Wathek Allal: building a world of Precious Trust

Wathek Allal is a ‘vision’ kind of guy. Give him a street, and he’ll line the concrete with graffiti. Give him a skateboard and he’ll form a clan of artists invested in the same artistic direction. Give him the concept for a video and he’ll work backwards, designing an entire line of streetwear. At 28, the Algerian creative has harnessed his propensity for vision-making through his brand ‘Precious Trust.’ This incredible line has backed him up over the last few years as his unrelenting drive has kept him more than afloat, building on his already multilayered journey.

When the war in Syria destroyed his family’s home in Damascus, a teenage Allal relocated to Dubai and found solace in the city’s emerging street art scene.“As a kid I grew up drawing and doing graffiti in the streets of Damascus with my friends, so coming to Dubai I was already interested in if that culture exists here too,” Allal shares with Dazed MENA. “So I started skateboarding, and then I met a lot of amazing people who were interested in art, design, photography, and film, which made me start designing.”

From there, Allal began fusing urban graffiti with Amazigh costume traditions to craft the first ever pieces for Precious Trust. The brand’s name is a play on his own—’Wathek,’ rooted in the Arabic term for ‘trust’—doubles as a term of endearment for those closest to him. And trust was something he had to extend to himself in that initial period. Launching the brand solo, he became a relentless, one-man creative army, mastering everything from graphic design and film direction to styling, set creation, and pop-up concepts. “Through Precious Trust, I got to experiment with multiple forms of art, and learn a lot,” Allal tells us. “I started having a lot of fun with it to the point where it didn’t feel like work, and got to work with a lot of my friends and other amazing artists.”

His inspiration is threefold: “my childhood, where I come from, and my friends,” he tells us. These elements—encompassing nostalgia, heritage, love, and play—flow through his designs, each piece thoughtfully crafted as if for his closest circle to live their best lives on a skateboard. Think tracksuits with perfectly placed pockets for skaters or hoodies etched with Arabic calligraphy—pieces that speak of movement, connection, and boast of good times with the homies. 

Thoughtful, playful, and functional, the pieces propelled Wathek’s brand beyond the local scene. Precious Trust began to crop up everywhere. In August of this year, Wathek collaborated with Palestinian rap label BLNTM for their first merchandise collection, and the line debuted with a music video shot in Ramallah and Abu Dhabi. The partnership came at a crucial moment in seeking to support Palestinian artists; but it embodies Allal’s ambition to amplify regional, and even global cooperation. “Doing pop up stores outside of Dubai, like in London and South Africa, really showed me the love and interest, and how big this can become,” Allal explains. “I realised I could continue telling stories through my brand but on a global scale, which is my vision.”

Perhaps it’s this collective mindset—always imagining how his work fits into a larger community, an opportunity for collaboration, something to share—that informs Allal’s unorthodox creative process. His approach is rooted in abstraction, derived from big-picture concepts and reverse-engineering them into wearable realities. “I usually work backwards; I imagine an idea of a store somewhere, an activation or a collab, and then the design comes after,” he delineates. “Sometimes I would think of an idea for a film I want to make and then I’d start designing clothes back on what I and the cast should wear.”

True to form, the designer’s plans for the future are as expansive as his imagination: a film festival in Algeria, a skatepark in his hometown, a permanent Precious Trust store, more pop-up stores in different cities around the world…“I hope to have a space that can hold all the practices I’ve been learning about and a hub to make the process easier for others to come and learn,” he states. For Allal, it’s always going to be about trusting what comes next and building a future rooted in possibility.