistant roles, landed a fashion design internship. She cites landing this internship as the turning point in her success as a fashion designer:

“When I got that first job, that said to me: everything that you’ve learned by yourself off of YouTube, through practice and experimentation, was good enough to get you a real world job. It led to me moving to Montreal. It led to every other opportunity I continued to have over the next several years. It led to the point where I felt confident enough to launch my own band, risk it and end up getting selected to compete on Project Runway.”

Ginzburg creates clothes that speak for themselves but don’t beg to be noticed. Her pieces are like colorful doors that catch your eye on the street–they function the same way as others, but for some reason these particular ones make you stop, look, and remember. 

“I hope that people can’t tell what they’re noticing. Almost like they’re being drawn to look at this thing over and over but it's not outrageously over the top. It’s not necessarily bright or colorful or eye-catching in some obvious way, but they can’t stop looking at it. That’s my dream: that I make things that catch your eye the same way as a beautiful door on a house that you’re walking past on the street.”

Maya Ginzburg coined the term “outrageous basics” to describe her creations in a moment of uncertainty regarding the direction and reception of her work. She voiced her worries to a friend, asking her how she would describe her work and how she could prove to herself that people other than her loved ones would want to buy it.  The reply, “outrageous basics,” stuck. 

“I love to make clothes that are basic in their purpose. Pants are pants, shirts are shirts, clothes are clothes, and there’s an amount you can stretch that or push it before it becomes impractical. At the end of the day, we wear clothes ninety-five percent of the time with a practical need.”

Basic doesn’t mean that her designs lack imagination; Ginzburg finds joy in adding detail to classic silhouettes, incorporating elements like contrast stitching or buttons to set her garments apart. 

“I always want my clothes to be practical, to be worn by real people, but also to be outrageous and to be fun. That’s where the name comes from: clothes that are still super wearable, easily styled, can be dressed up or down. That’s what makes something a “basic” in your closet that you can wear in so many different ways, but even on its own, it shines.”

Many of Ginzburg’s ideas come from outside of the fashion world, where she draws inspiration from daily life. She takes in the special things she notices around her and documents them for when she eventually begins a new project. 

“I don’t like to copy others. It’s part of life, it's part of art, but at the same time I’d rather not do it intentionally. I love to be inspired by the world around me, be it architecture or nature or animals, and culture is a big part of human nature”

When no one’s watching, Maya Ginzburg likes to step away from designing clothes, immersing herself in other mediums of art and culture like pottery, painting, or carpentry.

“I love woodworking,” said Ginzburg, “I took wood shop in high school and it was my favorite class”

By taking the time to engage with artistic projects that she doesn’t always have the physical studio space to work with, Ginzburg allows herself the creative freedom to reset her medium and reinspire herself. 

I had the opportunity to shoot with Maya Ginzburg, showcasing one of her SS26 looks. Military references in the jacket embody the fight against social constraints, and the strong spine and veiled snap-back say: I can choose when, where, and what I reveal, while some remains secret. The graphic text on the mini dress alludes to the client challenge on Project Runway Canada, where: 

“At the last second, I adjusted the length of the straps on a mini dress just a bit too much. The dress became a micro mini…but it kind of worked! The model rocked it and I think of the moment as a reminder that mistakes happen, sometimes you have to just go with it. The length might have been controversial, but it also made me question why? What is so wrong with a girl wearing a short dress? I’m all about balancing revealing some things and keeping others a mystery; it keeps fashion fun and there shouldn’t be any rules. You can make any look work by adding a bit of counterweight! Beyond the styling, it’s a statement: my dress is NOT too short.”