With students across the world unsure of what the future holds for them in our post-lockdown—but still Covid-19 impacted—lives, graduating students are facing the toughest year of their lives.
Not only are there staggering reports of a looming global recession as well as an impending second wave, but for those who were expecting all the bells and whistles that come with graduating, coronavirus has meant that those plans have had to ground to a halt, and in some cases cease altogether.
For countless fashion students, graduating is a huge deal. This is when they are offered the opportunity to show their final collections, which in-turn lead to them landing their first job in the fashion industry. But with periodic lockdowns and strict safety restrictions in place, 2020’s fashion students will no longer have the luxury of showing their debut collections in front of an audience – and this is where i-D magazine and ARTSTHREAD come in. The cult magazine and the launchpad for emerging creatives joined forces in a bid to host the world’s first Global Design Graduate Show.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEKQS34oM2v/
Made in collaboration with Gucci, the fashion category of the show received over 4,000 applicants since its announcement. Now whittled down, Noor Hotait—a BFA fashion graduate from the Lebanese American University—is amongst the final selection. Ordinarily based out of Beirut but displaced due to the devastating explosion in the Lebanese city, Hotait has since relocated back to Dubai.
For her collection, Hotait drew inspiration from Bedouins and her ancestors. In a statement on ARTSTHREADS, Hotait said, “this collection is a love letter composed to my ancestors, to the wanderers and dreamers, to the true Bedouins of today.” She went on to say, “the storyline begins with the relationship between man and land, the representation of the mystical Arab female, and follows up with an authentic curated love story that will resonate with today’s generation of Arabia”.
Designing an accompanying collection of accessories, Hotait was “inspired by their movements and motifs”, drawing from the parallels between the isolated lives lived by the Bedouins and our current sociological climate as we bounce between lockdowns and enforced social distancing.
You can vote for Noor Hotait here.
