Hoor Al Qasimi has taken his time to gain experience in the fashion industry and in the design team at Qasimi, the brand that his late twin brother, Khalid, founded in 2015.
It has been a challenge. On a personal level, she has been dealing with the emotional toll of the unexpected death of her brother in 2019. The pandemic and trade difficulties with Europe after Brexit added additional pressure.
So it's no surprise that her catwalk debut at Wapping Power Station in London was emotionally charged. “We have known this space for a long time. It is a space that my brother looked at at some point and I have made many trips here for different reasons,” he said after the show.
Al Qasimi collaborated with artist Kambui Olujimi on the collection, taking images from his “When Monuments Fall” series and adding them to light summer coats and T-shirts with abstract shapes cut out.
Astutely, she didn't let the art or subtext of war overshadow the loose T-shirts and silky dresses that looked like moving kites, or the crumpled silk wool dresses inspired by crumbling piles of rubble.
“The idea of the monument was very important: how they come down is a new part of history and it's about rethinking those parts of history,” Al Qasimi said.
His subject matter may have been difficult and loaded with meaning, but the clothing was bright and functional and made in nature-inspired colors, such as the turquoise and taupe also found in Olujimi's artwork.
