Iman Coccellato: Sculpting Emotion Into Slow Fashion

Iman Coccellato grew up surrounded only by women – Tunisian and Gypsy, powerful and proud – who carried themselves like queens. “They moved with dignity, strength, and pride,” he recalls. “Fashion became a way for me to translate that power into form, to sculpt stories of resilience and freedom through fabric and movement.”

It was his mother, a cleaning woman who played the role of both parents at once, who taught him the transformative potential of dress. “She showed me that every piece of clothing a woman wears can make her the author of her own story, that she can become whoever she wants to be,” he shares. As a child, Coccellato would hide in her closet, watching her apply makeup and adjust herself in front of the mirror. “There was something sacred between her and her reflection,” he continues. “I wanted to be there, in the middle of that silent dialogue between a woman and her mirror. I still find it fascinating today.”

Now 32, based between Paris and Dubai, the designer has honed that fascination into a distinct aesthetic code: sensual, sculptural, and deeply human. A finalist for both the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize and Institut du Monde Arabe Prize in 2025, he crafts garments that move beyond surface beauty. He crafts pieces that feel lived in, inhabited. “My main inspirations come from the women around me and those who move with instinct,” he divulges. “Cinema inspires me deeply, as do artisans who shape materials with their hands in silence.”

He describes his process as guided by movement rather than design logic. “I always create with instinct. I start by molding, by searching for the form—the reflection comes later. For me, gesture always comes before reason.” His atelier becomes a kind of stage where each drape and curve captures the intimacy between fabric and skin. “The fabric guides me toward balance, tension, and movement,” he explains.

Coccellato’s North African homeland also runs through his work. The Tunisian landscape, with its warmth, austerity, and layered history, plays a major role in defining his sense of self. After spending years in Paris, returning home profoundly affected him. “It helped me understand who I really am,” he reflects. “To reconnect with my culture and the land I come from had a deep impact on my vision. It helped me find my own artistic recipe between heritage, emotion, and creation.”

Rooted in that sense of belonging, Coccellato’s practice resists the disposability of fashion. “I want to move away from mass fashion and focus on what truly matters: the hand, the material, the emotion,” he states. “For me, fashion can be a slow and sincere language, a space where every woman can reclaim her body, her rhythm, and her presence in the world.”

This commitment to craft extends to his collaborations across the SWANA region. “I work hand in hand with local tailors and artisans,” he says. “It’s fascinating to merge our ideas and savoir-faire, and develop new techniques that blend tradition and modernity.” Ultimately, Coccellato’s vision is both poetic and compassionate: a reclamation of fashion as a site of truth and tenderness. “I want my pieces to act like mirrors, places where each woman can see herself as she truly is—strong, fragile, free, and multifaceted.”