Hypebeast Flea: SUEZ

SUEZ is the Middle Eastern design studio pushing its inimitable heritage into clothing since 2021, creating intricate garments that speak to Arab culture.

Reworking traditional fabrications with contemporary detailing, the brand will head to Hypebeast Flea for its debut physical pop-up, where it will be showcasing plenty of new ideas to its community for the first time ever.

Check out our conversation with SUEZ ahead of Hypebeast Flea below. Tickets to Hypebeast Flea are free! Don’t forget to sign up here now.

Explain your brand to people who may not know you yet.

SUEZ is a brand that merges the Arab world with contemporary fashion. We rework traditional fabrications in new ways, specifically, the keffiyeh scarf. An ancient, Arab head scarf that dates all the way back to 3000BC. We look to represent Arab culture in a positive light as traditionally Arabs, North Africans and Middle Easterners have been severely underrepresented within mainstream media, and where we are represented, it is often a misrepresentation, generally reinforcing some form of stereotype. We’d like to champion the beautiful and rich culture that the Arab peoples have to offer while also celebrating the immeasurable impact that the Arab people have also had on human history.

The aim is to give fellow Arabs, like myself, an anchor point for their identity, a space in which they are able to discover and uphold their cultures unwaveringly. While there are various ethnicities that operate under the ‘Arab’ umbrella whether Egyptian, Palestinian, Saudi etc, there is a common thread that ties us together, no matter how loose that thread is.

What’s the journey been like from starting your brand, to where you are today?

Having not studied fashion at university, it is definitely surreal to see how far the brand has come in the year and a half since its start in December 2021. While there is still a long way to go and I have big plans for the future, I am grateful that the brand is in the position its in. I started making the ‘Keffiyeh Bucket Hats’ out of my bedroom studio on my Singer Domestic sewing machine (which, to this day, all the hats are made from). The reception from customers and community has been amazing since then and it’s reassuring that the reasons I started the brand are resonating with people. There are lots of ups and downs but always you learn far more from the mistakes than when things go right. It’s all about the journey so I am always looking ahead to the next objective, and so, rarely do I stop and look back to see how far we’ve come.

Flea is going to be hosted for the first time in the UK. How does the UK’s creative community inspire you and your brand?

I think that UK’s creative community is the best in the world. From music to art to fashion I think its the epicentre for global culture. The amount of talented people pushing the boundaries in their respective fields is extremely high here. It is off of that energy that I try and channel into the brand. For each piece or drop I will try and elevate and build off the previous creation. Here, you don’t have to look far for creative inspiration, I think in this way, it keeps me on my toes at all times as you can never afford to take your foot off the pedal.

What have you got planned at Hypebeast Flea?

This will be our first official physical pop-up we’ve done, so we’re very excited to meet our community in person. We can’t wait to design the space and we’ve got a lot of ideas in that regard. We’re going to have some of our staple pieces available, stock supported, which we haven’t had before as everything for the most part is made-to-order. So it’ll be great for our followers to actually see and feel the garments in person. We’ll also be dropping new colour ways in the patchwork Keffiyeh jacket, Keffiyeh trousers, and bucket hat at the event plus some other new surprise pieces.

What other vendors are you looking forward to checking out at Hypebeast Flea?

It’s very cool to be alongside some of the brands on the list. A lot of people doing cool things in their own way so in all honesty I’m excited to check everyone out and meet the people behind the brands in person. Who knows what sort of relationships can come out of it.