Collections
AHMAD ABDULLATIF
Hafla
A celebration of joy, this collection is inspired by the famous 70’s club, Studio 54. Contemporary forms and silhouettes engage with the era’s flamboyant motifs, such as pop fuchsia, zebra print, black lace and striped fabrics. Oversized jackets, fitted dresses, micro-skirts, and beaded pieces in bold and lively colors and textures create standout ready to wear pieces, sassy and empowering.
AHMAD ABDULLATIF
Façade
This collection explores the challenges that face personal individuation, such as societal expectations and social media. The collection highlights how social media has led to a distorted sense of reality, and created an unhealthy obsession in rising generations.
With hard hitting prints and details in the form of faces, a dynamic, contemporary feel emerges from this collection. Experimenting with taffeta, chiffon, denim, poplin and organza, the eccentric designs include oversized silhouettes, drawstring details, knife pleats and safari pockets. The color palette bears bursts of purple, yellow and orange for a determined, assertive aesthetic. These bold hues each have a meaning of their own, representing individuality, hope and danger respectively.
In collaboration with jewelry designer Rola Mezher, Ahmad Abdullatif has also created an accessory line of rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and more using Plexiglass in bright, jewel tones such as yellow, orange, purple, blue and black.
AHMAD ABDULLATIF
Umoja
Umoja is a movement. A man-free African village run exclusively by women who chose to take charge of their own destiny and retaliate against the superiority of men who failed to protect them. This collection sheds light on this innovative tribe and is a reflection of their bold sense of individuality and independence. In a sense of character, these tribal women achieved self-liberation thus comparing to the modernity of urban women. ‘Umoja’ - the collection- is an intertwining of modern silhouettes and fabrics and tribal colors and prints; sunny yellow, rich violet, and scorching red reminiscent of elements under the African sun are woven together alongside pieces of busy sequins symbolizing the flashy city life of today’s woman. All in all, the collection is a salute of powerful women in all settings who pick their battles every single day, who choose to embrace the rules whenever they seem fit and retaliate when even an inch of their freedom is compromised by any outsider.
AMIR AL KASM
Fallen
This collection is tailored to illustrate the story of an angel who fell from grace, wandering the earth, fighting the temptation of sin. This contradictory journey is reflected in the contrasting choices of fabric, from tough wool to soft, yielding materials like crepe, powernet, tulle and chiffon. Its color story uses off white, red, blue, and black to depict different responses to temptations.
AMIR AL KASM
Varnish
Varnish is a collection that captures the representations of Jesus Christ by Renaissance painters, and delves into the different techniques that the artists of that era used to translate the ideology of the Christian faith. One of the most prominent features of this collection is the recognition of the different elements that went into the natural pigments used to create those historical pieces of art, and their integration in the garments. Minerals like Zinc, Titanium, and Cadmium were main constituent of natural pigments of that era. These are applied in this collection through experimentations with melting and reshaping metal to place as embellishments fixed on the garments. Another main ingredient of natural pigments, Silica, was a starting point of random strokes of Silicon on fabrics, adding a unique texture. Beading and felting were used to mimic the texture of crackled, aging paint on murals and paintings.
Cuts present in the collection are neat and precise, yet bold with silhouettes borrowed from landmark archetypes of the Christian faith; angels and nuns. The color selection is a palette of the characteristic oil colors; wine red, olive green, and pearl white. The fabrics are a contrast between the lightweight feminine and the heavy masculine, in indication of the contrast between the realities of the passion of the Christ, and the romanticism of the paintings that depict it. Sealing it all in, the sheen in the embellishments of this collection is the signature ingredient that Renaissance painters relied on to preserve and add a shine to their masterpieces; varnish.