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Across centuries, South Asian design has carved out a visual lexicon of intimacy and grandeur — found in the filigree of a jali window, the intricate stitch of a kantha quilt, or the rhythmic repetition of a hand-blocked motif. Architecture and textile in this region share an ornamental yet meaningful sensibility, deeply tied to both place and memory. The archways of Mughal mosques, the shimmer of zari woven into bridal finery, the muted pastels of a Kashmiri shawl — all of them communicate identity through form, texture, and colour. This visual language, passed down across generations, continues to ripple across new mediums.
ZHR Nails is one such extension. Founded by Zahra Nadeem, a British-Pakistani artist based in Rochdale, the nail art studio transforms press-on nails into sites of cultural memory. Through intricate, hand-painted designs inspired by South Asian architecture, textiles, and ornamentation, Zahra press-on nail sets echo the density and delicacy of South Asian craftsmanship.
Raised amid bolts of silk and embroidered net in her family’s fabric shop, Zahra found herself steeped in South Asian aesthetics from an early age. But in the West’s beauty mainstream, such motifs rarely surfaced. Her work, then, began as a kind of retrieval, a return to the tactile and symbolic textures of her childhood.
One set may recall the pink sandstone symmetry of Lahore’s Wazir Khan Mosque; another, the glinting embellishments of a mehndi bride’s lehenga. Floral patterns mimic the stitches of phulkari or zardozi, bordered by arches, tiled mihrabs and jali-inspired latticework. Some nails are adorned with delicate pearls and kundan-style jewels; others render Urdu calligraphy with microscopic precision, offering fragments of memory, place, and ceremony on the smallest of surfaces.
Zahra's practice comes from a place of belonging and revisiting personal and collective histories. For many of Zahra’s clients, especially those living far from South Asia, ZHR Nails becomes a way to feel closer to home. The artist has shared online how brides have opened their custom sets in tears, overwhelmed by the familiarity of a motif; details they never expected to see honoured in something as small as a nail. In those moments, the care and intimacy of her craftsmanship turns a medium of self expression and style into an act of remembering and reconnecting to where you're from.
Follow ZHR Nails here.
