Nada Koreish is an “other”, always has been. But she has come to embrace this alien feeling, and through experiencing life, work and “othering” in the United Kingdom, New York City, Algeria, and even her native country, Egypt.
She has found pieces of her identity nestled in each culture and a sense of belonging in part to all of them. Growing up with so many personas to adhere to, led to the core of Nada’s research, why do we represent ourselves the way we do, fashion as a design language, how can we speak our truth through our heritage and clothing? After working in the fashion industry for over 15 years and being asked to take on jobs solely because “You’re so exotic!” “You can give it that oriental feel” “Get Nada to talk to them no one else can get through to these backward people.”
Nada Koreish decided to complete her studies and make a change to how designers are educated, by decolonizing the education system one tiny step at a time!
Nada Koreish is currently a freelance Multiplatform fashion designer, fashion theorist and trend theory lecturer in fashion futures and on the fashion Marketing degrees at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, Wales U.K.
She is currently continuing her doctoral research, with a focus on decolonizing fashion, finding a true north african design voice, through “woke” design. This led her to create her collective: fashion liberation collective (North Africa), FLCNA. The regional attribution is key, as the intent is to expand and collaborate with other regions, interested in creating an independent, or parallel fashion system. A key motivator that led to the creation of the collective was the lack of ‘native’ texts, knowledge, opinions, documentation during the colonial and post colonial periods of north Africa. Histories had been erased and merged into one oriental fantasy. It is Nada’s mission to represent the region of north Africa, by first taking steps towards a decolonial fashion system that researches and analyses the past.
Nada is currently working on a book, compiled of a collection of essays with fellow scholars which is to be released later on this year, titled “Trauma +”.
She is also working on creating the collective’s first pop up event in the Summer of 2021. The collective aims to bring to light the ‘true’ North African representations, in art and design. By owning and rewriting the gaps in our history, addressing the issues and creating a place for North African creativity we truly hope we can provide a wealth of material for design and creative student’s of the region. We aim to become scholars from North Africa, specializing in our roots. We hold events, provide a space for support and collaboration and hope this initiative will grow and add more diverse regions, hoping to create their own systems. It is our ambition that this will eventually play a role in the education of North African youth. That FLCNA will provide a platform for North African creatives to represent their heritage and showcase their work, by using our vast network and local workshops and makers. Be the change, be informed, be better.
For my children.
To follow her work and the collectives, please go to:
Fashion Liberation Collective website: https://www.fashionliberationcollective.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fashion_liberation_collective/
Research Collective for Decoloniality & Fashion 
excellent work! so proud of you 👍
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