Mustafa Ahmed may have moved to the U.S. when he was 12 years old, but he’s never forgotten his Pakistani roots.
That’s why he created Tone Deaf in 2024, a collection the 25-year-old describes as “a deeply personal, slow-built brand where artisanal craft meets obsessive design.”
What that translates into is a line that blends traditional Pakistani craftsmanship techniques with a New York City-based streetwear sensibility.
Until now Tone Deaf has sold only online, but Ahmed has opened his first store on Orchard Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
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“The premise is to reconcile the ruptures in my life when I moved to New York City,” he said, adding that the relocation to the States caused him to lose his identity and “shed a lot” of what formed him growing up in Pakistan. He said he completely eschewed his heritage and embraced becoming American, attending the Fieldston School arts school in the Bronx, N.Y., followed by Duke University.
But during the pandemic, he started to feel homesick and returned to Pakistan for the first time. “I felt like a foreigner,” he said. But he spent 13 months traveling around the country searching for artisans and listening to their stories.
It was then that he launched Tone Deaf, which he named after his stint as a music producer. “It’s not a traditional Pakistani-American brand,” he said. “But a new way of looking at Pakistani craft through a New York City lens.”
The unisex collection is centered around sustainable denim, hand-beaded embroidery and Ajrakh block printing. The fall collection, called “Flowers for Fall,” features denim that has been washed, dyed, abraded and tinted by hand. The block printed offering, which includes corduroy jackets and pants, takes 20 days to create as the fabric is fermented in castor oil and tree bark, dried, printed and dyed twice. Button-down shirts and jackets are hand beaded in a process that takes 48 hours.
But considering the workmanship, the prices are not in the stratosphere. The corduroy jacket retails for $385, the beaded shirt is $355 and a jacket is $595. The Mirage jean, which uses a 15-stop, hand-painted dye treatment that results in a peach-fuzz-like surface, is $295.
Ahmed is able to keep prices reasonable because he sells direct-to-consumer rather than through wholesale channels, he said.
Like the collection, the store is a nod to his roots with its hand-stained glass from Pakistan and references to Mughal architecture. It was designed by Maurizio Bianchi Mattioli, founding principal of Studio MBM, who said: “The design of 59 Orchard Street creates a deliberate dialogue between Tone Deaf’s cultural identity and the building’s industrial past. That tension culminates in color, craftsmanship and cultural specificity.”
Ahmed’s move into fashion isn’t all that surprising considering his family history. His grandfather had operated a shop in one of the country’s markets selling block printed pieces, his father owns a factory in Pakistan and his mother started the denim brand DL1961.
Ahmed said he decided to open his store after three successful pop-ups and a growing following on social media. “I knew I had something to contribute to the neighborhood,” he said. “This is more than just an immigrant story, it’s a New York story.”
