Latest news with #Louhaichy
CairoScene
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Moroccan-Italian Designer Zina Louhaichy Styles Her Favorite Gandouras
Moroccan-Italian Designer Zina Louhaichy Styles Her Favorite Gandouras Zina Louhaichy doesn't just wear a lot of hats - she wears them well. 'I carry so many hats,' she laughs. 'And I love hats.' The metaphor writes itself. Based in New York, Louhaichy is a Moroccan-Italian actress, designer, photographer, and creative polymath who approaches getting dressed as both art and armour. 'Your outfit is a story—how you feel that day, what you want to say, or what you want to protect,' she says. 'Some days it's like, I want to be seen. Other days it's: I don't want to talk to anyone, but I still want to slay.' Often, that feeling draws from home. North African silhouettes, textures, and jewellery regularly anchor her looks. 'There's something so luxurious and grand about Moroccan fashion—it's all about layering, gold, mixing prints and textiles. Even the way we wear kaftans or takchitas, it's always been about showing up and showing out. That's where I get my maximalism from.' Her own brand, Louhaichy, channels that same energy. Handmade and deeply personal, it leans into fashion as storytelling - with humour, heritage, and drama all stitched in. At just 22, Louhaichy is as comfortable behind a camera as she is in front of it, sewing silhouettes, directing campaigns, and building a fashion label between takeout orders and existential crises. To understand her style is to enter a world where a Moroccan djellaba flirts with Vivienne Westwood energy, a lace top doubles as emotional armour, and a single gold bangle might spark a conversation about diaspora identity before the Uber even arrives. She treats fashion like she treats art - fluid, feral, and fabulously unserious. 'It's like creating a character for the day,' she shrugs. 'Then at night, you take it all off - and you're still you.' And who exactly is that? Someone who wants to write, direct, style, sew, perform, and provoke - all in one look. 'They all merge,' she explains. 'Whatever I make, it's a Zina project.' Whether it's a lacey ode to the unboxing of North African womanhood or a cheeky graphic tee that reads All My Exes Live in Morocco, her work is grounded in a joyful kind of rebellion. 'I just want to have fun,' she says. 'I want to mix silhouettes, make things sweaty, and never lose my sparkle.' In this SceneStyled SELECTS, Zina curates five head-turning outfits straight from the Zina-verse - spanning nostalgic 2000s references, Eid auntie glamour, and cosmic cowboy realness. Expect pink. Expect pins. Expect chaos with a point. Just don't expect her to be one thing. Look One | Gallery Night In L.E.S 'It's merging the styles of New York. I had a bit of fun with it—I put some designer items that I do not own yet, but inshallah, soon. It's wearing my pride on my sleeves. It's sleek, it's classy, and it's Louhaichy.' Pairing the flowing black gandoura with over-the-knee suede boots, Luar sunglasses, and her own structured top, creating a silhouette that's sharp yet rooted in cultural pride. A Yankees cap nods to the city that raised her. Men's Moroccan Gandora Louhaichy | Noire Belle Top THE ROW | Bindle Medium leather tote bag ALAÏA — Suede over-the-knee boots Luar | Double Eyewear - Black/Grey Iseder — NY Ring "Black" New Era MLB New York Yankees Pillow Box Series Ball Cap Navy Look Two | 2000s Maghrebiya It-Girl 'This is so me in a look. The djellaba, and being able to pin it up on the side—I can use safety pins to show the tights and the sunglasses—it's very 2000s and reminds me of being a young girl in New York City.' Velvet leopard print meets sheer thigh-highs, shield sunglasses, and a Tamagotchi charm. It's Y2K with a Maghrebi twist—cheeky, confident, and entirely hers. Moroccan Djellaba Calzedonia | 20 Denier Sheer Thigh-Highs in Black Juicy Couture | Red Handbag Pink Tamagotchi | Lots of Love Electronic Pet Yankees Bamboo Earrings ISABEL MARANT | Bekett hidden-wedge sneakers Jet Set Candy | MetroCard Ring Motorola | Hot Pink Razr Flip Phone Look Three | Eid @ Daar Dyal Mweema 'This is a bit of an elevated look. I wanted to include MENA brands—Eid at my Mweema's house—so it's a merging between NYC and the traditional Amazigh jewellery. Giving a new look to the wedding caftan.' A sentimental celebration look blending traditional and contemporary MENA references. Layering a vintage white Moroccan caftan with silver Alexis Bittar jewellery, a lace keffiyeh from Nazzal Studio, and bold Amazigh pieces- rendering something sacred but utterly modern. Vintage Moroccan White wedding Caftan New Berber Kabyle Amazigh headpiece Alexis Bittar | Molten Silver Knuckle Ring Alexis Bittar | Molten Puffy Teardrop Earrings Atlal From Galbi | Ballerina Roots Galbi Nazzal Studios | Lace Keffiyeh Long Amazigh Necklace Look Four — Shopping Spree In Soho xx 'It's Vivienne Westwood X Louhaichy X NYC X Morocco. The fabrics juxtapose against each other—they're very harsh—and then the lace and the mesh creates this light and airy look.' She's stomping through Soho with fibula earrings, frilly socks, a plaid skirt, and yellow Balenciaga—no rules, just brilliance. Folkwear | Blue Stripped Djellaba (pinned up with safety pins to show skirt) Chopova Lowena | Plaid Print Midi Length Skirt Balenciaga | City leather bag in yellow For Love & Lemons | Knee Hight Frilly Socks In Cream Handmade silver fibula earrings Amazigh Vintage Tribal Necklace Manolo Blahnik | Maysale Leather Mules Look Five | Chilling @ Home AKA (DND Unless You Brought Atay) 'I would wear this scarf around my head. I own all of these pieces. I always wear my Allah necklace—this is really how I chill at home. If you're coming, bring something. I like a lot of pink.' Her softest, pinkest self—a home gandoura in rose, vintage slippers, gold bangles, and the necklace she never takes off. This is Zina Louhaichy's Sunday softness, accessorised with henna and boundaries. Moroccan Home Gandoura In Pink Tisbinit | Amazigh Traditional Scarf, Silk MOANI bangles set - Gold Bangles Crystal & gold Allah (SWT) pendant and necklace Bamboo Heart Hoop Earrings 14K Yellow Gold-Plated Silver 925 My Meemaw's Slipper | Women's Chinese Slippers Sandals Slip in Pink Henna
CairoScene
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Zina Louhaichy Honours Moroccan Heritage In a Bold New Visual Project
Zina Louhaichy Honours Moroccan Heritage In a Bold New Visual Project As a Moroccan woman born and raised in NYC, artist and designer Zina Louhaichy has always existed at a cultural crossroads, belonging to both and neither at the same time. Her latest body of work isn't merely an exploration of heritage - it's a reclamation of identity, and a visual love letter to all the women who came before her. In BLADI (بلادي) - Arabic for 'my homeland' - Louhaichy embarks on an intimate journey through self-portraiture. Inspired by early 20th century Moroccan postcards, many of which were shot through a colonial lens, the project reclaims those once-exoticised images by placing the narrative - and the camera - in Louhaichy's own hands. 'Some of these women I've only met through photographs,' Louhaichy tells SceneStyled. 'But they all live in my blood.' In the photographs, Louhaichy dresses in heirloom pieces that connect her to her family's past: her father's Qur'an, a takchita reminiscent of her great-grandmother's wardrobe, and jewellery rich with ancestral memory. She wears her identity on her sleeve - and on her hands: the Moroccan star inked in henna on one, and the iconic Yankees logo on the other. This is a merging of worlds, of culture, and of eras, fused together on the camera lens. The result is not only visually striking, but evocative: a celebration of Moroccan womanhood rendered with a genuine authenticity, creativity, and deep reverence. The project continues with Diaspora Passport (جواز سفر الشتات), a conceptual expansion of BLADI which finds definition in that liminal space between Morocco and New York. Creating a fictional passport, Louhaichy reimagines bureaucratic instruments of identity not as restrictive labels but as vehicles of empowerment. Here, the passport becomes a symbol of movement and belonging unbound by national borders and monolithic identities. 'Home for me exists in a Yankees symbol,' Louhaichy shares. 'In Casablanca at sunrise when the streets are quiet and the call to prayer echoes through the city. It's sitting with my Meema for hours, working on my Darija, exhausted from messing up too many times but persevering anyway.' Maximalist and vibrant, the visual language of the project is unapologetically assured. Wearing a custom Yankee brim, redesigned in Moroccan red and green by Opiyel, and the Noire Lace Bele top from her eponymous label Louhaichy (لوحيشي), a confident Zina carves out her identity in clear, bold lines. On the back of her one hand, a henna 'passport stamp' reads "المغرب" ('Morocco'), adorned with Amazigh symbols. On the other hand, stamps of both the US and Morocco mark the emotional cartography of her soul. In this body of work, Zina Louhaichy transcends the borders that once fragmented her sense of self, forging a space where heritage and hybridity coexist. It's a powerful act of healing - one that redefines home not as a place but a feeling, a symbol, an expression, and ultimately, a portrait.
