“…If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes.” – Agnès Vardas

Swelling generously with beauty, light and life, these hazy warm days of early summer are a time of grounding, offering moments of reflection. Moments when the heart can rest and when one can just be in existence.

When designing our Noor Collection { meaning divine light } we did just that, recalling radiant patterns and prints that manifest our fondest memories of the UAE. Threaded with nostalgia, the collection abounds with rich desert tones, bold prints, and gently sculptured silhouettes – all infused with the casual ease of our California & French lifestyle aesthetic.

It’s a celebration of the extraordinary role of Emirati women who have grown with and have been fundamental to the development of the region – balancing ambitious aspirations of modernization while maintaining core values with tolerance and inclusion.

The capsule collection is a visual language founded on volume and modesty, offering a personal journey through wanderlust and discovery, shadow and light, and memories revealed and soon to unfold.

Setting:

We casually followed our muse with a camera, capturing the ambient lights and shadows to evoke the purity of the scene, moment, and time. A journey through enlightenment and discovery across three regions in the UAE, exploring through her eyes an underrepresented perspective of the diversity of this land and it’s culture.

The campaign captures a series of unpolished imagery across vastly diverse landscapes: sandcastle-like dwellings along a painted, sweeping desert scape in the Empty Quarter, Abu Dhabi, hymns of prayers echoing thru an enclave of preserved and reimagined historic structures in the heart of Sharjah, light saluting the passing dark on a tryst along Dubai Creek – navigating the crossing to the less glossy streets of Old town { Bur Dubai } on an Abra with a lavish backdrop of the mainland, finally settling into the evening hours as shadows race to awaken the stars glistening along Jumeirah Beach. Each step along these soils is it’s own story of place, person and purpose.

Collection Pieces:

The effortlessly versatile styles in this { part 1 of 4 series } embrace the magical time between seasons, carrying an emotional weight – ephemeral, enrapturing, yet harmoniously connected to the cultures of this place. Silhouettes are imbued with new meaning as raw silk and intricate crocheted florals spin across body-skimming silhouettes, reflecting rhythms of bleached desert stone pathways. Tones of citrus fruit and orchid flora, cut out bodices and cascading – floor sweeping layers, fixed in silk textures, mimic the complex desert landscape.

A trailing of gold floral motifs – reviving age old embroidery techniques – floated against a gently crackled ground painted in layers mirroring the effects of time and sun – a juxtaposition of light and shade, and the feelings that emerge – lending a visual perspective that seamlessly brings together color, light & narrative.