What a Berlin Fashion Show Revealed About Culture, Grief, and Memory

On May 24th, a fashion show at 90mil in Berlin brought together designers from across the SWANA region and Berlin-based creators whose work speaks to cultural memory and political struggle.

Conceived as a fundraiser for Palestine, the evening placed emphasis on upcycled and sustainable fashion — not just as a practice, but as a tool. Fashion here was given space to hold more than trends: to honor grief, celebrate heritage, and ask difficult questions about appropriation, silence, and resistance.

A Walking Statement

Before the runway, a panel titled “You Are a Walking Statement – What Does That Mean to You?” set the tone. Speakers warned against the trap of representation: symbols worn down into trends, rebellion styled into submission, solidarity reduced to performance, while also recognising the undeniable power of visual resistance. The challenge, they stressed, is to engage consciously with it, to move beyond “just” wearing it.

• What does it mean to design as an act of resistance?
• How can design reclaim what has been stolen, erased, or commodified?
• How do we honor tradition while also evolving it?
• Where is the line between appreciation and appropriation?

مش بس موضا | Not Just Fashion: Halalboyz

“For us, halal transcends its conventional meaning. It represents identity, heritage, and pride, all while empowering individuals to express themselves beyond societal labels of gender or sexuality,” Amir explained, representing Halalboyz, a boundary-pushing Syrian collective based in Berlin.

After October 7th, repression of Palestinian solidarity in Germany intensified. “Fashion became our way of sending a message,” Amir said. “We didn’t just go to protests — we created pieces that expressed our support for the Palestinian cause and our experience as Arabs living abroad.”

Carrying Generational Truths: Koukshol

Koukshol, rooted in Shokoufeh’s lived experience between Iran and France, uses softness and textile craft to carry “other truths: the beauty, folklore, and quiet power of Iranian women...the way people see us, people from the Middle East, is often reduced to darkness and trauma. But that’s not the whole story.””

Fashion is the language she chose because it touches and protects the body, the limit “between you and the outside world, like a second skin – it protects our very first home, but it also communicates. To me, it’s like bringing a piece of home with you, that you will be offering to the next generation too.”

Arab Futurism: Alien Youth

Algerian artist El Yusser developed the concept of “Terrorist Chic” — reappropriating Islamic and terrorist imagery, merging it with queer aesthetics, and creating disruptive silhouettes inspired by Arab futurism and rebellion.

The outcome is a blend of disruptive visuals and silhouettes, inspired by Arab futurism, iconography and queer rebellion. “The point is to be radical without resorting to reductive ideology, to antagonise both extremes of the spectrum, and to show that there is a third way beyond the polarised atmosphere that is intensifying now more and more by the day.”

Navigating Identities: Mounia.Studios

Designer Mathilda of Mounia.Studios reclaimed her Moroccan heritage after her father’s passing. “I realized maybe I wasn’t appropriating my culture — maybe I was creating a new one. I design for people like me, people in-between, who don’t fit into just one world.”

Two important points are guiding her when it comes to the question where to draw the line between honouring tradition and evolving it. “One of them is that the pieces are upcycled. It’s important that the main part of it is vintage material that already exists, and that the material comes from Morocco."

When reflecting on how to stay rooted in one’s values and how to think about cultural appreciation vs. appropriation, what guided her was realizing who she is designing for. “At the end of the day, I design for people in between spaces. I moved through my own struggle, feeling like I was appropriating my own culture, and came to the realization that maybe it’s a new culture"

Stitch by Stitch: SEP

Founded in the Jerash refugee camp, built by Palestinian women, SEP embodies a resistance of visibility. Each piece is signed by the Artist who embroidered it, reclaiming authorship and cultural dignity.

As someone with Palestinian roots, the host of the roundtable Tamara has witnessed herself again and again how Palestinian culture is stolen, diluted, or rebranded, e.g. when luxury Israeli designers walked the keffiyeh down major fashion week runways, stripped of its origins and offered up as trend. That theft didn’t go unchallenged. And SEP’s presence is part of that refusal, the message being: Resistance also happens in exactly those places we’re told we don’t belong.

The question of how to protect Palestinian culture from appropriation is something at the core of their work. “At SEP, we see the Palestinian refugee women we work with as custodians of the culture. They’re not just workers, and their embroidery is not a trend. It’s a language of heritage and resistance.” That means, the design process is co-creative and innovation happens with the artists in the community. “We use the traditional 19th-century Palestinian cross-stitch and that hasn’t changed”, explained Mary Nazzal. What has evolved is the canvas.

“When you enter an SEP shop in Amman or Switzerland, it’s a living demonstration: Palestinians are here, existing — not as victims, but as artists and storytellers,” explained brand ambassador Mary Nazzal.  She continued, “people are waking up. They demand transparency and cultural accuracy. SEP shows how heritage can be celebrated without being frozen, and how innovation can come from deep roots. That’s the future of fashion, and we hope more brands will follow.”

The Bride Palestine

The show closed with a bride symbolising Palestine, in a blood-soaked dress, unveiling a 200-meter veil inscribed with 6,747 names of Palestinians killed by November 2023. Its unbearable weight was carried collectively by designers, models, and activists.

The performer walked, and the veil unfolded behind her, while activists helped her bear the weight. But they were too few, and the names kept coming, the grief became more unbearable with each unfurling. This was the moment, designers, models, friends came running onto the runway. They lifted the veil and carried the names and the loss as a collective. Together, they refused to look away.

مش بس موضا | This Is Not Just Fashion

Fashion here transcended spectacle. It became collective grief, resistance, and memory. It asked us to imagine alternative realities — and to carry them with us.

About Sawa Creatives

Sawa Creatives, founded by Tamara Ghantous and Lara Hansen, is a Berlin-based platform cultivating creative community in solidarity with Palestine. Through fundraisers, art, and collective projects, they seek to decolonize imaginations and construct radical new futures.

“In this moment of violence and displacement, we believe spaces like this are necessary. The power lies in collective imagination, building different realities in the present.” – Sawa Creatives

Instagram: @sawa_.creatives