Nima Behnoud was born in Tehran, Iran, to Masoud Behnoud and Mina. K. Hatami. His father was a journalist and author; his mother was a painter. He was born during the Iranian Revolution.
Career in USA
In 1994 Nima Behnoud left Iran to San Francisco to study art and design. Soon after his arrival, he began working with several design firms. In the summer of 1996 he started working at Colortone, the design house that produced the Apple Computer campaign, "think different". Soon after he was hired by “Jamison Cawdrey Advertising ” where he experienced the fashion industry firsthand by art directing photo shoots and campaigns for shopping malls in northern California. In 1999 After spending 5 years in San Francisco’s advertising agencies, Nima Behnoud moved to New York City to attend Fashion Institute of Technology. Nima started his career in New York by working as an Art Director for L’Oreal Paris, later Nima joined Nautica’s activewear designer and Tourneau’s creative team creating advertising campaigns and providing design direction.
Start of NIMANY & Education
In 2004 after graduating from FIT a production team was put together and the first series of NIMANY T-shirts were produced. The name NIMANY was created adding New York to his first name to pay homage to the city that inspired his vision. The initial process included hand picking the garments, opening and re-stitching the cuts, dying the colors through a chemical process and silk screening quotes of Persian poets such as Hafez and Rumi. By stacking the graphics on top of each other, new patterns were created that did not state any particular literal message, rather displaying the beauty of Persian typography on a garment. NIMANY was carried by Barneys and Fred Segals and few smaller boutiques nationwide in 2008. During the same time he decided to go back to FIT and this time to study the masters program Global Fashion Management. A program that gave him the artillery to run a brand and manage a supply chain. He attended intense training in Paris at L'Institut Français de la Mode and later on in Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his masters from the program in the spring of 2010. While studying in Paris, he became interested in accessory and jewelry design. Upon his return to New York his brand took a turn from garments and T-shirts into accessories. The collection consisted of evening clutches, belts, silk scarves and fashion jewelry such as; rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings. He designed a ring by stylizing a formation of the letter H in the Persian language that became the popular item for several years and sold over 10,000 pieces and has been copied numerous times by independent jewelers. Today NIMANY is being sold online worldwide and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Heidi Klum, Paris & Nicky Hilton, Jim Carrey, Shiva Safai and Alexandra Richards sport his items. Major publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Maxim, Newsweek and Washington Times have written about NIMANY. In 2015 he was named by Vanity Fair one of the top 10 influential Iranian-American artists in US.
Collaborations
In the spring of 2011 he started the collaboration with Jacob & Co also known as Jacob the Jeweler. He designed and created several campaigns including a campaign with the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. LeBook In 2015 Nima designed a line of jewelry called “NIMA” for Jacob & Co. The pieces that were priced up to $50,000. In 2016 Nima collaborated with Jacob & Co and produced the first Yeezy jewelry collection for Kanye West, pieces were showcased at Yeezy's fall 2016 fashion show in New York.
Studio Art Practice
During the years that NIMANY was forming in New York Nima Behnoud created studio art pieces on canvas and paper, using acrylic paints, silk screens and other media. In 2014 he decided to open the studio doors to selected curators including a curator from Paris who hand picked a selection and put together a solo exhibition at galerie Nicolas Flamel in Paris. Four other solo shows followed in Dubai and New York. His works has been sold at Bonham's Contemporary Middle Eastern Art auction. Many of his accessories collections are inspired from his original Art Works. He uses his collection of Art Works as a reference library for the creation of his future designs. Nima released a collection of Silk Scarves based on series of his paintings in 2014. In 2015 he collaborated with Jacob Arabo again and created a limited edition Art Works inspired by the rarest diamonds and gemstones of the world. The collection of 15 pieces were sold to the private collectors of rare diamonds and gemstones.
Personal life
Currently he lives with his wife in New York City.
