BETWEEN ASHES AND ROSES
Qasimi’s Spring/Summer 2022 ready-to-wear collection celebrates the traditional craftsmanship of the Emirates.
By Kate Hazell
Les petites mains, the “little hands” of expert craftswomen—they are almost all female—is one of the defining characteristics of haute couture. These women have spent years, sometimes decades, perfecting their craft and embroider, pleat, apply sequins and pearls to create one-off works of art a world apart from mass-manufactured fast fashion. In Qasimi’s Spring/Summer 2022 ready-to-wear collection, the brand reinterprets its own version of les petites mains, celebrating the traditional craftsmanship of the Emirates in a democratic collection relevant for a global audience.
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, creative director of the London fashion house, collaborated with Sharjah-based Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, an affiliate of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment. The partnership follows on from last season, where Qasimi also used Irthi artisans to incorporate sadu, the geometric patterns traditionally handwoven by Bedouins, into its collection for Autumn/Winter 2021. For SS22, Sheikha Hoor wanted to celebrate the work of female artisans by looking to Irthi’s Bidwa Social Development Programme. The initiative aims to preserve traditional Emirati crafts while supporting the female artisans doing the work. “I think it’s important to respect the craft and how craftsmen and women spend their life trying to perfect something,” Sheikha Hoor says. “To acknowledge where the work is coming from, rather than trying to appropriate something, copy, or take credit, and going directly to the source, I think, is really important.”
Sheikha Hoor spent three months working closely with women from the programme exploring the possibilities of crafts from the region, sending samples for them to work on and listening to their feedback about using traditional techniques with fabrics like denim and cotton blends. Elements of safeefah, a weaving technique that more typically uses palm fronds, appears across fringed bags, shoes, denim jackets and midi-skirts. Faroukha, the traditional handwoven cotton or silk tassel that hangs from the necklines of men’s kanduras across the Gulf, was deconstructed into bags and reinterpreted as detailing on tailored shirt-dresses and low-slung belt loops.
“Safeefah is a versatile craft form, and even with design interventions and fresh narratives, it continues to instil a sense of ownership and belonging with the Emirati culture and the communities that engage with the craft,” says HE Reem BinKaram, director of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment. “Such collaborations not only breathe new life into safeefah but enable the cultural legacy and traditions that connect us with our rich past to be passed on to new generations.”
Mariam Gareeb is one of the 12 Bidwa women that worked on the collection. “I learnt safeefah at home,” she says. “It was passed down from my family and siblings. At the beginning I was surprised [that such a traditional technique was being used in a modern way]. But later, I realised that development requires the modernisation of traditional crafts. I believe this will promote our cultural heritage at a global level.”
The unisex SS22 collection is titled “Between Ashes and Roses,” alluding to a controversial book by Syrian poet Adonis about the state of Arab culture and society. Founded by Sheikha Hoor’s twin brother, Khalid, in 2015, Qasimi has always incorporated social commentary into its fashion statements, weaving in poetry or military details.
“There’s so much beauty in this world,” Sheikha Hoor says from her design studio in London. “There’s so much destruction but there’s also so much beauty, so when people are trying to fight or hold on to something, hopefully something good will eventually come from it.”
Qasimi worked closely with female artisans to explore the possibilities of traditional crafts. Shown here, the Faroukha Bag. Photo: Irthi
Qasimi staged a colourful show at St. Ann’s Court, a country estate in Surrey, near London. Bright bougainvillea pink, saffron yellow, and deep aubergine contrasted with the military sage green that Qasimi often uses. Skirt-trouser hybrids used technical fabrics and deconstructed tailoring. Matching capes had built-in bucket hats. Fluttery razor designs cleverly mimicked military canopies on boxy jackets and shirts.
A distinctive Emirati identity is translated through a contemporary composite of pieces that transcend gender codes, including a sage green tailored jacket with three faroukhas hanging from its breast pocket, a maroon midi-length skirt with a safeefah-embellished hem, an army-green silk shirt with pockets using the same traditional weave, leaving the loose ends flowing, and a saffron yellow shirt dress with a faroukha tie. The collection blurs cultural and geographical boundaries while re-contextualising safeefah and faroukha and remaining true to the craft ethos preserved by the women of Irthi, proud to be a part of the evolution.
Sheikha Hoor also collaborated for the collection with Lahore-based jeweller Zohra Rahman to develop a multi-functional brooch that also works as a pendant and earring. She worked too with a calligrapher, adorning graphic t-shirts and hoodies with the words ‘Longing’ and ‘Belonging’ in Arabic and English, capturing the moment’s melancholy mood.
“The past is an important part of the present and there’s no way to think of a possible future unless you really understand what has happened in the past,” Sheikha Hoor says. “It’s our responsibility in the arts, in academia, in culture, to create an enlightened generation. This collection is about respecting the past but making it more relevant for the future generation.”
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF QASIMI
