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. 

“{ des roses }“…From a resting landscape, they survived with their worn petals and unforgiving resilience. Through the challenges of wind and rain these roses face, there is unabashed beauty in survival and in the worn edges that show that we gave it all. ”

Fil de Vie’s third part collection, Rose du Désert, revels in Utah’s serene landscape as much as it does in its French birthplace. This collection has a strong sense of place. Resonating with the meditative and spiritual flow of mesas and rock formations, while respecting the land, it evokes a liberating ritual of dance and movement that celebrates life.  With weightless organic silks, soft as the wisps of clouds that grace early spring skies and aflutter with petal-like flounces, this collection is equally bathed in the shimmer of sun and draped in moody shadows. Boldly printed ruffled silhouettes, serpent-like trains, embroidered silks, and encrustations of florals woven from the earth, reflect an uninterrupted stream of local vegetation. A palette lifted from the desert paints the pieces in the rich red and earthen hues of an awakening canyon landscape, the vibrant yellows of feather – like spring petals, the saturated blues of a spring afternoon, and the deep golds, ambers, and ever-changing pinks of desert skies.

Here in a dramatic and the magical backdrop of Amangiri, a space that holds a special healing place in my heart, with muses — Dani Fortin and Erica Almeida, we continue the narrative of this timeless capsule collection. A narrative that references the suspension between fairytale dream and fulsome reality, the regal past & present preservation of native lands. Earth, Sky, Water, and Fire – Nature, Movement and Freedom – all principles braided into an ethereal collective. Rose du Désert travels a bridge through time between the art of today and art history of the past, between the worlds of great poets & the spirit of Nature.

As someone who has bloomed an identity thru travel, this is my most clearly autobiographical collection. A creative collaboration between what I see, create and feel that makes me whole, this collection is comprised of 13 frames photographed in film, as the rhythm of the sun governed our days. With the intent to portray reflections of ourselves through a truer lens, the chorus of light from sunrise to sunset imbued just the right imperfect quality, to perfectly recreate what it felt like to stand there in each breathtaking moment. The barely-touched images are languid, luxurious, and dreamlike – an authentic representation of the collection and muses in the setting that brought them to life.

“Each day is the birth and death of a new sun” – a proverb of the Navajo Indians

I’m always looking forward. With the wind that carries no colors to warn you of her arrival, comes the uncertainty of the day – we can never truly know anything. As a cancer survivor – I’m living to the fullest today and planning for everything to be even better and more beautiful tomorrow. The world recently came to a pause, solitude as a state of being became all too familiar – and it’s emotion and creative impact are reflected in the pieces of this collection. As Fil de Vie continues on its lifeline, I want it to celebrate the quality of life. To celebrate being present in a single moment – to simply be still. And to me that holds infinite meaning and power.

“The moment was all;  
the moment was enough.”  
– Virginia Wolf

An ode to Provence

 
Slow, sweet summer mornings, leaning into long hazy afternoons, fading into intimate cinq-a-sept hours, spending time with friends & family, sharing moments. This year, as we find ourselves deep in the days of a summer unlike any that’s come before, we are creating that familiar sense of connection in unexpected – and often beautifully poignant ways.
 
This collection was conceptualized in Provence. An ode to Monet’s garden with the lure of weathered rose blooms – beautiful, ethereal, and tangled just as all good fairy tales can be.  This sustainable collection reflects pieces of me, weaving the story of what was around me – with humility, and respect for that time, place and the earth. Timeless enchanting pieces with soft silky silhouettes and easy – ruffled lace gowns, this collection is for life’s most precious moments, hence it’s name, Fil de Vie, “thread of life.”
 
Now, as the world has come to a pause, we choose to collectively create around it. This campaign is an ode to the very moment – a moment in which we are striving for connection wherever we can get it, holding our loved ones closer than ever, and finding the greater meaning in our work and creative collective.  This was an intimate setting by design, where instead of bringing her to Provence, I re-lived Provence through my muse.
 
Photographed in California by an unscripted pairing of a designer ( turned photographer ) and muse ( turned to stylist ), on medium format film, are barely re-touched reflections of a slow song of temperate breezes in the garden, natural yet dramatic light throughout the chateau and nothing short of belly aching laughs and glasses of rose. These images are intimate portraits of life as we live it: slow and steady with simplicity, full of a sweet sultriness, full of new understandings, and full of love. There is something intimate and special about experiencing a creative vision designed with precisely those moments in mind, translated so sheerly. I felt as if the spirit of Provence’s balmy warmth and dreamy, intimate landscape was toasting to life with us.
 
Discover { part 1 of 4 series } love letters to High Summer 2020 from Provence to California

A storied study of film, mood & light…

Short Video | Justin Preston & Ian Dooley

72nd EDITION FESTIVAL DE CANNES
WOMEN IN MOTION

This collection is an ode to real life muses – equal parts delicate and bold, paying homage to the countless dualities that live within us all – and that make us all whole.

“In pure and luminous shades of white – we designed a handful of exclusive dresses for Cannes placing a women’s strength on full display.  A portfolio of real life muses and their stories for the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival alongside L’Oreal Paris Beauty, Chopard and Women In Motion – where beauty becomes a bridge between believers and unbelievers.” 

With its graceful form, punctuated with delicate woven knit, and imbricated layers, the Poet Dress was desgined for dreamers. Like a perfectly crafted poem, this romance-filled dress artfully dances the boundary between structure and free-flowing ease.

Drawing from the spirit of dance, movement and surrealism, Omaskas designs exemplify a personal truth that the ocean has long been a foundational source of creative inspiration for my collections and storytelling. Coastal living and my connectedness to the sea have brought me to a far deeper understanding of the critical importance of preserving and protecting our oceans. Beyond it’s beauty, the ocean is fundamental to life on this planet, as among other things, it is responsible for providing at least half the oxygen we breathe, and much of the food we consume.  This has resulted in many “dead zones” in oceans around the world where pollution has created large areas that simply cannot support marine life.

The fashion & textiles industry is one of the largest culprits in polluting our oceans in a variety of ways…from the massive quantities of pesticides used to grow cotton, to the chemicals from textile dyeing that are discharged into our waterways, to the microfibers that pollute the marine environment every time we wash clothes made from synthetic materials, like nylon and the spandex from our yoga outfits.

I’m ever conscious of the broader societal and environmental responsibilities that we all shoulder as human beings, and in particular, those that are unique to being a resort wear designer. Omaskas has always focused on sustainable approaches (dyeing with reduced water waste, use of organic silks and natural materials, working with groups that explore ways to reduce water and chemical use in the process) and we are striving toward ultimately achieving a goal of 100% sustainability. Each of us needs to see how we can individually champion the healthful preservation of our world so that we, and all those who come after us, can continue to enjoy and celebrate the people, experiences, lands and the oceans that so enrich our lives.

K A L I T H A  &  S A H R A

The Kalitha Dress and Sahra Dress were both carefully constructed in ethereal, hand-printed silk, and adorned with delicate petal-like ruffles designed to evoke the textures of the sea and beach, echoing the forms of time-weathered rock formations, abandoned seashells, and webs of seaweed strands strewn across the surrounding sands.

“No ocean, no life. No blue, no green. No ocean, no us.”
~ Dr. Sylvia Earle
 
Photographed by Melissa Isabel and filmed by Frankie Lerox on Rockaway Beach in NY, we captured Alena Renay wearing Omaskas – a homecoming for it’s true spirit, a restorative beauty, and a true endless summer. Raising a different set of questions in us, which is the beginning of impactful change.
 
#FORTHEOCEANS
 

“Transcending her art through time – she became her own inspiration…”
 
The golden glow of the twilight sun washes over Provence, as she dances through the suspense harbored in alluring moments between day and night.  There is a lush tension in these twilight hours, offering a space in time with the promise of myriad possibilities yet to be revealed. She has forged her own path to be here, creating her art through walking the paths of poets. 

This series of collections is a marriage of all her worlds. Inspired by the spirit and sensuality of her own discovery, they reveal a deliberate, exquisitely crafted interplay between the casual gentility of the Provençal countryside and the sultry allure of the Cote D’Azur. 
“The mythology and magic of the south of France permeates every inch of draped fabric. It’s a diffused magic, creating portraits of living that are sometimes a bit smudgy, and neither completely clear nor harsh.” 

Movement of delicate fabric, the poetry of gouache prints, intricate & regal lace, and embroidered jewels create boldly feminine pieces, adorning her serious intent – as if she were rekindling an old love-affair…

RENÉE VIVIEN 
To the Well-Beloved
 
“You are my palace, my evening and my autumn,
And my sail of silk and my garden of lilies,
My censer of gold and my white column,
My parkland, and my pool, with its reeds and its iris.
 
You are my perfumes of amber and honey, my palm,
My leafy boughs, the cicadas’ song on the breeze,
My snow that is dying of hauteur and calm,
And my sea-wrack and my vistas of the seas.
 
And you are my bell that sobs with unvarying tone,
My airy island and my saving oasis…
You are my palace, my evening and my autumn,
And my sail of silk and my garden of lilies.”

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” – Albert Camus
 
The soft, dreamy and romantic. I’ve always yearned for it and now it mirrors my everyday life – lavender fields along the country side of France dappled in afternoon light – a glistening glass of wine. Portraits of living that are dreamy, sometimes a bit smudgy, and neither completely clear nor harsh. Reality and fantasy continue to collide in serendipity as I let each daily chapter in Provence change my muse and me. And just as the seasons change the vines, I hope that the coming spring’s new awakenings herald even greater blooms.

“A taste for the grand and passion for the humble” – Anon
 
“…How grey clouds often blanketed bright blue summer skies, pouring rain, yet ushering a calmness into heady afternoons. This is where fantasy and reality collided for me – to a place only we know.

Tied and slightly undone. The woven construction was influenced by textures of coarse sand, fragments of shell and coral. The mood reflects what drove Syrian poet Qabbani wild about the soul of a woman – celebrating the depths of how she loves so fiercely, yet delicately constrained with content.

“Things that stand still, don’t evolve.”

Embracing the fluidity in motion and the emotion of color, exploring the surface of silk – the incongruity of it’s delicate and romantic sheer weave in poetic motion. With it’s stunning veins in patterns – each layered between one another in a dreamy new adventure from dusk till dawn.

The journey continues as an ongoing celebration of feminine allure. Our muse embraces the poise and power of her complexity, as she reigns over the mystique of Cannes in the orchid glow of the Mediterranean sky. The 2017 capsule collection emerges from visions of film makers in tune with approachable design, perfectly harmonizing the poetic and pragmatic. “I wanted to illustrate the elusive dance between feminine and fierce, grounded and free. Sometimes it’s ALSO about owning the moment and dressing for seduction. Feeling alluring, sensual, a bit mysterious. Other times you want to feel open and empowered – fully embracing the power of your own complexity.” Romantic cascading ruffles, gouache water color prints, bohemian embellishments, asymmetric hems and cut-out shoulders create rhythmic unrestricted pieces that express a woman’s identity with casual grace and an essential ease of movement.