KML creative director Ahmed Hassan’s second collection was less a sophomore sequel than the next chapter of his story, as the Saudi designer continues to refine his strong visual language.
Rendered in a strict palette of black, white and grey, his discipline is anchored in reinterpretations of traditional Arabic dress, particularly the sirwal, reworked into draping constructions and modular tailoring.
Details included panels crossing the torso, folded waistbands to place the interior curtaining on display, and engineered draping that extended into capes or trains. Pleating added structure without stiffness, while frock coats and jackets added another layer of refined austerity.
Having the collection rendered in crisp cottons and fine knit wools kept everything militarily precise, while the details were often at the back of garments, with buttons, V-collars and ties across open backs.
Trousers can be wrapped and rebuttoned in multiple ways, shifting the volume and silhouette depending on how they are worn.
“We give the wearer the freedom to play with it,” said Hassan, framing it as part of his design logic.
Tassels on wrists and hems swayed with a slow, almost meditative rhythm, echoing the opening film of a traditional Arabic dance. In traditional dress, their placement on a garment can signal regional origin, and Hassan hopes to revive them as a modern motif.
Presented inside the dark concrete space underground at the Institut du Monde Arabe, models walked barefoot across a plush white carpet, which added to the stripped-back clarity of the show.
The collection is co-ed in construction but not framed as “genderless,” and Hassan avoids trend-driven language. Instead, his work is simply a unified system of form and function – garments designed less to declare identity than elevate the wearer with an almost pious devotion.
This may be the only conflict in the collection. These are clothes that feel closer to art objects in motion than an everyday uniform.
