While the spirit of collaboration between Emirati fashion brand Qasimi and the legendary Sudanese artist, Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq is well documented, Qasimi SS24 sees that love turned up a notch, with a collection featuring Kamala’s prints x Qasimi silhouettes and designs. Launching at a time of great turmoil for Sudan, the brand would like the collection to not only bring greater awareness to that plight, but also support for the people affected.
When it comes to the collection, Kamala’s work Women in Crystal Cubes acts as the starting point. It’s the centre of everything, working alongside other inspiration from later works like My Plant, Blues for the Martyrs and Composition.
“My life is full of folktales and legends,” she explains. “Art comes from thoughts and memories.”
Qasimi mirrors the work and words of the artist through an earthy colour palette, based in the shades of the sun, sand and sky. Light blues, bright whites, bark browns and sharp yellows are grounded by hues of concrete grey, white lead and black.
Offering a blend of modernity and classicism, SS24 operates between two concepts: the first being beading and transparency, the second portraits and embroidery. New techniques like silk printing are also embraced this season—expect to see more of that by the time the current round of Fashion Weeks are done—with both menswear and womenswear juxtaposing cotton tailoring, technical wools and lightweight cotton with flighty layers of printed silk and organic poplin.
Building on the foundation blocks of Qasimi’s “Permanent” collection, the collection fuses raw-edged sweatshirts and denim blazers with organza coats and printed silks. Cubic embellishment is another fun element, while clear embroidery comes in the form of strung-together cubic beads on tops throughout the collection. Finally, the rich oils of Kamala’s 2016 work, Composition, become portrait prints across fleece and jersey, with the artist’s famed cubes transformed into physical manifestations of transparency and sculpture.