Beyond Materiality: Omer Asim’s SS25 collection is a testament to conscious making

Words Leelou Reboh
Imagery cour­tesy of Matthew Zorpas

If many design­ers seem to grav­i­tate towards the chaos of fash­ion month and use it to fuel their cre­ativ­i­ty when it comes to show­cas­ing their lat­est col­lec­tions, ‘Tran­sient Objects’ — the Spring/Summer 2025 col­lec­tion of design­er duo Maya Antoun and Omer Asim, founders and design­ers at Sudanese label Omer Asim — was, despite its title, every­thing but an ephemer­al spec­ta­cle. Nes­tled on Great Port­land Street, the Tank Mag­a­zine space proved to be the per­fect­ly inti­mate out­let for the design­ers to kick­start the series of nomadic instal­la­tion and events spe­cial­ly cre­at­ed to exhib­it their lat­est cre­ations, and set to stretch out over 24 months. To cel­e­brate the launch, Antoun and Asim worked close­ly with inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Scar­lett Rouge on a per­for­mance to deliv­er an inti­mate insight into their cre­ative syn­er­gy and own per­son­al con­nec­tion with the gar­ments they design. The cre­ative duo are now on the fourth month of their journey.

As for each of their col­lec­tions, col­lab­o­ra­tion was at the heart of ‘Tran­sient Objects’. Stem­ming from the label’s core ethos of cre­ative part­ner­ship, the pair always seeks influ­ence from oth­er like-mind­ed cre­atives to con­tin­u­al­ly rethink their approach to fash­ion design. “We’re always inter­est­ed in things that feed into the brand in terms of cul­tur­al per­spec­tives, and we turned to per­for­mance because peo­ple do more than just wear­ing the clothes we make: they also expe­ri­ence them,” explains Antoun. By opt­ing for an instal­la­tion rather than a tra­di­tion­al cat­walk to show­case ‘Tran­sient Objects’, Asim and Antoun blur the lines between fash­ion and art, and encour­age their audi­ence to not only expe­ri­ence the col­lec­tion as a work of art, but also open the doors of their col­lab­o­ra­tive prac­tice to their audience.

The design­ers’ keen inter­est in per­for­mance prompt­ed them to reach out to Scar­lett Rouge to co-cre­ate a per­for­mance in response to the art instal­la­tion part of the exhi­bi­tion. “There was an imme­di­ate con­nec­tion,” recounts Rouge about her col­lab­o­ra­tion with Asim and Antoun. “It wasn’t so much about what they are doing with the brand, but about who they are as peo­ple. It felt like we were speak­ing the same cre­ative lan­guage.” When Rouge emerged from the back­room, wrapped in white cloth, under the sup­port­ing gaze of her moth­er Michèle Lamy stand­ing on the front line, time seemed to stand still. Dis­ap­pear­ing in the creas­es and folds of the fab­ric, the rhythm of her repet­i­tive, spas­mod­ic move­ments mes­merised guests who, in their trance-like state, were invit­ed to con­nect with the prim­i­tive roots of Asim’s and Antoun’s Sudanese her­itage. “I want­ed to become the fab­ric,” explains Rouge. The unex­pect­ed fusion between per­for­mance and design brought the art instal­la­tion to life and mas­ter­ful­ly instilled emo­tion into the sym­bol­ic Toub — a 4.5m rec­tan­gu­lar piece of fab­ric draped into a tra­di­tion­al Sudanese gar­ment over the body, and one of Omer Asim’s key pat­tern-cut­ting techniques.

For ‘Tran­sient Objects’, the duo con­cep­tu­alised 14 dif­fer­ent looks based on their design ‘pil­lars’: the Pleats, the Gilet, and the One Piece — a mod­ern spin on the Toub. “This idea of drap­ing cloth­ing and lay­er­ing fab­rics is a big part of how peo­ple dress in Sudan,” explains Antoun. “Omer comes from an archi­tec­tur­al back­ground, and I from jew­ellery mak­ing, so we were always inter­est­ed in struc­ture and con­struc­tion.” The time­less­ness of the gar­ments is the ful­fil­ment of the duo’s ded­i­ca­tion to immac­u­late crafts­man­ship and atten­tion to the mak­ing process. Toy­ing with sheer fab­rics and inno­v­a­tive ways of drap­ing, their authen­tic nature tran­scends trends and the impos­si­bly fast pace at which the fash­ion indus­try is evolv­ing, yet suc­cess­ful­ly pre­serves their mod­ern and cur­rent feel. “Our prac­tice reflects this idea of tran­sience, and how, when you move from one cul­ture to anoth­er, you bring your own with you,” con­tin­ues Antoun. Indeed, reclaim­ing cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty is an omnipresent val­ue in the label’s ethos. It is by decon­struct­ing and reap­pro­pri­at­ing tra­di­tion­al Sudanese gar­ments and objects that Antoun and Asim find a cathar­tic detach­ment from his­tor­i­cal marginalisation. 

This non-tra­di­tion­al approach to fash­ion design is fur­ther reflect­ed in the fre­quen­cy at which the duo cre­ates new col­lec­tions. Con­trary to many fash­ion brands, Omer Asim doesn’t come out with new col­lec­tions sea­son­al­ly. “When you grow up in the West, you’re faced with an abun­dance of things. We grew up in Sudan where things were scarce, so you don’t waste,” Antoun explains. “When you do some­thing, you real­ly have to com­mit to it. That’s why it’s also impor­tant for us to think about the state of the gar­ment when you take it apart.” Their pat­tern-cut­ting tech­nique, inspired by the Toub, ensures a min­i­mum amount of waste as the shape of the fab­ric is nev­er per­ma­nent­ly altered. Once the 4.5m fab­ric is laid out, the only phys­i­cal change it under­goes is sewing and drap­ing. When unstitched and decon­struct­ed, each gar­ment returns to its orig­i­nal shape. Addi­tion­al­ly, choos­ing to depict the acces­sories they cre­ate to com­pli­ment the gar­ments as ‘Objects’ rather than jew­ellery empha­sis­es on their desire to leave a long-last­ing mark on the fash­ion land­scape rather than feed­ing into a short-lived trend. 

Both Antoun and Asim are out­spo­ken advo­cates for a sus­tain­able prac­tice, and are active­ly fight­ing against the con­stant over­pro­duc­tion occur­ring in the indus­try. Their direc­tion of the label sets an exam­ple for oth­er key play­ers impact­ing the fash­ion landscape. 

Thank you to Omer Asim and Maya Antoun for their time, and Natalia Cas­sel at Cas­sel Con­sul­tan­cy for the invitation!