Moroccan designer Hicham Oumlil wants to express his identity through the clothes he wears. And he wants others to do the same.
He’s part of a new exhibition called “A Meeting of Cultures: Fashioning North Africa,” which opened Sept. 5 at the Kent State University Museum, located in the School of Fashion at 515 Hilltop Drive in Kent.
“As a human, you can put on clothes, your face, it’s the element, but what you’re doing is you’re speaking about who you are and about how you see the world,” Oumlil told more than 100 students, faculty and guests gathered for a reception on the eve of the exhibit’s opening.
How Oumlil created his fashion future
Oumlil moved to the U.S. in 1993 and followed in the footsteps of his political activist parents by studying political science at San Francisco State. But he needed to make a living.
So, in 1995, he dropped out of college and got a job at Krizia International, an Italian clothing store.
“I ended up falling in love with the industry, with the art of fashion,” he said.
And he couldn’t get enough. Oumlil took textile classes and continued to educate himself while working his way up in the industry. In 2002, he made another big move by relocating to New York City. A few years later, he apprenticed under Master Tailor Rocco Ciccorelli. And in 2006, Oumlil launched his brand, OUMLIL, at New York Fashion Week.
“I haven’t looked back,” he said.
Showcasing North African designs in a single exhibition
The exhibit, which includes garments, photographs and videos, goes beyond American and European fashion to showcase contemporary fashion of North Africa by bringing together 24 artists and designers from the region.
It focuses on three themes:
- Designers selected to participate in the theme of “Disruptors,” examining how North African streetwear style breaks away from old traditions.
- “Our Land” focuses on the ways artists and designers are inspired by architecture.
- “Threads” — the theme Oumlil was selected for — looks at designers’ materials and techniques.
“We believe it’s the first of its kind in the world to focus on the fashion of North Africa, to bring together the different countries of North Africa into one single exhibition,” said Sara Hume, the Kent State University Museum’s curator.
Designer: Clothing isn’t just for the body
Oumlil, now living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has two pieces in the exhibition, both made with pleated fabrics. One outfit includes an ivory pleated suit jacket and navy blue pleated dress pants; the other includes a navy blue pleated suit jacket that extends to the knee, along with pleated trousers.
The pleated fabrics “speaks of the complexity of who we are as people. And recognizing that we are a complex species, which allows us to sort of begin to have internal conversations with ourselves about how to present ourselves to the world,” Oumlil said.
Kent State alumna Genet McCann, who’s originally from Ethiopia but grew up in Akron, felt connected to Oumlil’s belief in connecting texture to the whole self.
“The jacket he was wearing this evening has a nature type of influence,” McCann said. “So, I thought it was really cool, like how introspective and neat that is: mind, body and soul. I like that.”
Some attendees asked Oumlil questions after he shared his approach to designing the garments.
Balancing career and culture
“As someone who’s been a designer in America for many years and someone who has such a strong sense of identity and culture from Morocco, how do you balance that and create a space for yourself to express yourself like that?” junior fashion design major Hanna Mogilevsky asked Oumlil.
Mogilevsky also shared concerns about being employable and still honoring her culture, as well as the struggles her immigrant parents endured to gift her a brighter academic future.
“A Meeting of Cultures: Fashioning North Africa” is on display at Kent State University Museum through May 10, 2026.