About

Omar & Shukri Shot by Christian Stemmler

Trashy Clothing is a Ready-to-wear Palestinian fashion label characterized by a daring mix of satire, kitsch, and wit. The label's goal is to address difficult political circumstances by conveying design statements of anti-colonial resistance and joyful artistic militancy. In the face of the ongoing occupation, joy is weaponized through fashionable humour to actively resist colonial attempts of erasure. An "anti-luxury luxury fashion label,” Trashy Clothing questions Western geographies, power dynamics, and aesthetic norms that dominate the contemporary fashion industry.

Under the co-creative direction of Omar Braika and Shukri Lawrence, the brand produces and showcases collections tackling issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and race, using fashion as a medium for challenging pre-established knowledges. With a focus on the Middle East, the collections, often inspired by Arab music icons and popular culture, with references to workwear, clubwear, and eveningwear, are transnational as well.

Trashy is about storytelling under occupation, about working through complex feelings and contradictions, and using satire as a register through which to express resilience. Indeed, storytelling is at the core of the brand's design mission: through such staple items as the "Inspection trousers," the "Identity Hood jacket," and the "Tourist Wrap skirt," issues like pinkwashing, artwashing, and cultural appropriation are exposed. The lookbooks and campaigns of the collections put the clothing into context and offer the viewer and consumer an aesthetic anchor to the political consciousness that animates the brand. Trashy Clothing doesn’t simply present clothes for their aesthetic value, but rather opens their consumers’ eyes, often through mockery, to the historical, social, and political stories behind its collections.

Written by Roberto Filippello