The roots of the collection are grounded in the power of gestures and the way clothes emphasize them. Gestures from women that work the fields on hot summer days, that carry water on their heads or shoulders, that weave till the sun goes down. There is something about their gestures: the way they lift their skirt and use the apron to hold potatoes freshly taken out of the ground, the way they turn their hand and place it on the hips before they start quarreling with their husbands, the shape of the skirt when they lift it from both sides of the legs at the same time before sitting on a chair.
They drape the textile in different ways in order to help with their movement or to emphasize their state of mind. When I think about the power of gestures, the first image that comes to my mind is an Amazigh/ Berber woman. The movements of her legs, hips, arms are emphasized by the single piece of fabric that is covering them. You can see the fabric moving and from that you can guess the movement of her body. Using this idea in my collection, I have a single piece of fabric wrapped around the body in different ways to emphasize its subtle moves. Using strong colors, mixing full colors with prints to light and shadow the body, to move the eye to certain areas and obscure others. I encourage women to drape the fabric around them, step by step, almost like a ritual of dressing up. The slowness in their gestures, the sound of fabric, make for a feminine, even sensual experience. All of this is opposite to zippers, with their intruding sound and the rapidity with which they close. I want to introduce a manner of arranging fabric over fabric that invites women to take their time and explore themselves in a soft, romantic way. Because of the intricacy of the design, you receive a “how to” of the garment, reading through the steps and learning how to use it. This struck me as the modern way of taking your time with clothes, growing with them. Boldness and courage come with jewelry and bags. Strong shapes and colors take on a life of their own. They are accents that fill the silhouette of a woman that makes her own life and won’t apologize for it!
