Tapping into my earliest memories from my hometown of Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia in the 90s; crawled up on my grandparents' moiré upholstered sofa, mesmerized by the navy galaxy backdrop of Channel One's opening credits. I vividly recall my grandmother's pink bougainvillea flower filled garden and the draping of her traditional abaya that she wore whenever she took me along with her to the fruit and gold souk. 

 

This ready-to-wear collection is a contemporary take on nostalgia that captures the essence of reflection and sweet reminiscence. 

 

I wanted to incorporate elements that were inherent to the land itself; the kaleidoscopic prints seen throughout the collection are digital images of thin rock slices from different locations around Saudi Arabia taken through a microscope. The beautiful earthy tones with the vibrant pops of electric colors became the main palette of the collection.

 

For this campaign, shot by the brilliant Petros Studio, I collaborated with Hawazin Al-Otaibi , a talented Saudi interdisciplinary artist. Her thought-provoking work experiments with motion glitches and distortion to highlight and challenge gender portrayal in imagery. Working with experimental printing processes, projection and paint on canvas, Al-Otaibi’s current work focuses on Arab male figures which she blurs and infuses with floral and pastel colored backgrounds. We projected her blurred paintings as backdrops for the set while Riyam Salim, the model, is in full focus- celebrating the growing number of remarkable women that are shaping the region in every sector of society today.