Sylwia Nazzal: The avant-garde designer narrating Palestine through clothes

Sylwia Nazzal, the creative mind behind Nazzal Studios, has jumped feet first into the seething global fashion scene this year. Labelling her a “fashion designer” alone overlooks the soul and intention behind her work; beyond crafting garments, Sylwia is reshaping how fashion can breathe stories of resistance, culture, and identity materially—specifically through the Palestinian lens. A recent graduate, the young designer is carving out a pivotal legacy through collections steeped in the political and cultural turmoil of her homeland, Palestine.

Her viral success following the onset of the most recent assault on Gaza  in 2023 began when an image of her jacket’s lining—featuring the names of Palestinians killed in 2022—circulated online, solidifying her place as both a rising talent in the fashion world and a figure of cultural resistance. You may have since seen her works on the likes of Saint Levant at Coachella, or Elyanna for Savoir Flair‘s first-ever digital cover, or draped across the shoulders of protesters around the world. The success of her work relays a clear message: fashion can be a radical tool for storytelling, advocacy, and change.

The designer’s impulse to create politically charged work is rooted in a sense of duty intrinsic to her identity. “I always knew I wanted to create political and controversial art because I saw this lack of ethics in the fashion industry,” the designer explains to Dazed MENA. “I believe in giving back to the community and ethical production over mass production, so I work with refugee women and speak for a collective cause much bigger than myself.” Sylwia demonstrated this outspokenness most recently when she was awarded Fashion Trust Arabia’s Franca Sozzani Debut Talent award, where she seized the opportunity to draw attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza during her acceptance speech.

Sylwia’s pieces are piercing conduits to robust social commentary and political engagement. One of her standout pieces—a skirt and hooded top made from 72 kilograms of Palestinian coins, meticulously sewn by refugee women—garnered significant attention online, going viral across platforms like TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Instagram. In tandem with the rest of Sylwia’s portfolio, the piece is not just a wearable item but a stunning political statement, symbolising protection from the “evil eye” and the hope for Palestinian liberation. The collection was not always so well received publicly, with people still slumbering in fallacy: “I received so much backlash and lost a lot of job opportunities,” Nazzal admits to Dazed. “The world started to become ready for the type of work I was creating the moment they ‘woke up’ about Palestine.”

In her collection “What Should Have Been Home,” created in 2022-2023, Sylwia creates a vivid, visual tension between historical preservation and active resistance by using traditional Palestinian textiles to form contemporary silhouettes. Her work often references images of Palestinians in direct confrontation with Israeli forces, drawing attention to the enduring struggle for identity, dignity, and autonomy. The garments themselves, large and sculptural, are designed to ensure that voices of the Palestinian people cannot be ignored. For Sylwia, scale is a form of defiance—her voluminous designs command attention in the same way the Palestinian plight should be impossible to overlook. 

What sets Sylwia apart from her contemporaries is her unyielding ability to imbue each piece with layers of meaning. Her intuition guides her to tell stifled stories through her work. In one of her earlier collections, she reworked a tent into a jacket to represent the plight of Palestinian refugees; through her ingenuity, the garments chronicle journeys of displacement and resilience. Such visceral evocation, prompted by colour and material alone, is key in Sylwia’s work ethos. “I want to reshape the whole fashion industry,” she professes. “I am sick of this shallow view of creating clothing. We need substance and controversy and drive. Fashion has become so commercial, even in our culture we look to the West for how we should shape our work—I want all that to change.”

Sylwia sees the preservation of Palestinian art, textiles, and designs as a crucial facet of her work. In owning this duty, she refuses to ignore the infernal realities of the ongoing genocide, choosing instead to imbue it in every piece she creates. Sylwia is addressing these dualities in her work, channelling all the heart, anger, and intention that makes them special. Despite her tumultuous start, the designer holds out hope that a shift in the region is imminent: “I see that the world is ready to respect the Middle East,” she observes. “We are less weaponised and have more empathy coming from the West. There’s more of a spotlight on this side of the world and we need it as much as they need it. As Arabs we have so much identity and a lot to say; give one of us a microphone and I at least will promise to scream.”

As time flies, and fashion sprints, Sylwia is focusing on what matters: giving a means to those silenced by occupation, using clothing as a form of protest and expression. They offer a much-needed physical narrative to a people’s struggle and a call for liberation that demands to be seen and heard.The designer has just released an amazing campaign video for her recent collection, which was a collaboration with young Arab creatives in Jordan, already investing her exposure in all the right places. “I have never felt more proud of the community we are building.”