Mazdack rassi biography channel
Mazdack Rassi on How Milk Studios Fostered a Community of Creatives
“I want to tell you a story about how creativity can build a business and how a business can become a movement,” began Mazdack Rassi, cofounder of Milk Studios.
After a brief background on his family — they left Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution and relocated to Champaign, Ill. — Rassi shared how he rebelled against his parents’ expectations and eventually exceeded them by building a business — or as he’d put it, starting a movement.
Much to the dismay of his parents, Rassi dropped out of college after his freshman year and moved to New York with a $500 loan from his mother. He slept on his friend’s couch in Brooklyn, subsisting on ramen noodles, and at 24, took a job renting apartments. Through this job, he met his future Milk partners. They had just purchased “a dilapidated building in the Meatpacking district,” and Rassi had convinced them to open a photography studio there.
“My vision was to create the first luxury photography studio,” he said. “There were just two problems: one, I knew nothing about photography and two, I had no idea of the concept of luxury. But I had a belief that creatives would respond to an architecturally beautiful space with high-end services like a great hotel. We built it, they came and they never left.”
Milk Studios officially opened in 1996 and became a “creative playground with integrity and purpose.” To build their contact base, Rassi and his partners reached out not to famous photographers, but to their assistants, inviting them to hang out, party and create. They became tastemakers, indicators of what is and is not considered cool, the ultimate focus group.
“I was speaking at a conference where ceo’s and cmo’s were talking about using big consulting firms to identify trends,” said Rassi. “It’s crazy to believe tha
Zanna Roberts Rassi
British journalist
Zanna Roberts Rassi is a British born, New York-based fashion, beauty and entertainment journalist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of Milk Makeup and currently the Fashion-Editor-at-Large for Marie Claire, E! News fashion correspondent, Today Show fashion contributor, and consults for the American retail chain Target as a fashion stylist, along with brands such as Adidas and Victoria's Secret.
Career
Rassi interviews A-list celebs and is part of the E! Live from the Red Carpet team covering the Met Gala,Oscars,Golden Globes,E! People's Choice Awards and Emmy Awards. She also hosts E! News coverage twice a year throughout NYFW. In her role as a contributor on the Today Show, Roberts Rassi hosts style segments, red carpet recaps, and also travelled to cover the 2018 Royal Wedding.
Her on-camera presence has made her a sought-after mentor, judge, stylist, and host on such properties as Project Runway All Stars, Glam Masters, E!’s Just 1 Thing, and her mini-series, Commuter Beauty.
Rassi co-founded the cosmetics company Milk Makeup in 2016 with her husband Mazdack Rassi, Dianna Ruth and Georgie Greville. The brand is cruelty-free, paraben-free and 100% vegan. Styled as clean, cool beauty the brand has won multiple awards including Allures Best of Beauty and Teen VogueBeauty Game Changers.
Personal life
Rassi lives in New York City with her husband Mazdack Rassi, and together they have twin girls Rumi and Juno. Mazdack Rassi talks fast. A short question gets returned a thousandfold with a mile-a-second stream of expansive, inclusive, wandering, and wise talk punctuated by self-effacing chuckles and salted by a faded Iranian accent. We heard he only had a few minutes to chat — running all the various ventures connected with his multimedia beehive, Milk Studios, doesn't give him a lot of spare time. But Rassi — everyone calls him by his last name, like Morrissey — is dumping whole pages of material in our laps, and we're not about to stop him. "I never look back, and maybe that’s my problem," he says. "I’m always looking forward. Like, I can’t even remember last year, because we do so much and I’m always looking forward." We believe him — it seems there's always a next-big-thing for Rassi. A college dropout (by his own proud admission) from suburban Illinois, Rassi landed in New York and traded working odd fashion jobs, waiting tables, and a stint at the Gap for real-estate sales. That, in turn, led to buying the Meatpacking District space that would become Milk Studios, which would become the shooting spot of choice for Manhattan-based, high-end fashion photographers. "If we didn’t do a studio, we would have probably opened a hotel," he says. "I think it was being a waiter when I was younger or the Middle Eastern thing in me. Hospitality, taking care of people — that’s always been crucial." Before we can take that in, he's rolling with his next thought. "It’s just, I never wanted to be a ‘space for rent.' I think it’s a horrible concept. I wanted to be part of making the ideas. Anyone can give a service, but very few people can be part of making the ideas." Mission accomplished. Over the last decade, Milk has gone from being a production and events space for hire to a full-service creative .