It wouldn’t be all that hyperbolic to say that harira is one of North Africa’s staple dishes. One of its most popular, too. Savoured all year round, the brown soup has left an impact on generations. Now, a duo of Germany-based Moroccans is giving it a contemporary—and fashionionable twist.
Enter Soufian and Asmae Lmajfi. The designers are the brainchildren behind the region’s newest label, Harira Gang. And they’ve just released their first drop, named La Route de Cap de L’Eau, Powered by the rich heritage of the North African region, The Lmaifi siblings are using their label to shed light and share their common love and lust for their scintillating culture. And one thing is for sure, it’s worth the hype.
Harira Gang is the textile manifestation of the soup’s powerful aura and essence. Mixing several simple and easy of access ingredients that each add their own flavour, the soup follows no specific recipes or clear rules; and nor does the brand. Each graphic piece is just as unique as each harira variant you can find in the region.
Free of stereotypes whilst carefully weaving tradition and streetwear together, we asked Asmae, co-founder of the brand, on how she intended to reignite the soup’s flavours through clothes.
To name a whole brand after such an iconic dish is quite unusual and original to say the least. How did the idea first come to life?
It’s true, some can see it as an unusual thing to name a brand after a soup or such a dish. But for us it was the perfect match to our idea and vision. We were looking for a brand name which represented both our way of thinking and our North African cultural attributes.
In Darija we use the words harira a lot to be honest. I’ll never forget that when we were in trouble sometimes our mother used to say “fako harirtkom” which translates to figure your problems out on your own.
Sometimes known as Harira, other times as chorba, what makes Harira Gang so special?
We are not led by any trends, we get inspired by our trips, the vibe we get from them and how we feel at that moment. What makes Harira Gang special is that we are inspired by our North African culture which is unconventional, simple and humble. We were born and raised in Germany but the influence of our homeland is very deep.
Your designs and ethos seems to focus on one thing that many usually despise, rwina aka chaos, why so?
A lot of people see rwina as something negative. But for us it’s completely the opposite. It’s our way of life. We’re more creative when we can do whatever we want and when we live in a bit of chaos. We want to reflect our vision of rwina in our designs. As we used to visit Morocco every summer since we were children, we met a lot of people from le bled. And after some years we realised that whenever we were there we had such a tranquility although you had some chaotic days, it’s totally the opposite of Germany where everything is so structured.
What other delicious textiles can we expect from the brand in the next few months?
We’re currently working on our next projects. In the future we want to focus on making some traditional pieces mixed with a touch of street style and a lot of accessories. Our goal is it to connect and work with more North African people. We want to catch some creatives and talents so that we can grow and support each other.