All Winners

Marrakech resident, Artsi Ifrach is a fashion designer who is better known as Maison ARTC in the fashion world. On a quest for independence, Ifrach has found his sanctuary in Morocco and has been actively creating his “one of a kind” collections since. Artsi – meaning ‘My Country’ in Hebrew and Arabic – lived in Tel Aviv, Paris and Amsterdam before settling in Morocco and has an extensive understanding of multiculturalism. Using colors and prints as his landscape, Artsi’s imaginative designs reflect on space and time. He started fashion designing at the age of 28 while he was living in Amsterdam. From there, he moved to Paris  where he was represented by 2m Bureau, showing in the Haute Couture Week.   Today, living and working from Marrakech, his parents’ hometown, he also collaborates with local photographers such as Laila Hida and Mous Lamrabat.  With Lamrabat he created an artistic duo called @artsimous, a collaboration of photography that tells a story of cultural crossover, where the inspiration comes from culture, history and art. His goal is to keep the picture as something timeless, that remains long after the collection is finished. “I believe that fashion is a part of art that tells something about, in a period that meets culture and individuality. I am an autodidact, I do not work with design skills, I am working just with creativity and intuition,” he says.   His influences come from history, culture and traditions and he searches the past in order to carry on into the future. He is known for his rich, colorful and eclectic style. “I am trying, through the material that surrounds me, to create a story that captures culture, memories, and artisanal work. The materials I am using are vintage and handmade. I create my pieces with a total freedom, it comes from the state of mind I have at that moment. The point is to be respectful of the past, of the culture and to bring something warmer. In my pieces, I want to create a memory that moves me emotionally. Vintage fabrics can match past and present together. Colors, patterns and prints are my landscape.”   Napoleon said once “there is a thin line between the ridiculous and the sublime” and, according to Ifrach, he is searching for this line every time, in every piece. “I am always thinking about what we would like to have that we do not have yet, as a result, I believe that the strongest part we all have is our individuality. That is what I am trying to do with “one-of-a- kind” pieces, as we all are “one-of-a- kind,”” he says.

Burç Akyol, 32, was born in Dreux, France to Turkish parents. He was raised in a household headed by strong women: his mother, two sisters and aunt. They had a lasting impact on Akyol, who as a male outsider to this realm of oriental women observed and interpreted gestures, dress codes and ways of speaking so as to gain passage into their world. "I would wear black because they always did and apply kohl on my eyes to say “I want to be with you”,” says the designer. His father, a tailor, subcontracted for Parisian couture houses and worked from home, where Akyol's bedroom was also the atelier. Akyol watched his father and learnt how to craft garments and sew, educating himself in the rigorous artisanal work of tailoring. Moving to Paris in 2005 to study fashion at l'Institut Français de la Mode, Akyol worked multiple side jobs and sold his paintings to pay for his studies. Leaving school in 2006, he gained experience at Christian Dior under John Galliano, Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière and at Emanuel Ungaro with Esteban Cortazar. In 2014, he was named head of collections at Cortazar's namesake brand. In 2019, Akyol decided to launch his own label and debuted a genderless artisanal collection celebrating feminine seduction in both women and men, creating a wardrobe for "sexy tragédien-nes" as the designer explains.  His pieces are always very revealing and austere at the same time, whispering hot and cold, just like the women he grew up with. Burç Akyol’s work is not seasonal; his collections are styled COLL 01 PART 01, 02, etc. This is because he is building a language close to Haute Couture, which takes time. When he designs, he taps into his obsessions for Cariatides, dramatic glamour and his love for black tuxedo-tailoring which Akyol says is "the perfect uniform". He also references female leadership and his multicultural heritage in a constant dialogue between his urban European upbringing and his Oriental roots: a mixture that he finds is best visible around the Mediterranean’s volcanic coasts, where Akyol spends his summers on the island of Pantelleria. In harmony with his love for craftsmanship, each piece is either hand-finished or entirely hand-made at his studio in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Akyol values his wearer above all and is in constant search to offer them both maintenance and seduction: he says he is "distant-flirting" with his customers. His collections have been featured internationally with high profile personalities wearing his pieces starting with Cardi B and Zendaya for the British Vogue and the launch of his collection first collection was covered by Vogue Talents for Vogue Italy. With his latest addition to COLL 01, Akyol staged his first physical show in Paris on March 21st for Fall Winter 2022.

Brand Bio EILAF is a contemporary luxury handbag brand that combines high quality craftsmanship and Sudanese artisanal motifs to create a visual twist. The brand's foundation manifests from founder Eilaf Osman's desire to deeply connect with strong childhood memories of summers spent in Sudan, with her grandmother and her cousins, drinking tea in the garden and telling tribal folk stories. EILAF explores notions of identity based on the expressiveness of tribal art and seeks to uplift marginalized tribal art forms in the region. EILAF's values are centered around the preservation of Sudanese heritage and the use of traditional artistry codes that are inherently sustainable.

Fatma Mostafa is an artist and jewelry designer experimenting across a wide range of media.   In 2017, she founded her own jewelry brand. In moving through oil painting, embroidery, and photography, her work takes a multi-disciplinary approach, posing questions of our relationship to materials. She combines mediums and incorporates natural materials in both her paintings and designs. Her artistic background makes her think of her jewelry as pieces of art that she gets to share with others.   She has been part of many group exhibitions, The Girl’s Window in 2022, Roznama 8 in 2021, the "Lost, found, eternal" workshop and exhibition in 2018, and The Youth Salon in both 2017 and 2018.   Fatma Mostafa jewelry was born out of a love for fine art, fashion, and traditional crafts, like embroidery. Mostafa was introduced to embroidery by her mother, and as a young girl it was the first medium she was trained in but she never gave it much thought. Mostafa later pursued fine arts, and through oil painting discovered a fascination with colors and landscapes, and developed a curiosity for experimenting with the potentials of the medium. As she continued experimenting with different mediums, she rediscovered her love of embroidery and her interest in jewelry design, and in mixing both, she founded her brand. Like painting, the beauty of embroidery comes from the time, care and deliberate effort it takes to create a piece, she believes.   Through her work, Mostafa was taught to cherish patience and see the beauty in slowness as a piece unveils itself. She strives to create pieces that are original works of art, where you can clearly see the value and beauty of nature and the endless potential of patient human hands with colorful threads.

Kazna Asker is a fashion designer who has created a brand encompassing the values associated with community, activism and charity. The brand combines her British upbringing with her Yemeni heritage, merging technical sportswear materials with traditional, woven Middle Eastern scarves and fabrics.   Purposefully designing her pieces in pairs to show the brother- and sisterhood of the Muslim community, Asker creates matching menswear and womenswear looks, as well as featuring a range of corresponding tracksuits and outerwear with Islamic abayas and thobes.   Asker collaborates directly with her local community to create graphics, film and print projects. Alongside fashion, she has contributed to community projects in her hometown of Sheffield, England, as well as volunteering with refugees in the Netherlands and working with rural communities in Nepal alongside youth-led charity Restless Development.   Along with co-organizing community fundraisers for Yemen and Palestine, and raising over £20,000 for charity, Asker has created her own charity project where she designs and sells T-shirts through which she has raised over £6,000 for humanitarian aid in Yemen.

Founded in 2018 by Saudi Arabian sisters Sarah and Siham Albinali, Lurline redefines contemporary luxury fashion by embracing the soft goth, the daring and the feminine, combining this aesthetic with a sense of dark humor. The brand aims to embolden the meaning of what it is to be a woman in today's world by championing a fearless feminine viewpoint through timeless pieces.   Lurline takes pride in combining both classic and modern techniques in their unique creations, sourcing only the finest fabrics with superior craftsmanship. While always seeking new and innovative ways to create, the brand also strives towards the path of sustainability and bringing a strong meaning of what it is to be a Lurline woman.