Let’s be honest: globalisation loves sameness. It loves clean lines, neutral palettes, and identities packaged into something universally palatable. In today’s hyper-globalised world, where trends travel at the speed of scrolling and everything risks blending into one big, glossy, indistinguishable mass, the act of holding onto your cultural identity feels almost rebellious. The M7 museum in Doha, Qatar, celebrates the seventh anniversary of Fashion Trust Arabia with the exhibition FTA: Threads of Impact, on view through January 3rd, 2026, bringing together the work of more than eighty designers from around the world and celebrating identity, culture, and craftsmanship.
Beyond aesthetics, style, and design, fashion has always been a way to communicate, to tell stories, a language on its own. A tool to express who we are without saying a word, like any other form of art. FTA: Threads of Impact, curated by Omoyemu Akerele, founder of Lagos Fashion Week, follows seven thematic ‘threads’ presenting the stories of more than eighty designers who refuse to let globalisation flatten their roots as they enter the global conversation.
Celebrating the seventh anniversary of Fashion Trust Arabia through this exhibition makes total sense. As the first initiative of its kind in the MENA region, FTA offers emerging designers from the Middle East financial grants, mentorship, retail partnerships, and, most importantly, visibility that doesn’t demand they dilute or whitewash their cultural DNA. In a global market where traditional fashion capitals like Paris and London often dictate which stories matter, FTA hands the mic back to the region, and the result is a chorus of voices refusing to sound alike, including names like Nazzal Studio, Yousef Akbar, Amir Al Kasm, Burç Akyol, Hussein Bazaza, Moulham Obid, Yasmin Mansour, Mukhi Sisters, Ilyes Ouali, Dihyan, or Amina Galal, among many others.
What you understand as you move through the space is that real luxury today is not about logos or spectacle. It’s about authorship, the kind that takes time, skill, and emotional investment. It’s the cut that only a trained hand can achieve, the embroidery passed down through generations, the fabric manipulated with patience. In a society obsessed with consumption, where everything is fast, easy, and replaceable, craftsmanship becomes an act of resistance. It’s slow but, most importantly, human.
And that’s why FTA: Threads of Impact hits so hard: it feels like a manifesto that reminds us that real luxury today isn’t extravagance but craftsmanship. A reminder that fashion’s true power doesn’t always lie in the runway flash but in the invisible hours behind every garment, and that identity can survive globalisation when protected by craft.
The exhibition FTA: Threads of Impact is on view through January 3rd, 2026, at M7, Abdullah Bin Thani St, Doha, Qatar.
