Casablanca - Fall/Winter 2023-2024 - Paris Fashion Week

The London-based, French-Moroccan designer Charaf Tajer showcased his Casablanca 2023 Fall collection that paid homage to the young individuals who have chosen to remain in Syria, in the war-torn city, and lead their lives with joy and resilience. The show, which featured a multicolor checkerboard floor and a fighter jet covered in pink flowers, aimed to contrast the themes of war and love, with love ultimately prevailing.

The collection itself was a vibrant array of colors and styles, ranging from a peppermint trouser suit to a sparkly Elvis-inspired jacket with red, green, and yellow panels, and even a Liberace-esque white cape trimmed with sequins. Other pieces, such as a white tennis dress with black and peppermint stripes and ’70s style suits with a Casablanca heart pattern, exuded a more subdued, bourgeois charm.

Tajer drew inspiration from the colors of Damascus, evident in the ombré dresses in sunset hues and the embroidered ombré denim included in the collection. While some may criticize the sparkly, belted checkerboard coats and heavy-duty sequined embellishments being overwhelming as opposed to the message about war and the pain that comes with it that the brand wants to send, Tajer’s message was clear: to bring attention to the ongoing conflict in Syria and the resilience of its people, 12 years after the civil war began.

“We have a simple choice today: to accept the tragedy or to use our platform to spread this important message. I’m not saying fashion is the solution, and some people might say ‘it’s just clothes,’ but the idea is to use our voices to shout loudly, and to do anything we can to make a better world. The purpose of this collection is it’s a piece of theatre, inspired by courage, reflecting the pain and the beauty I witnessed in a warzone,” said Charaf Tajer.