RAD by Rad Hourani (ING.)

RAD by Rad Hourani (ING.)

It was the beginning of springtime when I found myself participating during the New York Fashion Week 2012; I almost couldn’t believe I was in one of the most important fashion capitals of the world during exactly that week.

To be there in person, at RAD by Rad Hourani ‘s show RTW FALL 2012, was spectacular. Both because he impresses me as a person himself and because his unisex shows always speaks to me. Time after time, in less then 15 minutes, he succeeds to amaze me with his idealistic and modernistic collections. Just the feeling of being there, mingling with all of this fashion people who circulates around me, makes me feel complete.

Rad Hourani’s work has a concrete direction where all of his products are specifically designed to be unisex. He reinvents fashion by going beyond its conventions, creating a unisex luxury that has changed men’s and women’s wardrobe since he launched his first label, at age of 25, in Paris 2007. Not only does Hourani represent fashion, he defines it, and gives it a cultural meaning.

The RTW FALL Collection 2012 was a study in green. Colors didn’t have an important role in this collection; only two shades of green appeared on the runway, a soft khaki and a hunter green. Mostly, as a matter of fact, he used black as a base color with the green appearing as a contrast color. That from time to time, showed up as a geometric addition on the all black garments. There wasn’t much to say about this show that hasn’t been said of Hourani before: the lines were strict and the silhouettes were skinny and vertical. The outerwear was uniformly cool, thinly padded coats in wool and leather. The collection played with new shapes and fabrics, focused silhouettes of the same unisex signature look and offered in different materials with a comfortable fit. Hourani’s objective was to create garments that can be worn by anyone at any time. He creates a luxurious yet affordable clothing that has relieved itself of any conventional restrictions: no gender, no season, no rules, characterizing the values of freedom and passion for modernity.

 

Rad Hourani was born in 1982 in Jordan, from a Jordanian father and a Syrian mother. As a teenager he moved to Montreal, Canada, with his family. Shortly after his High School graduation, he started scouting for a Modeling Agency and eventually worked full time as a stylist. He moved to Paris in 2005, where he designed his first collection. Since his first show during Paris haute couture week in July 2012, Rad Hourani has become the first designer to present unisex haute couture show in history.

 Rad Hourani

“I started imagining clothes the same way I started creating images: with a sense of curiosity and innocence driven by my no-background background. No school. No teachers. No tells. No boundaries. No formatting. I like the idea of a world that we could live and shape by ourselves, only by observing. My clothes have erupted from this world of mine. They are asexual, unseasonal, they come from no place, no time, no tradition, yet they could be home anywhere, anytime. They exude a sense of discreet chic, the essence of timeless style, drawn on a monochromatic and graphical canvas. Palette of blacks and shades of timeless colors. Sophisticated unisex modern classics for anti-conformist individuals.” – Rad Hourani

Rad Hourani

When looking at his work that he has created at a very young age, one could say he is part of the avant-garde. He may appear as an abstract artist and designer, but more deeply you can find a more romantic sensitivity underneath the functional and abstract pieces. The ideas of purity and the inspiration of romanticism are precisely what makes Rad contemporary.

“Contemporary is the obsession of a moment that could last forever, an illusion of what is timeless now” – Rad Hourani

Tamara Difonis
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