March 20, 2023 |
Qasimi may not be the most obvious choice to oversee an incubator; just as its applicants are, it’s an emerging brand itself. Founded in 2015, the luxury label borrows from the Arab heritage of its founder Khalid Al Qasimi and takes a cross-cultural approach to crafting clothes. When Khalid Al Qasimi (the second son of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah since 1972) passed away in 2019 at only 39 years old, his twin sister, Hoor Al Qasimi, stepped up to the bat rather seamlessly, entering into the vacant creative director role with tenacity and due respect. “I didn’t know anything about the industry, but I learned that it’s not very accessible. Fashion is very disconnected from the way we work as artists,” she says.
Qasimi Rising, its premier Talent Incubator award, launched at the end of last year. Spearheaded by Hoor Al Qasimi, its aim is to nurture the winning emerging designers over the course of three years, providing tailored holistic support, of both financial and practical means, across all business verticals. Following initial three years of this pertinent support, the winning designers will continue to receive mentorship for seven additional years. No doubt, it’s an expounder of long-term success. Since the applications came cascading in, a team of venerable judges from disciplines across fashion, art and design have narrowed down the contenders to five warranting finalists: Alicia Robinson of AGR, Laura Pitharas, Saleh Kelarge of Sentire Studios, Selim Azzam and Omer Asim.
The award ceremony was set to occur during the Sharjah Biennial 15, which, since its establishment in 1993, has become a core initiative of global art. Hoor Al Qasimi assumed administration when she was just 22: “I grew up with the Biennial,” she states. “It started when I was 13, I participated when I was 15, and at 22 I took over by accident – I was asking too many questions so they said ‘do it yourself!’.” She continues, “What I do here [with the Biennial] is work with artists throughout; from early on in their career, until now, there’s a continued relationship that doesn’t get lost. So, I wanted to build that community within fashion too [with Qasimi Rising]. It’s not about being competitive, it’s about working together. We’re focussing on sustainability, community, and craftsmanship; really thinking about the designers as artists rather than just business makers.”
As soon as we landed in Dubai, we were in for two booked and busy days of fashion and fun; there would be artistic adventures, poolside lunches and long drives through the Arabian Desert, with Sharjah and glimpses of the Burj Khalifa offering a divine backdrop to the culminating award ceremony. And because this was a Qasimi trip, it would be both educational and luxe. Afterall, it is an extension of the Sharjah dynasty.
13 March, 2023
It’s a slow morning, spent laying around and attempting to recover from our middle of the night arrivals and red eye flights respectively. While some of us were woken by the five AM call to prayer blasting vociferously around the five-star Chedi Al Bait hotel – which sits a 30-minute drive from the buzzing Dubai city centre –, the rest of us were roused by a six AM knock on the door. The cordial Al Bait staff brought us each a prismatic tray of fresh fruit, macarons and some of the most mouth-watering homemade granola bars I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. I woke to my cellular alarm, urging me on a trip into the desert that would be filled with sand dune bashing and riding on camel back. Back at our home for the next two days, we are offered a special Balinese massage to work out those long-haul flight kinks – pure bliss.
As lunch time rolls around, we pile into a 12 seater white van and set off for the city. Port and Kaleidoscope Magazine associate publisher Andrew Chidgy, slender, dressed in vintage Issey Miyake Pleats Please and fraught about the AC, looks right at home in the Sharjah heat; Forbes contributor Angela Lei is gorgeous and precocious, asking us for advice on the logo design for the the law firm she’s in the midst of setting up; only Lucy Maguire of Vogue Business is absent, dividing her time between us and an event in Sharjah’s sister city, Dubai. Our destination is the Fen Café and Restaurant, a modern and minimal homegrown foodie haven located within the Sharjah Art Foundation. Eating with us are the judges, hailing from all over the globe: Yuko Hasegawa, the director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and professor of curatorial and art theory at Tokyo University of the Arts; artist and professor María Magdalena Campos-Pons, the Cornelius Vanderbilt endowed chair of Fine Arts and founder of the Engine for Art Democracy, Justice Trans-institutional Program (US), and of the Ríos Intermitentes Biennial Project (Cuba); and Ahmad Swaid, the editor-in-chief of GQ Middle East – it’s a truly transnational affair. Over fattoush, fried aubergine, fresh fruit and watermelon juice, we get to know each other better.
Later, we venture into the Sharjah Art Foundation for introductions and interviews with the finalists, sheathed by the balmy heat of the Arabian sun. Alicia Robinson, the founder and director of AGR spoke fervently about her electric knitwear label, describing it as “unapologetically London” and “a guerilla brand” that’s carved its own path since its start in 2018 with a sustainable practice and collaborative spirit. “My ethos is more is more. We’re not afraid to jump into anything,” she says. “With help and investment, we can develop our team by bringing in field experts and enhance the production side of things so that we can keep growing. I’m looking for mentoring to do with brand strategy too. I know where I want to be and where I want to get us, but I would like some advice on how to actually do that. You can always seek investment without mentorship and support, but then you may as well just throw that money down the drain. I love this brand and want it to work, so having both together is why I’m here and why I applied.”
We met with Laura Pitharas next, who walked us through her sustainable luxury womenswear. Since October 2021, the Northerner has been constructing a capsule of the wardrobe staples she’s been on the hunt for, for years. “I often refer to the brand as a new form of femininity: menswear for womenswear. We take menswear silhouettes and make them fitted, so instead of borrowing your boyfriend’s blazer or buying a men’s vintage one, it actually fits a woman’s waistline giving it an understated elegance.” Bespoke suiting and hand pleated kits are made with 100 percent wool woven in Yorkshire and organic bamboo silks, which she says are “a nod to [her] northern roots”. Her collections are about creating nuanced classics to last a lifetime, but for the immediate future her goals are rooted in brand expansion. “We are looking to expand into global wholesale markets, grow our team and add different categories such as knitwear and jewellery,” she starts. “But we are self-funded and there are limitations that come with that. The dream is to have a runway show and a creative space to expand these silhouettes.”
Then we met Saleh Kelarge, the founder and creative director of Spanish brand Sentire Studios, and he explained to us how, as the first Syrian refugee to have a ready-to-wear brand in Europe, he finds himself constantly trying to break the mould. “I want to rebrand the whole structure and go for something more minimalistic to give hope to a new generation of people establishing their mindsets in Syria, of locally and ethically made clothes. So I require help with my supply chain and with branding.” He goes on to explain that Sentire Studios is an image-based brand, focussed on building unique, unreplicable silhouettes: “It’s elegance from a younger point of view. Our approach is trying to define modern elegance. Everything is stripped down and searching for something to make you calm and comfortable and pragmatic – to give you your own space.”
14 March, 2023
After an ample breakfast of chia pudding and eggs on toast (and an ever-needed coffee) we embark on a private art tour of the Sharjah Biennial. Culture slashing works by Moza Almatrooshi and Mirna Bamieh were displayed within an abandoned shopping centre. At a second location, a repurposed historic building, we explore the work of Zohra Opoku and Aziza Shadenova. Meanwhile, the designer quintet are off to the Kalba Ice Factory, in Kalba, an exclave of Sharjah on the Gulf of Oman, by the Al Qurm Nature Reserve, for an exclusive art tour led by Hoor Al Qasimi herself.
Back at Al Bait, the press-associated bunch of us take lunch and nap it off by the pool virgin cocktails in hand, lulled by the sweltering sun, glimmer of ice blue pool water and the overly accommodating staff who would inform us each time the sun changed so we could swap loungers and keep getting our tan on. Post poolside lounging, we’re hurried off to the Sharjah Art Foundation for the ceremony, decked out in head to toe Qasimi. The concrete courtyard is now laden with clothed tables and transparent chairs where once yesterday stood a sea of equipment. Over risotto, seared fish or steak our anticipation ebbs and the decorum begins. Swaid announces the first winner: Salim Azzam.
“It is what we do in life that people will remember you for,” Azzam said during his acceptance speech. “Winning this tonight is not only a validation, but it gives me a lot of hope that you can still be successful while keeping the heart of the human inside and sticking to your values.” Renowned for his incredibly intricate embroidery and craft work, the Lebanese designer (and graphic design graduate) was already a favourite for us members of the UK press. One day earlier, during the introductions, he explained: “We employ 60 local artisans between the ages of 25 and 82 – a lot of whom I grew up with – who hand embroider, smock and crochet everything. Everything is hand embroidered [from his own graphic illustrations] so it takes a lot of time and the process is inherently slow. Some pieces can take a month to make, others, just a few days – I have so much emotional attachment to the pieces.” He adds, “Our product is humbly luxurious and poetic – every piece has a story or a meaning, and it shows a lot about where we come from. The silhouettes pay homage to the true humble habits of the people in Lebanon.” With white as the bassline fabric, he reanimates traditional Sherwal pants, reversible cape coats, pleated skirts and elegant bishop-sleeve shirts for men, women and even dips his toes into tableware and homeware. “I think fashion is about desire, so I don’t follow trends; I stick to things that are unique to me and I think about how a piece is going to live in your closet for a while. Where I grew up, sustainability is inherited in how we live our lives. So it’s not a USP, everyone is trying to play that card, but that’s just how I work: everything is 100 percent organic Italian cotton and or pure cashmere and wool.”
Azzam continues: “Because we opened in 2019, not just with Covid but with the economic crisis and everything happening in Lebanon, I have never really expanded out or appeared in fashion shows or showrooms and everything has been done in house. But now we feel that we have a solid foundation and we’re ready to share that on a global level. I’m on a mission to bring awareness to the craft and prevent it from dying out, to do workshops and to teach the young ones as well. And now, I’m ready.”
Then Campos-Pons climbed onto the podium and declared Omer Asim the second recipient of the Qasimi Rising Talent Incubtor awards. An anti-fashion designer from Sudan with a background in architecture and pattern cutting, he works alongside fellow Sudanese creative Maya Antoun. “Growing up in Sudan informs our work, but we don’t try to impose anything in terms of obvious cultural references. Rather, we tend to have an interest in fabric draping and how people there dress. We don’t work seasonally, we make collections that all speak to each other and we pull from our archives as a point of reference as well. It’s about a person making their own collection from all the clothes we offer, through the styling and imagery.” Omer Asim pieces can be worn inside out and upside down, mischievously intertwining into new formations. “We are very interested in how things are made too, and revealing things that are usually hidden such as pockets. Our sari, for example, can be wrapped in so many ways based on where you come from. It’s like wearing your identity on your sleeve; adjusting yourself with the fabric to give you a different experience.”
Asim adds: “We’re looking to expand and have a wider market outreach. We haven’t had the resources for big sales or to go to Paris etc, just yet, so the first thing would be to expand our womenswear market, followed by our unisex outerwear, and eventually add in menswear.”
Robinson, Kelarge and Pitharas are subsequently called up, each to accept a finalist medallion. After dinner, a troupe of traditional Liwa dancers sway up to the stage; a jubilant end to a triumphant ceremony. The winners gather for pictures and eventually head off to celebrate. We head back to the hotel to pack; our car to the airport will arrive in a mere six hours – cheers to whoever booked our seven AM international flight. But we leave with visions of golden plaques and the delicious aftertaste of vegan chocolate cake reverberating in our brains. Until next time, Qasimi Rising.
Photography courtesy of Qasimi Rising.
