Fall/Winter 2025 - Rami Al Ali's Guardians of Light – The Living Craft of Damascus

After presenting in Paris for years hors-calendar, the Syrian couturier made his official debut on the calendar of the Federation de la Haute Couture, with a beautiful Fall/Winter 2025–26 couture collection titled Guardians of Light – The Living Craft of Damascus.

A poetic homage to heritage, memory, and the enduring spirit of craft, this season’s collection journeyed into the heart of the designer’s native Syria—drawing from the fading grandeur of Old Damascus to illuminate the forgotten beauty hidden behind carved doors, painted ceilings, and intimate courtyards.

In collaboration with the Syrian Crafts Council, the collection drew on meticulously authenticated artworks and ancestral motifs—revived and transformed to fit a contemporary couture vocabulary. The designer was inspired by the intricate woodwork of Al-Azm Palace, the rhythmic geometry of Khan As’ad Pasha, the tiled stillness of Jami' al-Darwishiyya, and the refined grace of homes like Bayt Nizam and Bayt Farhi. These historic spaces—once alive with calligraphers, woodworkers, metal artisans, and weavers—echoed once more, reinterpreted through modern couture.

This was not nostalgia, but what the designer described as “guardianship”. A tribute to the artisans who came before, and a celebration of their indelible mark on beauty and tradition.