Omar Salam left screenwriting behind to inform the world of who is through a fashion lens. Salam focuses less on separating his brand from other womenswear brands. He has amplified his voice to speak to the light that derives from Sukeina wearers.

How has Sukeina brought “bright light” to the fashion industry? How does resilience guide you in making essential career decisions for your brand?

Sukeina means bright light and it is the name of my late mother. My brand aims to bring bright light but I do not think I am in a position to say it has brought that. My audience will need to feel and say this organically. I do not think I am or ever will be in a position where I can make that assumption. That is a little bit presumptuous; at least I think it would be. The aim of Sukeina is to bring light into the room that allows you to see me, me to see you and appreciate you fully as who you are.

In my case, I do not have any resilience at all. I am inspired. I am driven by something that I believe in very strongly, but I also, regardless of the difficulties or the obstacles, feel so fortunate that every single day I wake up doing exactly what I love to do. It is an honor at every step of the way. And even when we physically are tired, even when we are facing challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable. I never lose touch with the fact that not many people have the opportunity to be doing what they love.

I feel that I am super fortunate, so I almost do not need resilience in order to do it. I am super inspired. I gain drive from everything that I see whether it is in fashion or outside of fashion. And for me, it is just an incredible opportunity to get to express what I feel, and I feel informed by my surroundings which I express with my clothing.

What motivated you to be persistent when navigating the competitive fashion industry that many wish to be included in?

What is the point of designing unless you have a singular point of view or opinion? I feel that as large as the fashion industry is, a lot of things are repetitions of each other. I think there is room for brands like Sukeina that are experimental and attuned with what people need based on who they are and what is happening around the world.

Therefore, there should be an assessment or treatment that is just as unique as people can be so that there is a garment created that responds to who people are during times we have not ever seen happen before. It is super important to have an expression that is not necessarily geared to be better but instead fundamentally other. For me, every time I feel ‘God we need to rise again, we need to build again, or we need to create a full foundation from ground up again,’ I am pushed to not give up.

I am convinced that the voice that I am projecting in the world is unique. The vocabulary and the linguistics in fashion and philosophy of beauty are so unique. The way we present our voices, the way we address the body of a woman, the rhythm around it and the symphony in it is so different. I feel that if we do not express it, not Sukeina as a brand, not Omar as a person, but the world as a whole will be missing a very important note in the song of humanity and life.

Who influenced your drive to make sure Sukeina welcomed different walks of life? Has your fashion practices such as mixing materials and using various colors helped create a brand that includes people for who they are?

I had a collection called Hue as colors, different tint, different colors, different hue, but hue is short for humanity. I am incredibly curious, inspired, and intrigued by humanity. I am convinced that even if you live in your body as long as you have been conscious since the day you were born, there are sides to you that I get to see that you do not see.

With Sukeina, we try to mirror what people bring into the room as best as we can because we are in the room when people are not here and it can be dark. And when you come into the room and you light it up, we acknowledge what you bring into it. By the time you leave the room and it goes back to dark again, you do not know what it was or what it has become as a result of your presence and what it went back to when you left the room.

I try to reflect back at people and what every single person who comes across Sukeina brings to the table. If your body moves in a very rhythmic way, I mirror that. If your body moves in a very sultry way, I mirror that. If your height makes the rest of the room feel calm and low, I mirror that. Whatever your light brings in the room, I try to reflect, contrast, or emphasize it. I know that my vantage point by not being you is seeing the sides of you that you cannot see. I am convinced that if you do that, only then people will finally recognize themselves as necessary and important because now they are aware of the unique contribution they bring into the room.

I am convinced that each person has such an essential and unique gift at the essence of them. The only reason why people try to emulate so many other things outside of themselves is because they are not aware of themselves. But the moment they meet with their light, they become protective of it. And they develop it because they are aware of the value of it.

How has the crossover set your brand apart from other ready to wear and women’s wear brands?

It is funny, I am very open to everything. I kind of wear binoculars. I look at rocks, I listen to music, I watch dance, I find interest in new hairdos and people who would be considered weird, expressions that are odd interest me, meditation interests me, film interests me. But yet, when it comes to fashion, I do not always look at how other brands are being built. I know it sounds like an oxymoron. I do not know if I am set apart from other designers or if I am different or not. I just try to really make sure that I do not pull any vocabulary from any other fashion houses.

Oftentimes people ask ‘what designer inspires you?’ And my response is none because if they are great, it is already well done. So, why do it? And if they are not, why even look at it because it will not be inspiring to me. I will say in full disclosure, I do not look at other fashion brands at all. There are fashion designers that I do respect because of their mentality and the way they go about their vision of their brands.

Are you able to crossover apparel design and screenwriting into fashion as a story-teller?

They are one of two of the same things. I honestly think that my approach to fashion is very much the same approach to screenwriting.

I thought about a story that was already told without anybody uttering a word. In the way we dress, we can actually address. Clothing is a conversation. It is a language that, even in silence, moves very quickly and can be really thought provoking. From that moment, I think I found a language that is more permanent, immediate, though transient, that film can tell a story. That is when my interest in fashion was born.