“I had this need to tell to share my vision of aesthetics because I always felt that I was not understood,” says atlalfromgalbi’s founder Lilia Yasmin. “I felt that North Africa and the Arabic worlds were absent from fashion, so my experiences in the industry plus my love of culture led me to create atlalfromgalbi - a label designed from the roots.”

The designer cut her teeth at Louis Vuitton where she worked on the strategy for Virgil Abloh’s menswear, and more recently at Balenciaga, before founding her label in 2019. A desire to highlight Algerian culture is its MO, which is reflected in the brand name – ‘galbi’ is Arabic for heart. “I want to express that our country has a singular beauty,” she enthuses. “The line of architecture, the faces of the population, the light and the plurality of the landscape needs and deserves to be shown and to be told. The energy of the country is my number one inspiration.”

The collections are unisex and tend to consist of impeccably cut athleisure silhouettes embroidered with Arabic or splashed with watercolour-style prints of the country. But the label is not without a sense of humour – one of the most popular designs is stitched with the words ‘Yves Saint L’Oran’. This reference to the fact that of one of France’s most famous designers was in fact born in the city of Oran, in the north west of Algeria, also alludes to the shared (if not always positive) history of the two countries.

The designer was born to Algerian parents in Paris, which is where she grew up. University took her to Italy – back to France – and on to the U.S, and it’s that time spent as an expat that made her want to reconnect with her heritage. “When I was away from home, I would use music, movies and literature to keep connected to my roots as it was the only way to remind myself of being back with my family,” she reveals. “I was walking down Madison Avenue with Cheb Hasni in my ears - this is the moment when the concrete idea of atlal and the Designed by the Roots motto came to me.”

The launch of her AW21 collection, Wilaya of Roots, was accompanied by a fashion film shot in Paris’ Grand Mosque, which, slap bang in the middle of the 5th arrondissement aka The Latin Quarter, is an expression of the pluralities of the city. It was captured by queer Algerian filmmaker Sarra Ryma. “I had the idea to present my couture collection on a digital runway. When I met Sarra, she already knew about the brand and the story I was telling with atlal, so we started to work together,” she says.

Ryma adds: “To pay tribute to this collection, it was important to mix the North African pictorial tradition with more modern poses and attitudes. We played with elements of decorations and accessories to build an oriental painting while creating a gap with the power of the models. Through these images, we agree to see beauty beyond gender, sexual orientation, religion or ethnic origins while digging from our common imagination.”

This celebration of cultures coming together is one of the things that connects these two artists. “Through my clothes, I want to share the wealth of multiculturalism that we have today thanks to our travels, heritages and histories, which build our identity,” says Yasmin. “The aim of the label is to spread our culture into fashion, to combine the modern and traditional into everyday style.”

This love letter to cultural diversity is sound tracked by the equally eclectic Acid Arab, a French collective of DJs and musicians who mix the likes of Rachid Taha and Sofiane Saidi with electronic music. “It was an honour for me to work with Acid Arab - they have way of expressing Algerian heritage through their music that is insane,” says Yasmin. “So, when I wrote to Hervé to ask for the rights to the music and he said that he loved the film and that we can go with the track Staifia - it meant the world to me.”

Creative direction Lilia Yasmin - atlal
Film direction Sara Ryma
Production Julie Mathieu
Styling Laure Orset Prelet
Music Acid Arab
Words Miriam Bouteba

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Published on 10/02/2021