Designers Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa and Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa, the creative minds behind Noon By Noor (Instagram), have unveiled their captivating Fall Winter 2023 collection. This visual spectacle took place at London’s Royal College of Physicians during London Fashion Week and certainly turned heads.
“For Fall-Winter 2023, we began our dialogue with images from the french Illustrator Francois Berthoud and his book titled ‘Facsimile.’ First commissioned by Anna Piaggi for Conde Nast’s Vanity Fair, his work soon appeared in all leading magazines, including Vogue, Numero and Interview. Beautiful high–impact imagery that blends art, fashion and communication created in tones of black, grey, and browns – this was a starting point. Sometimes we are so busy looking outward that we forget to look inward and this season, we also looked at the things surrounding us growing up. Art, culture and the beauty of our home,” said the manifesto.
The collection’s narrative unfolds through a captivating catwalk film, set against the backdrop of the RAK Art Foundation in Bahrain. This non-profit art gallery, founded by Bahraini artist and collector HE Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, serves as the perfect canvas for the designers’ vision. Built in 1930, the converted Bahraini house contains a wealth of works from his own oeuvre and from international artists.
The artful narrative is further enriched by the original artwork ‘CUSP’ (2020) by Shaikh Rashid. This piece beautifully captures the transition between the sun and the moon, symbolizing the fusion of East and West, masculine and feminine, light and shade. The sun and the moon, united in a mesmerizing portrayal.
The Fall-Winter 2023 collection unfolds with long, lean, and chic silhouettes, where skirts and coats gracefully kiss the floor. The designers play with contrasts, juxtaposing dense, opaque fabrics with light transparencies. The result is a wardrobe inspired by the concept of “shared” or “borrowed” menswear pieces, reimagined to create a seasonless, enduring collection that seamlessly integrates into the wearer’s closet.
Column-cut cowl front dresses showcase precision cuts and constructions, offering the ease of a t-shirt. Classic sailor collars find their place on t-shirt-shaped shirts and tunics. Lean quilted coats and jackets are paired with dresses, creating long, languid looks in bias cuts, all fashioned from soft melton wools. Jackets are meticulously crafted and precisely cut, often pieced together using a range of noir tones. The designs conjure a 90s minimal New York scene infused with elements of tradition, craftsmanship, and avant-garde glamour, transforming the familiar into something entirely new.
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