hybrid abstraction

Fashion Director: Joseph Toronka

"Mara fashion editorial shot for The Study abroad programme at The London College of Fashion was shot in Dhaka Bangladesh. It came with many challenges, during the COVID lock down, but the result was beautiful, enchanting and the right balance of cross-cultural references resulting in a globally appealing shoot"

Creative Development and Styling: Mara Rah

​Our notion of movement has changed drastically over the last year due to the Covid pandemic. In many ways, our freedom to move has changed, it has become constricted - which sometimes makes us feel lost.

During my time in my home country - Bangladesh - I would drink my coffee in front of the paintings of Shahbuddin Ahmed. The brush strokes in his work would always translate a sense of dynamism across Bangladeshi natural landscape that was missing during life in lockdown. So this shoot was inspired by ‘Hybrid Abstraction’, I wanted to create an artificial backdrop using Ahmed’s paintings that would artificially turn the inside into the outside.

​My fashion styling intentions were to create a symbiotic relationship between Western and traditional Bangladeshi style and show how the rich culture and heritage could translate in a contemporary fashion. 

Stylist: @mara.rah
Photographer: @nafisahmed93
Model: @tabindajesa  
​London College of Fashion: @LCF
@LCF Study Abroad