This London Fashion Week, Kazna Asker is hosting a pop-up at the TANK Magazine exhibition space! Saturday and Sunday, 20-21 of September Kazna will transform the white TANK space into a colourful and vibrant souk. Visitors will be transported by the sounds, colours and crafts of a community of makers from all around the world.

Kazna Asker is a British-Yemeni designer hailing from Sheffield. She has been showing presentations at LFW for the past three seasons, having been the first designer from Central Saint Martins to showcase a hijabi runway for her MA show in 2022. Kazna’s designs are rooted in her Yemeni identity as much as her British one: Middle Eastern fabrics and motifs are intertwined with tracksuits and contemporary tailoring. Keffiyeh ties on traditionally western tailored suits or trackies paired with bishts and jambiya daggers. Asker’s practice is not limited to clothes, though — activism and community work is at the core of her practice. She has collaborated with youth clubs, local activists and makers in Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham and more outside of London, in order to show that fashion can be a social tool, whose storytelling power can inspire young people to express themselves freely and connect activism with art. 

Bringing that ethos to the TANK space, her family and friends of makers will form a London souk, riffing on the open-air market to gather her community of makers and designers. Her pop up at the TANK space will host a wide array of community-oriented businesses selling all sorts: from carpets to jewellery, to upcycled streetwear and more.

On Saturday, Tatreez Collective will hold a Palestinian embroidery workshop and Dion Hesson’s film Woven will make its screening debut, alongside a Q&A with the director. On Sunday there will be an upcycling and customisation workshop by Among Good People, a creative project merging football and great causes. Many of the ticket sales will fund charities based in Yemen and Palestine.  

The pop-up will be open on Saturday 20th from 11am until 6pm. The Tatreez Palestinian embroidery workshop runs from 12pm ‘till 2pm and Woven’s screening will start at 5pm. The space will reopen on Sunday 21st at 11am and close at 4pm, with the AGP customization workshop starting at 12pm. Check @KaznaAsker instagram for the full program and link to tickets!