Sukeina SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection
A lot can happen in a year, just ask Sukeina’s Omar Salam. In the last 12 months, the designer has made his New York Fashion Week debut, released his first campaign, and been appointed creative director of the Frallain Group, a platform for luxury brands produced on the African continent. The series of wins helped raise Salam’s profile, but like many designers he found himself having to adapt once the coronavirus pandemic began. The addition of items like a roomy boyfriend sweater offered in multiple colorways expanded the scope of things, but eveningwear remains Salam’s focus.
Spring’s theme connects with many of the issues currently facing fashion and culture at large. Dubbed “miracle,” it centers on the idea of having a seat at the table, something Black creators have continuously struggled to receive. In Salam’s view, the industry’s tendency toward gatekeeping limits its creative potential. “If one color is missing, the picture can’t be complete,” he shared on the phone from Brooklyn. “They might not [explicitly] say that someone isn’t allowed in the room, but when all that is necessary to get into those rooms excludes an entire group, the message is clear.”
To counter that idea, he delved into cross-cultural reference points, looking to traditional Malian dress, Kenya’s Maasai tribe, and the Bassari people of the West African region. When European designers draw from indigenous cultures, the result is often literal or (much worse) stereotypical. In utilizing techniques specific to the African continent—primarily the intricate braiding and weaving used throughout the collection—Salam hoped to create something new by tapping into tradition. “These elements are what inspired Michael Jackson in music, Beyoncé in dance, Jean Paul Gaultier in fashion, and Yves Saint Laurent throughout the ’70s,” explains Salam. “Africa has had such a profound influence.”
The context adds to the season’s story, but Salam’s output is eye-catching even without it. This season’s recurring motifs—neon marabou, lace woven into mesh, and layered fringe—are tricky, but the strongest looks used them to great effect. Why settle for a plain LBD when you can have one detailed to the max with mesh and lacework? Dresses taken to their abstract limit with folds of fabric at the shoulders to exaggerate their width and ruffles that bend like flower petals are a lot of look, but they fit with Salam’s powerhouse muses. Clients like Naomi Campbell and Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John, who lends her name to a dramatic finale gown with puffed sleeves and a mermaid-worthy fish tail, are looking for wow factor, and these pieces deliver it
See every single look from Sukeina SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection in the gallery, below :
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source: Vogue
