Angels Wear Nada

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Words by

Inclusive up-cycled denim brand, Angels Wear Nada, hit the runway last month in London Fashion Week debut.

I went behind the scenes in interview with designer, Noon Khouri, to learn more about the creative passion pot that is Angels Wear Nada.

Can you tell me a little bit of history about you, and who you are, so that we get to know each other a little bit more?

Of course! I'm Noon, I’m originally from Iraq and Palestine, and I call myself a creative dabbler. I have a background in fine art with contemporary cultural theory, so I'm not a fashion designer, by any means. When I graduated in 2020, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, career-wise, and I never liked the concept of selling my own art. I don’t know why; I was just uncomfortable with that whole concept. My art is so personal to me, and I always feel so attached to it that I struggle thinking about giving it to someone else. I also would struggle to put a price on it - I know you have to start somewhere, you can't just be like, a million pounds, for your work [laughs].

That didn't work out for me, so I thought, why don't I sell my art on T shirts, because for some reason that feels a bit less personal, a bit more detached when it's on clothes. So, I started looking into it. I went back home (I grew up in Abu Dhabi) for Christmas that year, and started looking into T shirt factories, screen printing etc. Because of who I am, I wanted to do it in the most sustainable way possible, but everything I found was so unsustainable; I just came across hurdle upon hurdle … it sounds so naive and ignorant, but I didn't know the fashion industry was that harmful and wasteful. So that's when I decided: Okay, I'm going to spend the next year doing research on this.

When I got to Uni, at Jimmy Choo Academy, in the first month, we delved into why we wanted to start a brand. We did loads of workshops, and I concluded that I wanted to start an up-cycled denim brand, because I want to make people like me feel comfortable; like they're represented. I'm a plus size woman, I've always been a plus size woman. It's impossible to find jeans that ﬁt me, especially when I used to weigh 130 kilos. I couldn't find anything that ﬁt, let alone something a bit more fun, that ﬁt my personality. I wanted to wear Evisu, Cavalli, Diesel, any cool vintage jeans, but I couldn't find anything that ﬁt, which obviously was upsetting. Now I'm a size 16, which is still plus size, but it's sort of the average - it actually is the average size in the UK, but it's not fully catered to, actually.

That’s why I decided to focus on jeans. I also love jeans - blue’s my favourite colour - so everything just started to ﬁt. Not only that - we're not just an upcycled denim brand, we're also an events brand. We fuse music, art and fashion together, which is so fitting for me because I've always dabbled in the arts in general. It’s like a passion project of everything that I love all put into one. I love that, like a melting pot of the creatives. I think that's how industry in general is going towards these days; you see these creative projects coming about, like NiNe8 Collective, where it's about music, fashion, expression, art, and all of these things, which actually, historically, have always had blurred lines. So it shouldn't be that in mainstream media they're always trying to be isolated.

So, where did you study?

I graduated from Leeds in 2020, and then, December of 2020 and into going into January of 2021, I was in Abu Dhabi visiting my family. I did an upcycling course at a Uni in Dubai called ESMOD, and that's what started my ideas ﬂowing. After I came back from Dubai I started my applications for this year’s Masters at Jimmy Choo Academy, and I've been working on the brand since September 2021, for about a year.

Amazing. Tell me about the name - for me, when I hear ‘Angels Wear Nada’, I'm hearing ‘Devil Wears Prada’ … is that where it’s evolved from?

Yes! Nada is my official name, my government name. I’ve never, ever, gone by Nada in my life. Because, I don't know, I just never liked it. Even though I grew up in an Arab country, I went to a British school where most students and teachers were white. I guess I just wanted to be white, and Noon sounds more racially ambiguous than Nada, which is a very Arab name. I think by utilising my original name on the brand I’m trying to reclaim my Arabness and be proud of my heritage.

I love that you picked up on that because loads of people are like, Wow, I didn't even think about that. I’m just like, Guys, it's such a classic. You're supposed to pick it up. The Devil Wears Prada is so prominent within ﬁlm culture and obviously fashion, so I thought it was relevant. It started with The Angel Wears Nada, but then I thought, since it's more of a collaborative project, I want to change it to ‘angels’, plural. Obviously, ‘angels’ because we're trying to do good with this brand.

I love that - the fact that it works so well with your name, I think that's an amazing stamp to put on the brand; this is yours and yours truly, your identity. The fact that it rhymes with Prada - perfect. It's a nice way of also reiterating that self-love, as a plus size brand. You say it upset you to not be included in those fashion styles that you see represented on other people - the fact that now you're able to reiterate this love back into the people who are wearing your brand is such an admirable and inclusive thing. I love it, it’s great.

My friend from school recently dropped me a message when she saw the pictures of the show. She was like, ‘Oh, I don't know if you remember the conversation, but seeing all these posts reminded me of it. We were maybe 13, 14; you said that you really want to be a fashion designer, but you don't think you can because you’re plus size and every fashion designer isn't plus size.’ And I said to her, it's true. I still think that to this day, in some sense. All big-time designers … even those who are behind the scenes in fashion usually have a slimmer physique. I've never seen anyone that's plus size. She was saying, ‘I'm proud that you're changing that kind of thing’, but I was just thinking, Wow, it's funny that she remembers that. I know that I had dreams of being a fashion designer when I was like 6, but I didn't remember that I still had those thoughts later on, because for so long I swapped my life narrative into being an artist instead of a fashion designer. It’s just funny that it's going full circle back to the original - what I've always wanted to do, but never thought I could.

It is funny how, as children, we specifically limit ourselves in terms of what we think we are capable of. Memory is such a fickle thing; the brain deletes certain things. I have experience of that as a child as well. I think most children do, because it's hard to grapple with thinking that you can't do something, necessarily. It’s so impressive that you have actually ended up creating this entire show, having not even done textiles or fashion at Uni.

And that's the beauty of this as well - it's not just recycling, in a sense of buying second-hand clothes on Depop. It's creating a completely new product that doesn't have to circulate within that same demographic again.

You know, Depop was probably one of my biggest inspirations because, even when I applied to Uni, in my application I wrote about different Depop girls doing different hings. Like Remass - she goes to Portugal, Spain, Israel, Italy, and sources clothes. That inspired the nomadic aspect of my brand. We’re not a physical brand - we’ll never have a physical store. Essentially, the concept is that right now I'm in London, my collection is very London based; London inspired. The next collection will be in Abu Dhabi, and I'm trying to work with local designers to create a collection that's an ode to Abu Dhabi, and create a pop-up event in there. Depop is sick, because that one concept just completely blew my imagination, sent me off on my direction, I think.

Have you got anything else that you'd like to add about the brand?

Another aspect of the brand I want to mention is that aspect of collaboration. It's such a big part of my brand. The ‘Ode to London’, ‘Ode to Abu Dhabi’, wherever I go next - I do that through collaborating with young designers. I'm so happy to have collaborated with my friend Rafe Askem on the imagery I embroidered onto the blazer look that opened the show. He is South London based and so, so talented; he has his own brand as well, Four Free. Collaboration makes the pieces collectibles in a sense. If someone's a fan, they'd want the LA version, the Tokyo version. That's how I envisage it, I guess.

Also, in terms of the event, for now, I'm including other sustainable designers just because I don't have product and it's nice to involve other creatives and bring the community together. But in the future, I view my events … have you ever been to a 180 The Strand Exhibition? No? They're amazing, you should definitely go to one. It's super immersive. Loads of sounds, lights, projectors, everything. It's the type of art where you're made to feel something because you're so involved in the art; that's kind of how I'm interpreting my events in the future. Obviously, it's going to take a while to grow to that, but the future of AWN is going to be a lot more immersive and experimental than my first fundraiser event will be. Do you have an official date for the first launch?

The next event will be a fundraiser on the 2nd of November, but I haven't confirmed dates for the first launch yet. I'm struggling to find manufacturers at the minute, so that's sort of my next mission.

What’s next for AWN?

Essentially, I want to travel, make sure I'm 100% comfortable with the manufacturers. I really wanted to do it all in England, because it would be most sustainable if there's no carbon footprint, but it’s just so expensive - I would be looking at selling the jeans at £400, which is not something I want to do. I asked seven or eight manufacturers, and every single person quoted me, to make one jeans, £150. I understand, because my jeans require a lot of work - you're cutting out pieces, then sticking the pieces together to make the panels and then cutting from that fabric sheet. But I don't know people who would buy jeans at £400 or £500 pounds a pair, it’s financially unsustainable. And to make a difference, the jeans need to be somewhat accessible to the general public. So I’m going to travel to places such as Vietnam and Japan, who have factories with cutting edge technology and sustainable practices in order to find a solution to create the most eco-friendly jeans in the world.

How and where do you source your upcycling materials?

As of right now, all my friends, and for the show, it was our Sustainability Ambassador Patrick McDowell - he did a project with American Eagle. He had loads and loads and loads of leftover denim, so he gave me boxes of it, which is how I sourced the denim for this collection. There are loads of websites, as well – there’s one called World4Business, or even eBay, where they post loads of second-hand clothes. eBay has loads of whole source second-hand fabric, second-hand clothes. It’s a lot of research, a lot of emailing, a lot of calling and eventually you find a stream of second-hand denim.

It's been a really quick turnaround, because you've just had your first debut fundraising show, is that correct?

Our actual London Fashion Week Show was supposed to be the day of the Queen's funeral, which obviously couldn’t go ahead on that day so it was postponed until a few days ago. My first fundraiser event is on the 2nd of November. We will showcase young London based artists and musicians and other sustainable brands. I'm not sure I will have anything ready to sell at that fundraiser but hopefully the one acer that will be an official Angels Wear Nada Launch event; I will have stuff to sell by then.