Designer Brand Watch: Rawan Maki Design House
24-03-2025
Amalgamating her background in environmental engineering with contemporary fashion design, Rawan Maki hones her craft in London and advocates sustainable style, creating each garment as a “system”, aesthetically and additionally in connection with zero-waste design ideologies.
Achieving zero-waste patterns, Maki conscientiously employs organic fabrications as well as ecological footwear, wherein her Autumn/Winter 2017 debut she used Bhava Studio and Po-Zu footwear amid her Spring/Summer 2018 collection, a sustainable label who creates leather extracted from pineapples in collaboration with Pinatex.
As an extension from last seasons “Waves of the Future” line, where the designs and textures were collectively revolutionary and nostalgic, Rawan Maki’s SS18 collection, entitled “FLOURISH: FLOWERS IN OUTER SPACE” (pictured right) encapsulates tumbling “river” sleeves, tailored albeit voluminous bows, vivid linens, and an “envelope” dress that arrives modern and bespoke, which is reminiscent of Balenciaga’s envelope dress masterwork.
With inspiration from the influence of nature to overcome, Rawan describes “FLOURISH: FLOWERS IN OUTER SPACE” as “flourishing is part of the human state, and many times we need to go through elongated periods of dynamic equilibrium – which are periods where you feel like you are running in place, but in reality a lot is happening- to achieve a higher state. Or in other words, to flourish.” Visually discovering inspiration from the workings of artists Azuma Makoto and Nguyen The Hung, the upcoming designer was aesthetically intrigued by their floral delineation seen amid aboriginal or abstract locales.
Rawan Maki’s collections are produced in small runs in limited quantities, while selected pieces are made-to-order. Her designs are available online globally at www.rawanmaki.com. The collection is also available in-store in Bahrain – at Victory Route 88, Aali Mall, and Beirut – at Larishka Boutique, opposite Aishti.
Words by Kate Farley
Images from the Rawan Maki SS18 and Resort collections.
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