Since many years we keep on asking the same question about the future of High Fashion doubting of it more and more.
But will the fashion survive if we lose the fashion dream’s factory, the laboratory where everything is born and ends?
Couture is transforming, nevertheless, hopefully, it will never disappear. Rami Kadi is in the heart of this transformation. This Lebanese-American fashion designer started to showcase his collections in Paris in 2014 during the city’s official Fashion weeks. He held his debut Fashion Show in January 2019. Rami Kadi pioneered the environmentally conscious fashion cyber-show in 2020, which was the first in the Middle East.
Kadi owns and manages his couture house from Beirut-Lebanon, designing evening and bridal couture dresses and operating his label worldwide.
International celebrities made their appearance wearing his spectacular dresses at Cannes and Venice film festivals.
The designer is famous for marrying the latest technical innovations and unique artisanship. Thus, he cannot stand aside from the rapid rise of NFTs and metaverse. His Couture Spring-Summer 2022 collection untitled “Lucid Algorithms”, is an ode to a world which sees the physical and the digital rethink the boundaries that separate them.
We have been pleased and honored to meet this pioneer of new digital high fashion in his showroom in Paris.
Streetwear has its own space in fashion, as – does couture. These two categories differ in terms of the physical spaces they occupy, where couture is worn in places that streetwear isn’t, since they designate two totally different realms. However, couture designers must always be adapting to the changes in what the clients and consumers, more generally, want to see. So today, when we are working on nouvelle couture, the pieces are evidently more flexible, easy to wear, and cool in a way that caters to the evolved couture style of our clients.
I believe that the future оf couture is designated by its reach that is becoming very niche, which also entails couture being less affordable for the general public, rendering it more exclusive. I also see couture leaning towards nouvelle couture which is what Rami Kadi Maison de Couture is already doing.
Rami Kadi Maison de Couture has embarked on the journey of sustainability with the SS20 couture collection, where the brand’s DNA has become shaped by notions of sustainability that include responsible production and the promotion of sustainable consumption to our audience and the world. As UNEP’s Goodwill Ambassador for sustainable fashion, its my duty to make sure that fashion is producing the least environmental impact possible from both the producer and receiver ends. Rami Kadi did the first cyber show in the region before Covid-19 in the aims of reducing the carbon footprint, in addition to creating a dress fully made with recycled plastic, in the SS2020 collection. But Rami Kadi hasn’t stopped being sustainable with every collection, by continually using recycled material and old fabrics to create couture pieces, and always taking the route of ethical and cruelty-free materials.
As a pioneer of technology in couture, I felt the need to push couture and fashion in the direction of innovation and modernity to keep up with the digital trends that are arising in a world that has blurred the lines between the virtual and the real. It is necessary to bring couture into the metaverse and the NFT world to fill in the gap, because not many brands of our standing have entered this field. It is a huge step not only for Rami Kadi Maison de Couture but for the couture and fashion world as a whole. Hence, Lucid Algorithms NFT collection is the first ever human-computer collaboration of this scale. It comprises of 120 NFTs that represent the Algorithm’s computation of my couture elements, which created unprecedented visuals that combine the creativity and perception of both humankind and machinery. That doesn’t take away Rami Kadi’s brand DNA however, which is evident in all and every collection we ever do, with an innovation in style.
As the metaverse is becoming a replication of the real world, but digitally, I believe that High Fashion in the metaverse will be needed the same way it is needed here. Avatars in the metaverse that are represented by people in real life, would want to duplicate their personal fashion styles and outlooks onto their avatars. So, if you’re a couture lover in the real world, you would want to show that in the metaverse as well. This is why embarking on this step early on sets up the possibility of allowing individuals to portray their personal affinities in the metaverse.
I believe that inspiration can come from anything, even at your worst moments. I wouldn’t say there are specific places that inspire me, I try to look for inspiration all around me.
Yes, I believe that fashion started in Paris and it will continue to be the capital of fashion. In the next 5 years we will definitely be seeing more cyber shows and fashion shows in the metaverse, but that doesn’t mean Paris will ever stop being the city of fashion.
I think we’re all regularly wearing gender-free fashion, whether we realize it or not, which include the loose joggers, hoodies, or sweatshirts.
To all young designers who are willing to start their journey, I encourage you to work very hard on yourself and start from zero to be able to become who you want to be. Starting from zero might not be as glamorous, but it’s the only way to achieve your dreams with your own persistence and creativity.
