Layal Balubaid: Finding Freedom in the Unserious

Ask Layal Balubaid what fashion is to her, and she’ll respond with something equally poignant and simple. “Fashion is by the people it is for,” she tells Dazed MENA. In her practice, she says, fashion is less about perfection than presence: “The physical human gaze is so valuable.” Whether it’s a conversation with a stranger on the tube, the trace of an oily fingerprint on a sketch, or a fabric once worn by her father to work, Balubaid’s work is grounded in touch, memory, and the small human moments that keep art alive.

At just 22, the Saudi designer, now based in London, is already crafting a visual language that feels unmistakably her own: playful but deliberate, delicate yet disruptive. Her style, she explains, is defined by the whimsical and unserious, the grotesque and absurd, feelings and lack thereof, and it’s from these deeply human contradictions that her designs find meaning. As for what drives her creative process? “A pure love for life. A desire to take up space. My friends. Conversations with strangers. Seeing people being human.”

Considering how unique and established her ethos is, it is surprising to learn that Balubaid’s relationship with fashion began almost by accident. “I was always a big STEM child,” she laughs. “I never imagined fashion being my career until my final year in high school, where I fell in love with making clothes and experienced true passion for what felt like the first time.” That revelation of finding purpose not through logic but feeling continues to anchor her approach. Her work resists cynicism. It’s deeply tactile and emotionally fluent.

The past year marked a turning point. “Getting my own studio was surreal,” she recalls. “It felt like an impossible dream, but having a space purely dedicated to my practice allowed me to take myself seriously.” That sense of self-belief, however, hasn’t come at the expense of fun. “I’ve begun forcing myself to take everything else less seriously—but in a good way,” she adds. That blend of sincerity and satire, of care and chaos, is what makes this London-based designer’s practice so vivid.

Balubaid’s philosophy of design extends beyond aesthetics, too. Rather, it’s a quiet challenge to fashion’s hierarchies. “The body has always felt like the most important element in clothing, and I want to re-emphasise its importance in modern-day fashion.” Her commitment to making meaningful clothing with consideration of the wearer and its longevity is matched by a fierce desire for serious representation: “I want more women – more women of colour – in senior creative roles, so that it no longer feels like every woman of colour has to be celebrated for being one.”

Her upcoming collection, Dinner, is her most personal work to date. “It represents a very isolated time in my life, when I found myself being drained in pursuit of connections,” she shares. It’s an introspective, intimate exploration that has been in the works for over a year. She’s also starting her MA at Central Saint Martins, stepping into a new chapter with that same curiosity.

For a designer so young, Balubaid possesses a worldview that feels remarkably complete—she knows what she wants to give the world, and is unrelenting in her pursuit to do so. Her clothes, much like her outlook, remind us that beauty can be unserious and meaning can come from mess.