Life Style: US-Palestinian model Fai Khadra talks fashion career and upcoming projects

DUBAI: Zineb Hazim and Lara Chamandi are the names to know this Milan Fashion Week, currently underway until Feb. 28.

The Arab designers are set to showcase their latest Fall 2022 collections this season, and they are certainly ones to keep on the radar.

This will be the second time Moroccan-born Hazim has showcased her designs in MFW since her digital debut last season with We Are Made in Italy, a digital fashion show that presents BIPOC fashion designers, and who she is working with again this year.

Hazim started her label more than a year ago after graduating from Italy’s Burgo Fashion Institute, and uses her native country of Morocco as a constant source of inspiration.

She launched her label after realizing there was no type of clothing that could combine her needs as a professional and as a Muslim woman. Her collection is a modern reinterpretation of modest aesthetics merged with business.

She combines traditional Islamic fashion with modern structures, giving customary clothing an unexpected twist.

Her brand offers a range of modest pieces, including abayas and pantsuits, with unusual fabric combinations including denim, tweed and embellishments.

Meanwhile, Milan-based Chamandi will be debuting her luxury namesake womenswear brand this season.

Inspired by the moon, more specifically, her favorite place in her homeland, the Monastery of the Moon in Lebanon’s Chouf Mountains, the collection is also peppered with references to the constellations, particularly Scorpio, and other elements such as crystals and fire.

Chamandi’s Fall 2022 collection reflects many of the moon’s effects, including its gravitational pull on the tides, through the fluidity of the designs and fabric, all while making sure pieces are versatile and evoke confident femininity.

The range is also eco-conscious, using sustainable plant-based “leather.” She is presenting the collection via private appointments.

In addition to a new jewelry line in the works, Chamandi is set to debut a special 20-piece capsule collection for spring, which will be available on the brand’s e-commerce website launching on March 2 — the day of the new moon.