Born in Lille, Moroccan designer Zaineb El Kadiri lived in France until 2012. Instead of exporting her caftans to Europe, she decided to anchor herself in Morocco, where she laid the foundation for a new vision of haute couture rooted in its continental dimension.
Where did this passion come from, combining traditional styling with African haute couture in general?
I received training in ready-to-wear fashion. Coming from an immigrant family in France, my mother developed her expertise in traditional sewing early on because once there, she had to work to help my father provide for us, so she decided to do something with her hands, learned from her homeland.
So, I acquired this skill from my childhood. Later, I pursued studies in international business, but this legacy passed down from mother to daughter stayed with me. Getting married young, I stopped my higher education but turned towards fashion, working for major brands. I was simultaneously trained in various fields to excel as a demonstrator and stylist, to master the types of materials, match colors, clothing styles according to body types, and so on.
That’s how I rekindled my first passion for fashion, first Moroccan traditional then African fashion in a global sense by interacting with the different communities from African immigration throughout my life in France.
The caftan is a traditional Moroccan garment strongly influenced by several Mediterranean cultures, but you anchor it more in the lineage of sub-Saharan customs. Why this choice?
The oriental and Andalusian influences in Moroccan fashion are evident through embroideries and ornaments. However, I wanted to modernize these uses not to relegate a part of our heritage to the background, but to think about this fashion with an even more global vision.
