Fashion Designer, Flou et Tailleur
Fashion Design (BFA), 2024
He/him
[email protected]
@Portfolio
@Instagram
Languages spoken: English, Arabic, French
Youssef is a trilingual fashion designer from Lebanon. His fashion training began when he started doing illustrations for small couture brands in Beirut, before moving to France to pursue a fashion education at Parsons Paris. Throughout the course of his degree, he has worked for couture brands in Lebanon, namely in the Elie Saab atelier where he was initiated in the craft of couture. His interest in learning also led him to train in the Camps de Luca atelier in Paris as a bespoke tailoring apprentice, working for premium clients as well as top French luxury houses.
With a passion for traditional craft, Youssef’s design practice is informed by a formal training in both haute couture and bespoke tailoring, drawing inspiration from both the soft and the rigid to explore contemporary design.
Thesis Title: Gravesend
This collection is inspired by photographs of British soldiers cross-dressing in their time of leisure during WW2. The photographs by Royal Air Force documentary photographer John Topham immortalise the unlikely instance when the Christmas Charity pantomime performance of December 1940 was interrupted by a coastal alarm in the defence barracks of Gravesend, Kent. The officers armed the canons while still donning the babydoll dresses they were performing in moments ago, now wrinkled under the weight of military greatcoats hastily draped over their shoulders as they ran to the defense lines.