At Kuwait’s Women & the Economy conference, Bazza Alzouman discusses the craftsmanship behind her work, an unusual commission for a robot and why designers need room to experiment.
Bazza Alzouman’s eveningwear often brings together a restrained base and a more expressive detail: a crepe gown interrupted by gathered tulle, a sculpted sleeve or an asymmetric drape. Since establishing her label in Kuwait in 2014, she has worked with the possibilities of shape and construction while keeping the person wearing the garment central to her thinking.
An outfit for a robot introduced a different kind of wearer, but it also opened a conversation about the wider practice behind her clothes. Speaking to Diwaniya Media at the Women & the Economy conference in Kuwait, Alzouman discussed how she approaches unfamiliar briefs, her attachment to working by hand and the place artificial intelligence might eventually occupy in her studio.
“I think that like life in general, and especially the fashion world, you really need to be open to change and just keeping up with the times,” she said.
Her willingness to explore new methods sits alongside a clear affection for the making itself. “I love the manual work and the creative process,” she added, describing it as something she holds tightly to.
A practice shaped between Kuwait and New York
Alzouman’s route into fashion began alongside another course of study. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, she took sewing classes while studying business administration at Boston University before moving to New York in 2011 to attend Parsons. During her fashion training, she worked with Naeem Khan, developing the interest in eveningwear that would become the focus of her own label.
According to her official biography, she returned to Kuwait in 2014 to establish the brand and its atelier. Design, sampling and production are managed from the Kuwait studio, placing the development of a garment and its manufacture within the same operation.
The label describes its position as sitting between evening ready-to-wear and couture, with an emphasis on construction. That description is reflected in garments that use volume, transparency and draping to alter otherwise familiar eveningwear forms. Pieces listed on her website include a crepe dress with an organza neckline and puff sleeves, alongside a strapless gown whose gathered tulle skirt introduces asymmetry below the bodice.
Those details also connect with how Alzouman has previously described her influences. In a 2019 interview with Arab News, she associated simplicity and minimalism with her American upbringing and design education, and linked her interest in volume and asymmetry to her Arab background. The same interview documented her work being worn by Maya Diab, Mai Omar and Huda Kattan, while her own emphasis remained on whether the clothes worked for the wearer.
“It’s so important to me that evening wear is wearable,” she said at the time.
An unfamiliar brief
That concern with the relationship between a garment and its wearer took an unexpected turn with the robot commission. Alzouman admitted that she had initially been apprehensive, feeling that robots should retain their identity as machines. As she considered the assignment, however, she began to think about their appearance in the spaces people inhabit.
“If they’re going to be integrated into our lives, into our spaces, then they need to kind of integrate visually as well,” she told Diwaniya Media.
She began by learning about the character assigned to the robot, which was intended to represent a young girl. Her response was to create a welcoming appearance without dressing it as though it were a child. Light beige tones were chosen to convey softness, while the machine’s identity remained part of the brief.
The practical requirements were equally specific. Velcro openings at the sides and back allowed access to ports, and a utility belt offered somewhere to attach objects if the robot were used to assist someone. Construction choices that might normally respond to a person’s movement or comfort instead had to account for hardware and access.
Alzouman described the assignment as a conceptual experience. Its interest extended beyond the final outfit to the questions it allowed her to explore about technology, design and everyday life. “I don’t think in the end it’s really about the aesthetic of the final garment,” she said.
Keeping a hand in the process
AI was also part of the project’s development. Alzouman said one of its concepts involved using artificial intelligence to help develop the design, although her wider use of the technology remains exploratory.
Asked whether she could see herself incorporating it more extensively, she did not set out a fixed direction. Instead, she explained that new methods would have to fit the values of her practice and the needs of the people buying her work.
“I just think it needs to be integrated in a way that makes sense, in line with my values, the brand values, and the needs of the world,” she said.
Her response brings the conversation back to the relationship between experimentation and an established design identity. A new tool may offer another way to develop an idea, but Alzouman still places importance on the manual work and creative decisions through which a garment takes shape. She also recognises that a label cannot remain separate from changing client expectations.
“At the end of the day, when you’re providing a product or you’re providing something, it needs to also adapt to what, you know, your clients want.”
Making room to develop
For designers beginning their careers, Alzouman’s advice was to allow that development to happen through the work itself. She encouraged them to enjoy the process and avoid becoming so critical of their first attempts that they hesitate to put anything out.
“Any creative is very critical to their own work, and I think you just need to get your work out there and then refine as you go,” she said.
It was a practical observation from someone whose own path has moved through sewing classes, formal training, a Kuwait atelier and now an experimental commission outside her usual field. Early work, she suggested, can be reconsidered as a designer’s judgement develops.
“You’re never going to feel ready, so it’s better just to have outputs and then you can always delete your collections. That’s what I did, so it’s fine.”
