Atlal From Galbi: Challenging the Sartorial Gaze on Arab Identity

For Lilia Yasmin, fashion is about remembering. The Paris-born designer with Algerian roots spent years at Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga before realising that the stories she wanted to tell were missing. “I wanted to build a bridge between memory and the present,” she says. “The stories from where I come from weren’t being told.”

Her label, Atlal From Galbi, was born out of that absence. It draws on Algeria’s cultural memory—the music of Warda and Cheb Hasni, the textures of old photographs, the rituals of family life. “Their emotions and imagery had this cinematic energy that I’m very passionate about,” she tells Dazed MENA. That sensitivity runs through her collections: long silhouettes, relaxed construction, and visual stories that hold pieces of nostalgia without turning them into museum relics.

Between pastel lace trims, modest cuts, and soft knits embroidered with Arabic words, her collections merge the domestic intimacy of 1970s Algeria, but with a distinctly Parisian restraint. Every piece feels like a fragment of memory: a cardigan that recalls a grandmother’s sewing box or a pair of red hand-stitched sandals that evoke coastal summers in Oran. Her use of text, vintage fabrics, and tactile surfaces gives her clothes the romanticism of everyday life. “My process always starts from a feeling—nostalgia, tenderness, the sense of something that once was,” she says. “Then, I build around it with fabrics and colours.”

Launched in 2022, Atlal From Galbi quickly proved its universal appeal. After presenting her collection at Palais de Tokyo during Paris Fashion Week, collaborations in Seoul, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi proved that her work could resonate further beyond its local context. “It made me realise that the story I tell can speak to anyone anywhere,” she says.

Still, her work is as political as it is personal. She aims to reshape how Arab identity is seen, moving away from clichés to showcase its real sophistication and strength. She challenges the double standard and cultural appropriation in the industry: “Why is it seen as ‘innovative’ when a major brand shows a bernous, but ‘traditional’ when an Algerian does it?” Her answer has been to create a body of work that rejects the outsider’s gaze, one that presents Arab identity with honesty, sophistication, and depth. “It’s time for people who truly come from these cultures to be recognised for their work—not just when a big luxury house decides that it’s cool.”

Photography sits at the core of what she does, acting as her archive and translator. It’s how she studies her subjects (Tuareg communities in southern Algeria, for example) before translating those details into clothes. “I want Atlal From Galbi to go beyond fashion and become a cultural reference that reconnects people with their roots and memories,” she says. 

To her, every step must involve local collaboration, from the shoots to the casting and beyond. “It has to come from within.” Yasmin is now preparing her next chapter, a new body of work exploring family memory: “If my work can make people feel seen, and make others look at our culture with new eyes, then that’s the real achievement.”