Designer Mowalola sparked some controversy after incorporating the Saudi flag into her Spring 2024 collection during London Fashion Week on Friday. The young Nigerian designer presented her ready-to-wear offering titled “Crash” off-schedule at The Beams, by the London City airport, which included a lineup of four micro skirts in the form of the flags of the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia.
Many online users took to social media to call out the designer for using the Kingdom’s flag, which bears the Islamic Shahada (proclamation of faith) and two Quranic verses, as a miniskirt. A scripture that is sacred to not only Saudis, but billions of Muslims around the world, netizens accused Mowalola of being disrespectful and demanded that she apologize or remove the skirt from her collection, to which she responded “cry me a river.”
The designer decided to double down on her comment by later tweeting: “A mini skirt being an act of war in 2023 is so dystopian.”
However, it seemed that she later had a change of heart, and deleted those two tweets before issuing an official apology, stating that she learned from her mistakes and will remove the garment from the collection.
One of my key inspirations for SS24 was to use the national flags of different countries. After the show, I found that one of these flags – Saudi Arabia – features sacred words, and its use has caused great offense. Now that I’ve been educated on this topic, I sincerely apologise
— Mowalola (@MOWALOLA_) September 16, 2023
“One of my key inspirations for SS24 was to use the national flags of different countries,” she wrote in a statement. “After the show, I found that one of these flags— Saudi Arabia— features sacred words, and its use has caused great offense. Now that I’ve been educated on this topic, I sincerely apologize for this. I’ll ensure this design is removed from the collection. I deeply regret any hurt or offense my oversight may have caused. Thank you for holding me accountable, and I appreciate your understanding as I learn from this experience.”
Several laws and regulations have been put in place to protect the Saudi Arabian flag as it contains the Shahada. Printing of the flag on any type of items such as clothes is not normally seen and in fact, Saudi Arabia denied against its flag printed on a football to be issued by FIFA in 2002, with the reasoning being that there is Holy inscription on it. The Ministry of Commerce stated that individuals and businesses were banned from using the flag in commercial promotions including publications, goods and products, brochures, and special gifts.
Under Saudi legislation, the flag can never be lowered to half-mast (even during times of mourning) and it can also never be hoisted in a vertical position or rolled up only halfway either.
Though Mowalola isn’t a stranger to provocation (her mentor is Kanye West, after all), she likely didn’t expect this kind of backlash. This recent controversy further highlights the importance of doing your due diligence and research as a creative, especially if your goal is to make a political statement.
