ArdAzAei was founded by the Swedish-Iranian artistic director Bahareh Ardakani and her partner in Stockholm in 2018, and made its debut at Paris Haute Couture Week in 2022, establishing its atelier in Paris shortly after. The design philosophy of the maison is informed by an encounter with the sublime during Ardakani’s studies in gemology; the revelation that a gem’s outer radiance is a reflection of the eternal time that is gathered in its interior. ArdAzAei applies this way of seeing to high fashion so that every piece has two sides: its inner world, and its outer appearance. It is through the attention paid to an outfit’s inner world that its outer radiance is revealed.