Niiamar Felder, costume & fashion designer has been influenced by industry icons including Paul Tazewell, Valentino, Halston and Patrick Kelly. Trail blazers whose work set the standards, often redefining fashion, and costume design. From awe inspiring costumes to fashion’s best dressed list. Driven by a passion for creative expression, he captures the beauty of nostalgic glamour and modern style in his designs.
Media mavens: Sherri Shepherd, Tamara Tunie, LACHI, Loreen Arbus, and Katrina Adams, are some of the celebrated women who have worn his designs on network television, to high-profile red- carpet events and the Academy Awards (Oscars) and the Grammys. His many contributions in costume design and fashion have been featured in Vogue, Essence, Black Enterprise, The New York Times, Ebony, HuffPost, ENews, FASHION BOMB DAILY, Harlem’s Fashion Row, The Black News Channel, & Lifetime Television. He is a recipient of the American Express Passion Project Award and two AUDELCO Award nominations for Excellence in Costume Design.
Niiamar embarked on a transformative and new venture in 2014, while chronicling and producing the fashion short documentary, NIIAMAR…It is What It Is (released in May 2015, on Prime Video), gives an inside look at what it will take to make his mark in the world of fashion. He shares the struggles, drama, and triumphs of creating an awe-inspiring collection.
Off-Broadway production of August Wilson’s, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Reparations (Billie Holiday Theatre) directed by veteran actor and Tony Award nominee, Michele Shay. In addition, principal costume design work for The Billie Holiday Theatre productions of The Old Settler starring Pauletta Washington;(Yellow Man and A Walk into Slavery); Sowa’s Red Gravy (New Federal Theatre) starring Tony Award nominee Lonette Mckee. What The Constitution Means To Me, starring Kate Baldwin (George Street Playhouse). Television/Live Production: 12 Angry Men and Women, starring Wendell C. Pierce and Lisa Arindell directed by India Etwaroo. HitCity-Temptations. Film: An Extraordinary Life (One Outta Twelve). Assistant designer: The Wiz- (US Tour/Broadway), Back to The Future (Broadway) and Ain’t Too Proud, The Life and Times of The Temptations (US Tour).
The designer earned a B.F.A with a concentration in design from Florida A &M University (FAMU). He is founder and design director of NIIAMAR™ his eponymous fashion label, that focuses on women’s ready- to-wear and made-to- measure couture: www.niiamar.com.