Constructing something new from something old, Designer Walid Al Damirji breathes new life into history with his deft approach and multi-layered vision of fashion.
By MAX BERLINGER
Photography TOMO BREJC
In today’s vast, global economy, brands are struggling to break through and be heard. The madness of Fashion Week and the bombardment of images on social media have made it difficult for labels to stand out. Designer Walid Al Damirji, of the label By Walid, has found a way to do just that and it’s not by going bigger, bigger, bigger. It can be done by something as simple as stepping out of the ongoing cycle of newness and looking at something revolutionary: old textiles.
Al Damirji uses old, deadstock, discontinued fabrics and textiles and creates new, hand-crafted, meticulously-made, and stunningly-detailed works. They are garments that mix cultural background and historical references; things that look both like pieces from the distant past and the distant future, clothing that effortlessly mixes eastern and western influences, oftentimes one-of-a-kind and breathtaking in their originality and beauty.
This bold way of working not only allows Al Damirji to create exciting work, it is an ecologically friendly way to participate in the fashion system without creating waste - in fact it does the opposite.
“I love creating something out of what are often shredded remnants. GivING new life to something so discarded yet with a history of its own. It can often be very time consuming and frustrating to produce a series of one of a kind garments. There’s so little that’s tactile in these times.”