Naya El Ahdab

Neuroblastome

Based on her personal experience and journey as a disabled woman sitting 24/7 in a wheelchair, designer Naya El Ahdab traces the path to acceptance and confidence in our bodies. She explores deformity and its relationship with femininity and comfort, focusing on the idea that a body and its story can sculpt a garment and vice versa. She also highlights the differences and transformations of a garment in contact with a deformed silhouette. She transforms this contact into beauty by working on proportions,shapes and clean lines, taking references from couturier Madame Grès and carefully draping her fabrics to achieve symmetry.

ITS Creative Excellence Award 10x10x10

All finalists will receive:

€10K bursary
a 10 days creative Residency held between Trieste and signature locations of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy
10 months feature in the “Borderless” Exhibition at ITS Arcademy – Museum of Art in Fashion

Rewarding Honours powered by OTB

The OTB Group will offer a training day visit of the headquarters of OTB and Staff International will be offered to the young designers who will be able to see first-hand the production stages of the garments and accessories of the Group’s brands.

Motivation

It's wonderful to have fresh, creative minds driven by passion, curiosity, and dedication. They listened attentively, engaged thoughtfully, and asked intelligent, professional questions that inspired us even more as we shared the details of our daily work. We would love to have more opportunities for exchanges like this within the company.

Rewarding Honours powered by WRÅD

WRÅD will give a designer the chance to take part of a 2-day tour of innovative textile enterprises in Italy, the products and processes of which can provide further guidance and inspiration.

Motivation

Naya is using fashion design to build bridges, reaching out of the borders that this industry has built. I look forward to seeing where her design thinking process takes her, and excited about the possibility to contribute in taking her voice and vision forward.

Project selection motivation

Can fashion contribute to the creation of a Borderless world, where people and all living beings live as one? Can fashion be a bridge where we most need it? This quest beats at the core of Naya El Ahdab exploration, a journey which enables her dresses to speak to people who are usually excluded from the standard discourse of fashion. Naya El Ahdab’s work is a stark reminder of what the role of a fashion designer should be, and of the magic power of a dress to positively influence habits and habitats for best of society.

the project

project presentation

meet the designer

Photogallery