QASIMI Spring/Summer 2026 Honors Ten Years of Design Through Memory, Movement, and Material
Source: QASIMI
Reported By: Caroline Dalal
In Milan this June, QASIMI unveiled a Spring/Summer 2026 collection that transcends trend, channeling something far more enduring: memory as material, transformation as language, and fashion as a form of cultural archaeology.
This season is more than a sartorial offering—it's a tribute to ten years of Hoor Al-Qasimi’s stewardship and the eleventh collection she has crafted in honor of the brand’s late founder, Khalid Al Qasimi. Rooted in his worldview and aesthetic ethos, the collection draws deeply on themes of cross-cultural exchange, hybridity, and time—threads that run throughout both Khalid’s early work and Hoor’s evolving vision for the house.
A Tactile Vocabulary of Memory and Place
QASIMI’s signature earthy palette—deep browns, muted blacks, warm sand tones—is present and purposeful, offering continuity amid the collection’s otherwise shape-shifting compositions. Layering plays a central role. Shirts are stacked in repeated silhouettes, recalling the buildup of lived experiences. Garments appear at once protective and revealing, with modular forms that echo both military wear and ritual dress.
The use of memory nylon, a standout textile this season, is emblematic of the collection’s conceptual depth. This responsive fabric retains the physical traces of movement—creases that fade over time—serving as a visual metaphor for impermanence, trauma, and renewal. These garments shift with the body, holding space for moments already passed.
Structured tailoring merges with utilitarian codes: jackets split and recombine, trousers become skirts, and modular outerwear is weighted with functional pockets. It’s a collection informed by duality—soft versus structured, ancient versus contemporary, geographic versus personal.
Artistic Collaboration as Design Methodology
For Spring/Summer 2026, QASIMI partners with Dala Nasser, a Lebanese artist known for her site-specific and process-based practice. Her influence surfaces in raw edges, doodle-stitched embroidery, and distressed finishings—an aesthetic echo of the landscapes and ruins she explores through her work.
"The collaboration with QASIMI... has been one of the most inspiring experiences an artist could hope for. It was deeply moving to see the team come up with exciting ways to channel my art, crafting garments that echo the transient nature of memory.”
Artist Dala Nasser
The collection’s emotional register is heightened by its refusal to over-resolve. Loose threads dangle. Frayed hems remain raw. Each imperfection is intentional, resisting the overly polished in favor of the poetic.
Crafting the Future from the Past
Accessories continue the narrative of fluid identity and evolving forms. Crocheted keychains, shaped as imagined hybrid animals, offer a subtle yet striking reminder of the fusion at the heart of this season’s message. And in a quiet but significant gesture toward sustainability, QASIMI incorporates surplus materials throughout the collection, recontextualizing the past into present luxury.
Behind the scenes, a team of collaborators—including stylist Hanna Kelifa, hair by Laurence Walker, makeup by Laura Dominique, and music direction by Mimi Xu—translated the conceptual foundation into a runway experience that felt cohesive without being literal. Concept and spatial design by Leon Kacinari further underscored the collection’s meditative tempo.
QASIMI SS26 is not concerned with spectacle—it’s concerned with meaning. Through material choices and intentional imperfection, the collection invites reflection, honors absence, and insists on fashion’s potential as a carrier of culture, memory, and change.