Chest: Abdel El Tayeb & Ib Kamara

• How would you describe what you do?

Abdel El Tayeb: I am a fashion designer and founder of my brand El Tayeb Nation. Born in 1993 in South West France (Bordeaux) to Sudanese parents, I use my multicultural heritage as a starting point in my collections. My work explores cultural identity, the definition of home within the context of globalisation, through an in temporal wardrobe between couture and ready-to-wear that combines Arabic-Sudanese ancestral craftsmanship with Western military tailoring.

• What’s your background?

AET: I hold a Textile Design bachelor's degree from Olivier de Serres and Duperré (Paris) and a Fashion Design Master’s degree from La Cambre MODE/S/ (Brussels). During my studies, I interned at Ann Demeulemeester, Maison Martin Margiela in Artisanal with John Galliano. I am now working as a womenswear designer at Bottega Veneta in Milan, at the same time as developing my brand. I won the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize in 2021.

• What inspires you?

AET: The main source of inspiration is my family, especially my mother and my sister. I like to explore the boundaries between art and fashion and my inspirations comes from different medium of art and art applied. Artists that creates an ART TOTAL such as Jean Paul Goude, Sonia Delaunay, the Bauhaus, literature like James Baldwin. Music inspire me a lot. I am attracted by visual musicians, artists such as Sevdaliza. Sustainability is also an actual matter that triggers my practice. I believe in slow fashion as a more respectful way of producing. I want put Sudanese ancestral heritage into the global world, by merging Sudanese basketry embroidery with a contemporary tailored and empowering wardrobe.

• What is the ambition behind your practice?

AET: For me, fashion is a complete medium that connects textile to a moving body, to identity, to images and videos. It allows me to talk about societal problematics that are tied with my history, such as cultural identity, the definition of home within the context of globalisation, the place of black people in Europe. My ambition with EL TAYEB NATION, is to give a sense of belonging and empowerment to diaspora, by creating the narrative of a fictive and joyful nation rooted between France and Sudan that is representing multitudes of identities. EL TAYEB NATION is a community of people with global identity defined by their experience through the world.

• What did you hope to convey with your Bodies Of Knowledge film?

AET: In the globalised world, the diaspora has to deal with a gap of identification because of their multiple origins and the absence of role models in the society and in the media. Born in France from Sudanese parents, I found myself stuck in the middle between the two. Although tied to both cultures, I couldn’t fully identify with either of them, leaving me with a need to recontextualise by creating EL TAYEN NATION. With this film 'The Queen is Coming', I wanted to dive into the surreal world of EL TAYEB NATION by teaming up with Ib Kamara. We wanted to develop together a suspended and timeless moment, in black and white, capturing the different characters of El Tayeb Nation, including the Nubian queen president and her officers with the chest decorated by the national decoration.