LFW Hamra Alam AW11

Interview by Amy Fisher. Photographs by Vincent Au.

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

Fashion designer Hamra Alam returned to the UK to debut her latest collection ‘The Unveil’ at Fashion Mavericks during London Fashion Week this weekend. Since setting up base in Dubai in 2007, the British born designer’s signature fusion of Eastern traditions with Western influences has brought great success. She now intends to expand her label within the UK starting with her AW11 collection and according to Hamra, this is only a small taste of what’s to come!

The exquisite collection consisted of a predominantly black colour palette with flashes of majestic red and exotic animal prints. Maxi length, free flowing dresses and hooded abayas (capes) were teamed with skinny jeans and uber-glam high heel sandals. Plush velvets along with gold and diamond trims added to the rich, exuberance of the collection. Seductive black chiffon with beautifully embroidered flowers and sequins glistened frantically as models floated down the catwalk. The fluidity of the luxurious fabrics was accentuated magnificently through shredding and waterfall cuts on sleeves and dress hems. Wide cut, bell sleeves draped beautifully as models graciously posed and long trains slowly swept the floor in an abundance of imperial grandeur. Teamed with the traditional, Arabic style music that echoed around the room, the collection took the audience on a historical journey of rich culture that Hamra has freshly transcended into the 21st century and made wearable and desirable for the modern, westernised woman. To bring the show to a dramatic end, Hamra herself breezed down the catwalk wearing one of her signature, modernised abayas with a niqab that was ironically printed with the Union Jack flag, optimising the designer’s dominant return to the UK. I caught up with friendly and enthusiastic Hamra after the show and asked her a few questions.

 

Your design aesthetic is to fuse Eastern traditions within Western influences, in your opinion when did the movement of Middle Eastern women desiring westernised clothing begin?

In terms of freedom of rights we’re looking at going back into the 5th century. But due to the culture of the countries, that limits the freedom.

 

How important do you think the traditional dress codes are to the Middle women, do they strive for the Western style or are many of them still somewhat quite reserved?

The women out in the Mediterranean world and even those who live here in the UK are very modern. Because they cover, it’s so important for them to look beautiful and one of the things that makes them beautiful is what they wear. The black kaftans and the abaya that you see in my collection is part of their culture and what I want to say is yes, culture is great. I think its time to embrace different cultures, as you may have also seen in my collection; the Arabic red Gutra, which is what the Saudi Arabian Prince wears on his head. I have changed it so that you can wear it as part of an actual garment.

 

When you set up your label in Dubai in 2003 how do you think the market out there reacted to your brand aesthetic?

To those countries I was well ahead of time in terms of clothing and they loved that. It was almost a forecast of a collection that was four years ahead of time and now they have excelled and escalated in terms of clothing.

 

In the UK we have 2 main seasons within the annual fashion calendar, Spring Summer and Autumn Winter, with many sub-trends in between. Do the trends in the Middle East alter in a similar way to those in the UK?

For my Middle Eastern Market I make three summer collections and one winter.

 

Do you think having 3 summer collections will work well in the UK?

What I’m doing here in the UK is seeing the platform of the black as my base and just really playing with it because everybody loves black and the materials I’m using can be used in the winter and in the summer. I do think it’s important to be practical within the fashion industry and not let it be a gimmick all the time.

 

Is black a colour that’s in popular demand from your Middle Eastern customers? Do they tend to stray away from print and colour?

No, they wear beautiful, extravagant collections within their women’s organisations and parties.

 

You have produced some beautiful bridal wear collections and the style of these are very westernised in terms of the white and cream colour palettes, fabrics and silhouettes, is this something that Middle Eastern women are leaning towards for their weddings?

They do love it. They will add embellishments to a very tailor made wedding dress which maybe the western influence, so the combination of the two are amazing.

 

When you first started out in fashion, it was in the UK and your designs were very funky and vibrant club wear. When you moved out to Dubai, you said you were inspired by the local women’s style and the way they carried themselves, did that inspire you to produce the more elegant and sophisticated garments we’ve seen today in your collection?

The collection is also part of my own heritage and culture, my clothing is very rich. I looked at certain things and thought, well I like it but I wouldn’t wear it like that, I would probably wear it like this and then that inspired me to start thinking about the commercial world for the rest of Europe.

 

So influence also comes from your perspective of culture, you have reacted to it in a personal way and so the garments in your collection, you can see yourself wearing?

Most women wear capes and I wanted to wear more flowing fabrics because if you look back in history everybody wore long length garments and I find that so fascinating. When you have a lot of fabric, to me it’s almost like creating the waves of the ocean within the movement of the fabric, the ripples are just so beautiful. It’s a fairytale world and I think every woman is really a little girl inside.

 

Are there any other cultures and traditions across the world that inspires your design work?

I’m very inspired by Asian and Japanese styles. Yohji Yamamoto is my favourite designer. His work is just incredible and I’m so inspired by origami and clothing that you can’t really figure out what the person is actually wearing. I’m very fascinated by that side of the world which is going to be part of my research for my next collection.

 

With each season, do you take inspiration from a different country or culture?

Yes, I think looking into culture is a beautiful way to start your design work.

LFW AW11 catwalk images: fashion designer Hamra Alam

London Fashion Week AW11 - Hamra Alam design 1 London Fashion Week AW11 - Hamra Alam design 2 London Fashion Week AW11 - Hamra Alam design 3 London Fashion Week AW11 - Hamra Alam design 4 London Fashion Week AW11 - Hamra Alam design 5

See other London Fashion Week AW11 catwalk pictures...

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