Meet Making the Cut Winner Yannik Zamboni.

Yannik discusses sustainable fashion and how his life has changed since the show.

Interview by Emma Golley 10/20/2022

If you haven’t watched Season 3 of Making the Cut on Amazon Prime Video yet, *spoiler alert* Yannik Zamboni was the winner!

The Swiss designer stood out for his non-binary, sustainable designs in white hues which remained a firm favorite with the judges on and off throughout the show. If you’re new to Making the Cut, the competitive fashion reality show gives designers from across the globe the opportunity to sell their winning designs on Amazon as they compete each episode to stay in the competition.

The winning prize of $1million dollars to invest in their label and a brand partnership with Amazon is certainly appealing for many designers looking to take their brand to the next level. The show is hosted by Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum (previous hosts of Project Runway) and their fellow judges Nicole Richie (Founder of House of Harlow 1960) and American Fashion Designer Jeremy Scott (Creative Director, Moschino).

Not only was Yannik a fan favorite for his designs, his sense of humor and sensitivity shone throughout the show which made him even more endearing. Since winning the show, Yannik has released his first collection with Amazon: Rare/Self, a genderless, size inclusive range, as well as continuing with his own label Maison Blanche. He also recently debuted Maison Blanche’s SS23 collection in his very first New York fashion week show.

Yannik kindly took the time to chat to me about his journey in fashion before and after the show (while on a well earned vacation with his family).

You can listen to our full conversation via the Fashion and the Free Podcast, out Friday.

E: Yannik, how are you doing? I imagine it's been a crazy ride for you from winning Making the Cut to then having a SS23 runway show at New York Fashion Week!

Y: I’m doing great! I was super stressed, very exhausted and tired. So I said to myself, I really need a break. I told all my business partners to give me one week to recharge my batteries. I love what I'm doing and I want to be happy doing it without feeling pressured to have to do it. So give me one week with my family and I will be fine.

E: It sounds like you are taking care of yourself, which is really important…

Y: Yeah, sometimes you need to. The world's still rolling, so, you know, I'm not gonna miss out or anything.

E: How has your life changed since you won the show?

Y: Wow. It changed a lot. Like seriously. I was born and raised in a village in the countryside. From there, there was a lot of work in between from then till now. People say ‘ah you became a millionaire overnight’. No, I'm 36, l have worked my whole life. It didn't come overnight, you know. But my life changed, obviously. From going to my studio from my everyday base to going to New York City at the Media Fashion Awards, handing over an award to Heidi Klum and going to Heidi Klum’s Halloween party in the New York scene. It's insane. So, yeah, a lot changed.

E: Oh, I can imagine. And are you still in contact with any of your fellow contestants?

Y: Well we have a group chat, so we have been writing to each other almost every day since the show. We spent so much time together and were cut off from the outside world in our own bubble. So you grow together very fast. We became a family very fast. So now we're trying to do a popup store altogether somewhere in New York and we text each other every day. We are still here for each other.

E: I think especially in fashion, sometimes it can feel quite a lonely place and when you have a group like that it must be pretty amazing to feel like you've got this instant support network that's guiding you through.

What was the process for appearing on Making the Cut? Did you have to apply, did you go through any rounds before making the show? 

Y: The casting process was around seven weeks. I got a message on Instagram and I actually deleted it cause I was like, who/what was that? I don't know. Then I got the same message, but from the casting agency, not from an agent. So I checked out the agency, as I did not know the show to be honest. I checked out the show and then I saw Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. I watched it on YouTube and saw the winner gets $1 million. So I was like, okay, why not try it? 

Then I saw on the (application) date that I had just 24 hours left to apply. I went through all the things they wanted me to do to hand in the application. I was like, oh my God, I can never do that in one day. But somehow I did.

“I flew to LA and I was like, oh my fucking God, I'm in the show and I have to start right now!”

E: Wow. So you literally did it right at the last minute. And then you ended up being the winner!

Was there anything that followed or was it pretty much ‘Hey, okay great, we're flying you over’?

Y: We had Zoom calls with stylists with the program, with the production, with like a lot of people. And then after seven weeks they told me, you're now in the top 50. Now production is going to decide which kind of group they wanna put together for the show. 

There was like one and a half weeks more of waiting and then they called and said  ‘Congratulations, you're in the show and you're gonna get your first assignment’. Then I flew to LA and I was like, oh my fucking God, I'm in the show and I have to start right now!

E: That's quite a lot of pressure! At the end of the show we saw you winning the sizable prize money, as well as the opportunity to sell your collection on Amazon - which is a huge deal. How has it been working with Amazon so far?

Y: Working with Amazon is really great. I have two lines. I have my own line Maison Blanche. Which I can do whatever I want with. The good thing is Amazon is so big. So if I have questions like where to get materials and which is the best production, I can ask them and there is always someone who knows the answer. Something I really appreciate as I don’t have as much as 20 years in the business. I don't know everything. I'm trying to work as sustainable as possible, they respect that and they try to figure out with me what we can do to develop my brand and the co-brand, Rare/Self . We develop that together.

E: Prior to appearing on Making the Cut, you'd already launched your brand Maison Blanche in 2020. I would love to know a little bit more about your journey in fashion prior to being on the show and how you started your brand.

Y: I was working for a health insurance company and I was modeling for several years because I felt like I was not made for working in an office. Modeling gave me the opportunity to travel the world to see a lot. At the end of the day, I knew I was making enough money to survive, but I wasn't making enough money.

I went back to Switzerland, started my education in marketing and after that I got the opportunity to work for Proctor and Gamble. I really loved the job, but I was surrounded by so many creative people and I had the least creative job.

It started to bother me so much because I always wanted to be creative. So I quit my job, did fashion education and after that I did my Bachelor of Arts in Fashion. Sadly I graduated in March 2020 prior to the Corona lockdown. So it was like, okay, now I have a Bachelor of Arts, which is already difficult to find a job and to earn money with and now there is Corona. I couldn’t go abroad, I couldn’t apply anywhere because the borders were closed. So I was thinking for several months, what am I going to do now with my bachelor?

So I was like, perhaps this is a sign to develop my own brand. I slowly started to develop my own brand and I did custom made pieces, which in the beginning was very good. But after one and a half years in, people were scared of spending money. A lot of people lost their jobs. There was not a lot of money around. So it got tighter and tighter. My savings got less and less. I was on a point like, I need to go into industrial production. But I never had the money to go into industrial production. I knew for myself I needed to change something. And then the casting agency asked me to apply for Making the Cut and I was like, wow, why not?

E: It was a sign! So when you recently showed your collection at New York Fashion week, was that your first show?

Y: I had my very first show, my graduate show for school and then I had my final collection show for Making the Cut. But besides school and Making the Cut, this was my very first own show. And it was at New York Fashion Week.

“I really strongly believe that gender has never been binary. I don't want to create something for male or females because there is much more in between.”

E: Wow. I think stories like yours are just so rare and extremely special. You must be feeling amazing about all of this…

Y: I'm sometimes still very overwhelmed but yeah, I appreciate it a lot and I'm looking forward to what the future brings.

E: With Maison Blanche, it's clear you have a very unique vision. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the brand actually stands for and the political views that you strive to communicate through those collections?

Y: I have a lot of pillars, which are very important. We can start with sustainability. Sustainability for me as well has four pillars. There is the economical view then there is an ecological view. There is an ethical moral view and there is a social political view. If you have all four pillars you can be sustainable. You can't do something which is good for the environment, but is bad for humans. You know, like it has to fit together. You have to respect all four pillars. And I really strongly believe that gender has never been binary. I don't want to create something for male or females because there is much more in between. So I don't wanna exclude anyone. So for me it's always very important to actually use my platform to include transsexual people, intersex people and everyone in between. To create for humans and not for one gender or another gender because there is so much in between.

E: That's really amazing to think of it as a whole like that. There's a lot of sustainable brands out there that just think about it in terms of the fabrications they're using and the waste, whereas it sounds like you're really encompassing the full scope of what that means…

Y: And I think some people like you and I perhaps think that's amazing, but that was actually my real struggle in the beginning because when I was applying for funding, they were always like: “you have so much going on, why don't you concentrate on something?” There is so much we can change and have to change. I don't want to concentrate on one thing. In fashion you have a platform and I do conceptual fashion. The concepts are always based on social political issues. For a lot of people, especially the ones with fundings, they were like, Okay, no, that's too much for us. We can’t handle that. I'm not going to compromise on those principles. I need to be true to myself. At the end of the day, if I am true to myself people are going to feel that.

E: One of the reasons you stood out to me on Making The Cut was because I don't feel like sustainability has been talked about as much on the show until you were on it this season. How easy or difficult has it been for you to implement sustainable practices in the collection?

Y: To be honest, I was researching for almost two years, from after graduating till I came to the show. And the thing I did most was research because if you want to be sustainable you know, to make a change, you need knowledge.I think the most important thing if you want to change something is that you really are interested in it.

“Don't listen to the voices outside, believe in yourself and do something to make your dream reality.”

E: One hundred percent, it's definitely not black and white in that area. 

There are a lot of people who watched you on the show who are starting their own fashion brand or perhaps they’re students who are just entering into the fashion world. Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for them at all?

Y: Well, I think it's very very important to believe in yourself. Don't listen to the voices outside, believe in yourself and do something to make your dream reality. A lot of people say dreams come true. Yeah, dreams can come true, but you have to do something. You have to do something to make your dreams come true.

E: So lastly, I'd love to know what's next for you and Maison Blanche?

Y: I have some projects coming up. I'm doing a perfume line, which is obviously an all gender inclusive perfume line. And I'm really working now on my high end brand. I really want to do something very Swiss made. Most probably Cradle to Cradle like a product that you can biodegrade in your garden or a zero waste product. 

And then I have two or three other projects coming. Thanks to Making the Cut and the public who are interested in me, I’ve got opportunities to have some great other things to do.

Take a look at Yannik’s latest collections for Amazon Rare/Self and Maison Blanche

You can view his New York Fashion week runway show on his IG

Making the Cut Series 3 is available to view on Amazon Prime Video

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