Each garment I create under my brand, Hanan Sharifa, embodies my belief that clothing should evoke a sense of daydreaming. I personally oversee every aspect of production—from designing fabrics digitally and screen printing to dyeing and sewing—occasionally working with a small team in NewYork.This hands-on approach reflects my deliberate choice to reject the mechanical processes of fast fashion. Each piece is crafted with meticulous care and love, telling stories that celebrate beauty, joy, the diaspora and the complexities of being human.
Ceramics, photography, performance, and video are integral to my work, shaping the world in which my clothing exists. My designs bridge the tangible and the spiritual, serving as conduits to liminality. Incorporating ceramics has enriched my process, providing a meditative, tactile practice that complements my fashion collections. These mediums converge to create pieces that empower wearers to feel shamelessly confident and beautiful.
Central to my artistic ethos is my Moroccan American identity, often expressed through Arabic script, particularly my name, ‘Hanan,’ meaning ‘tender’ or ‘compassionate.’ By incorporating these words into my designs, I aim to foster empathy and challenge misconceptions about Arabic language and culture.
Rooted in spirituality and romance, my art transcends fashion to offer a sanctuary from the demands of modern life. My work invites moments of inner peace, empowerment, and joy, encouraging wearers and viewers alike to embrace their beauty and strength.Through my work, I hope to inspire love and alignment, empowering wearers to navigate the complexities of this world with grace and resilience.
EIP: How does working with ceramics challenge or enhance your creative process compared to other mediums?
HANAN: Ceramics has helped me focus on the present moment, and step away from thinking about my business. I love its tactile quality and how it complements my collections. At the beginning of 2024, I felt a strong pull toward working with clay—almost like a download—and I’ve been answering that call since. I don’t see clay as a challenge but as another tool for expressing the language of my work and helps me get out of circular thinking. Working with clay is definitely a slower process than making garments, since it requires time to build, fire, glaze, and fire again. It also brings a layer of playfulness to my art that is a nice reminder when I go back to designing. At times I can get lost in the process of designing collections, and focus too much on what is marketable and what will sell, instead of what I like and the fun and energy that goes into the creation of it.
EIP: Are there recurring themes or stories in your work that reflect your personal experiences or cultural heritage?
HANAN: A recurring theme in my work has been writing my name in Arabic on my clothes either as a pattern or my logo. I started doing this because for a long time it was the only thing I could write in Arabic and it added to my story of my experience of the diaspora. It’s been an interesting journey writing it on garments, people either love it or fear it. I think the fear comes from not knowing what it says (even though I’m always explaining what it says), or people fear the language altogether. Hard to say which one it is, but I’m disappointed that Americans and the Western world fear the Arabic language so much, and—it goes without saying—fear the people who speak it too. I’m hoping I make it more approachable, more common to see.
EIP: How do you see your art evolving in the future, and what role do ceramics play in that vision?
HANAN: Last summer I had a salon style dinner party to celebrate my summer collection and soft launch the ceramics that accompanied the collection - I had all the guests wearing the collection, my friend Shauna of Joon Eats cooked us dinner at my friend Sunny’s beautiful loft in Bedstuy. And we had harpist Samantha and singer/composer-improviser Miriam Elhajli play music after dinner. I’m hoping to present more collections in this very intentional way, and have some more elaborate production, and funding to pay everyone involved. I think creating spaces like this for Arab women to come together and experience the clothing in this way - to gather in a space with the ceramics, to eat, and listen to music is a nurturing experience. Everyone said they felt healed afterwards!
EIP: With such a hands-on approach to production, what aspects of crafting garments do you find most fulfilling or challenging?
HANAN: I really feel blessed and honored to make the garments for those who buy from me. I think people can really feel the energy and love that I put into making them. I have moments where I stop and realize that I’m living my dream life and people pay me to make them my visions, and I feel very lucky for that. It’s easy to fall into a lack mindset, or have a desire to want more, which is fine, but being grateful along the way, looking around and seeing you have everything you need is important. But I will say, at times I really get over re-producing everything. It’s a lot of work juggling all the hats of the business. I occasionally have interns, and work with small batch productions but the work sometimes makes me feel like a robot. I’m hoping to move production to Morocco this year and get some Moroccans paid. I think having production go there will still feel fulfilling for me and carry the same message and add to the story and the world I’m creating.
EIP: Your work exists at the intersection of the romantic and the spiritual. How do you balance these two elements when creating your pieces?
HANAN: I think loving, giving or receiving, in a romantic, or platonic way, is a spiritual experience itself. So I think the two are already in conversation with each other and it’s not something I actively think of how to communicate, but just comes out because I am those things. I don’t overthink what I want to make, and I make what I want to wear, and I don’t overthink that either. I love love, I’m a deep feeler, I love having fun. I love laughing and making other people laugh. I love going out and looking my best. I love helping other people feel that way when they wear my clothes. And these are all a part of my life purpose - uplifting people through how they look and how they feel on the inside. I hope through my clothes and my ceramics I can offer a moment of inner peace for whoever experiences it. Living in this capitalist hellscape, women have been conditioned to not feel so deeply, not relax or flow like we’re naturally supposed to. Instead we’re told to grind, and overwork, and be a girlboss, (which is fine if that’s what you want to do) but it leaves us tired and exhausted. When in reality living like that is used as a tool to oppress and discriminate against us, specifically black and poc femmes. Because they know how powerful we are when our energy is aligned, we have the ability to shut current systems down. This is what I mean by wanting women to feel empowered and they’re best self when they wear the clothes or use the ceramics. I hope you feel that power that’s within us. •
