Life Style: Model Jasmine Tookes champions Middle Eastern fashion in France

DUBAI: French Algerian singer Lolo Zouai has been unveiled as one of the stars of French fashion house Kenzo’s Fall-Winter 2022 campaign.

The flower-filled collection is the brainchild of Kenzo’s artistic director Nigo, a Japanese fashion designer and founder of streetwear label A Bathing Ape whose real name is Tomoaki Nagao.

Kenzo shone a spotlight on Zouai on Instagram this week, sharing a snap of the 27-year-old musician in a gilet adorned with oversized blue poppies.

“@LoloZouaï, the French-born American R&B and pop musician, blooming in the Fall-Winter 2022 collection KENZO poppy Gilet by @Nigo,” the post was captioned.

Despite Kenzo’s omission of her Algerian roots, the singer is not one to shy away from her heritage.

In fact, in 2020 she released a music video for her song “Desert Rose” that was an on-screen celebration of her North African lineage.

Filmed in an unnamed village situated in Morocco’s Essaouira, the Emilie Badenhorst-directed clip captured the star’s feelings of displacement and desperate longing to reconnect with her father’s side of the family’s culture and traditions.

“This is a story I’ve needed to tell my whole life,” she previously shared with Arab News. “I’m so grateful that I was able to travel to North Africa and work with an amazing director and crew to create this video exactly as I saw it in my mind.”

Zouai, who was born Laureen Zouai to a French mother and an Algerian father in Paris, has had a stellar 2022 so far, releasing her latest single “Give Me a Kiss” in April and joining pop superstar Dua Lipa on her “Future Nostalgia” tour as the opening act.

It appears that the fashion world is starting to take note of the singer too.

The “High Highs to Low, Lows” hitmaker is a Coach favorite and has appeared in several of the American brand’s campaigns.

She also has advertorials for Tommy Jeans under her belt and previously teamed up with sportswear giant Adidas alongside other notable figures hailing from France, including Manchester United footballer Paul Pogba and rappers Vald and Dinos, for the brand’s “Change is a Team Sport” campaign.

Meanwhile, when she’s not sitting front row at luxury fashion shows or posing for advertorials, she can be found performing at some of the hottest tickets during Fashion Month.

In the past she has performed at New York Fashion Week for Saint Laurent as well as at KidSuper’s surreal Spring 2021 show.