Faissal El-Malak Fall 2017 Ready-to-Wear
“Identity is really important to me. I don’t want to be defined by any one identity or one fabric. I want Faissal El-Malak to be a Middle Eastern brand that incorporates various crafts from different Arab countries,” says El-Malak of his eponymous Dubai-based brand.
In a landscape increasingly peppered with copy-and-paste designers, who look to social media for mood board inspiration, El-Malak’s story of stumbling across a Yemeni artisanal weaver is refreshing. “It happened by chance. I was visiting the souk in Doha when I came across a Yemeni man with a little shop that sold trinkets for tourists. He had a few of his fabrics – traditional Yemeni cloth from the mountains that were sturdy yet supple – and I instantly fell in love with them.” Of the process of making the fabric, with prints and colors specific to various parts of the country, El-Malak explains, “There is no manual, the craft is passed via word of mouth.” The 28-year-old Palestinian designer used the fabric as a foundation for his first collection while his second featured traditional handwoven silks from Tunisia.
Faissal El-Malak Fall 2017 Ready-to-Wear
Now, for his third collection, Morphology, El-Malak is blending artisanal craftsmanship from Yemen, Tunisia, and Egypt – the latter country’s fabrics are specifically sourced from the last handweaving workshop in Akhmim in Upper Egypt, which has been specializing in cotton jacquard for generations.
Faissal El-Malak Fall 2017 Ready-to-Wear
Truly, these clothes merit a close look. An Egyptian handwoven cotton and linen cordonné jacket falls without losing its structure. Accents on clothes feature tassels on front seams with raw edge finishes. Hand-embroidered patch tunics are made with Yemeni handwoven fabric juxtaposed with silk and taffeta.
Faissal El-Malak Fall 2017 Ready-to-Wear
El-Malak, who grew up in Doha and Montreal, and studied fashion design in Paris for six years at the Atelier Chardon Savard, explains that fashion has always been a means of personal expression. With Morphology, he aims to blur the lines on traditional gendered dressing. Women don silk bralette dresses but also structured tailored jackets in sober colors. Men are offered poppy-red, loose-silhouette suits and embellished shirts. It will be interesting to see how far El-Malak will bring his burgeoning brand; already, his free-spirited ideas are taking age-old Arabian crafts right to the center of today’s more novel contemporary fashion designs.
Available at the Annex Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Ataya Exhibition in Abu Dhabi (part of the Irthi booth) from April 30 to May 4
