Fashion and design from morocco
MODA: Moroccan Fashion Statements
Published October 10, 2024
Every now and then I come across an exhibition that really leaves me inspired, so imagine my joy when I visited the huge exhibition on Moroccan fashion in Utrecht: MODA – Moroccan fashion statements. Not just because I may have thought ‘I would totally love to wear this’ a little too often, but because this was just immersed with meaning expressed in material form. As usual, click on any of the images below to enlarge them!
MODA: not just any fashion exhibition
Before I take you through a few of my personal highlights, a few general observations. This is an incredibly varied exhibition, in which you will find high couture and street art, luxurious materials and stray finds, innovative and familiar shapes. As the curatorial team (Ninke Bloemberg, curator and iniator of this exhibition, and Zineb Seghrouchni of DAR Cultural Agency) pointed out, this exhibition is not based on books or other forms of debate on what fashion is.
This selection is rooted in people, in everyday life, in today’s culture. It does not aim to be an overview of everything Morocco has to offer in terms of fashion (because you’d need a venue even larger than this), but a celebration of today’s up-and-coming designers alongside fashion icons. It’s like a snapshot of what inspires Moroccan designers today, and a glimpse into the history of fashion. It also illustrates how there is no such thing as monolithic ‘Moroccan’ fashion – the diversity of styles and influences is wide.
Moroccan fashion: today’s world
The first creation I saw, serves as a perfect example. Two designs by Maison Sara Chraïbi: one a wide cloak, the other a flapper-style dress, both from her 2024 Spring-Summer collection. Both carry an image of view into a mosque, whose arches beautifully blend with the lines of the design.
It is not any mosque, however: this is the 12th century Tinmal Mosque, in the High Atlas mountain range. During the devastating earthquake of 2023, it was substantially damaged. Here, its arches are embellished with sparkling gold beads. I imagined how sewing these on, one by one, is almost an act of restoring and protecting, and how wearing it fuses a person and their heritage together. It both brings inner life to the architecture, and embodies a promise to the future.
There is such strength and resilience, but also hope and joy in these first two pieces, that I totally get why these are the show-starters.
Contemporary issues, vintage to ancient design
The design immediately next to it caught my eye, too: a hooded cloak, called silham, covered in embroidered eyes, by Maison ARTC. The cloak itself is vintage, the embroidery has been added. The poem that goes with it, speaks volumes:
I see the change,
The love,
The anger,
The culture,
The hope,
The lack of justice,
The art,
The pain,
The people,
The community,
The world,
Myself,
Don’t forget to witness.
I found the use of eyes in this context extremely powerful: not only do they represent seeing and witnessing, but they also shield the wearer – the power of the eye in deflecting evil is ancient, and the use of sparkling sequins adds to that averting evil. The colour of this cloak, that of henna, adds to that protective and blessing capacity. Seeing and shielding in one garment: it’s this layered meaning that I found to be present throughout the exhibition.
MODA: artists, artisans and everyday life
The exhibition breathes cultural roots and almost effortlessly connects these with new designs and forms. Like the opera cloak of Dior’s 2020 Cruise Collection. Made of wool, dyed with henna, it clearly echoed the traditional henna cloth of southern Morocco. That relation between artists and artisans is also explored in the exhibition. There is a stunning dress where the loom is part of its design by Said Mahrouf, and the same exhibition room shows videos of artisans at work. Here, you’ll also find a wonderful selection of antique Moroccan jewellery on loan from the National Jewellery Museum in Rabat.
What absolutely made my head spin was the attention to hairstyles. Ilham Mestour, a celebrated hairstylist, created several hair designs based on the traditional hairdos of Amazigh women. One of them looked like it was created with actual scented paste, so I asked Zineb Seghrouchni of DAR Cultural Agency, one of the curators, about this piece in particular.
She told me that this was made with ghasoul, and that it smelled wonderful when they took it out of its container to install in the room – I can imagine! Including hair in an exhibition on fashion makes total sense: it is through hairstyles that tribal identities are expressed, but also how a form of private space and time is created. Creating these elaborate hairstyles is much more than just a form of outward appearance: you could say it is the end result of valuable time spent together, stories shared and knowledge transmitted. And that very much belongs in an exhibition on fashion.
MODA: an multi-faceted, rich exhibition
There is much more in this exhibition: from family photos to playful designs, from personal inspiration to global shows. And while I focus, due to the nature of my work I guess, on the more traditional elements that informed the designs, either implicitly or explicitly, that only is just one element of the creations on show. You will see opinions on how we treat our planet, mass-production and pollution, fast consumerism and prejudice.
There is also continuous attention for fashion in art, from street photography to photos enhanced with embroidery (which reminded me a lot of the Imaginarium-project in its treatment of printed matter), video art, a contemplative space to immerse oneself in publications and to meet with other visitors, and a myriad of details that require more than 1 visit – at least, for me!
It is the first time that such a large exhibition on Moroccan fashion has been organised in The Netherlands, and I hope this will be the start of many more: I highly recommend to visit if you have the chance!
MODA. Moroccan Fashion Statements in Centraal Museum Utrecht, Oct 3rd 2024 – March 2, 2025.
Co-curated by Ninke Bloemberg of Centraal Museum and Zineb Seghrouchni of DAR Cultural Agency
I was invited to the press preview and received a copy of the catalogue as a PR-invite.
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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode
Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.