Alqumit Alhamad for VOGUE wearing a dress by Sarkis Dersahakian

In collaboration with the distinguished Lebanese-Armenian-Palestinian fashion designer and acclaimed drag artist Sarkis Dersahagian, this project gave rise to a powerful artistic statement in the form of an avant-garde dress. Drawing inspiration from the post-civil war era, the design imagines a speculative future while reflecting on the fragmented past. Central to the piece is a reinterpreted version of the Al Jazeera logo a bold act of protest aimed at confronting the network's perceived double standards in its treatment of queer narratives.

The collaboration embodies a deliberate tension between aesthetic expression and political critique. While Al Jazeera’s international platforms often present themselves as advocates for queer rights, its regional broadcasts in the Arab world continue to frame queer identities through a pathologizing lens, as social maladies or cultural deviations. This hypocrisy reveals a troubling duality in how queer lives are represented, acknowledged, or erased depending on the intended audience.

The dress thus functions as more than a garment, it is a form of resistance. By incorporating the Al Jazeera logo into a work of high fashion and drag performance, the piece subverts the authority of a major media institution and exposes the contradictions in its narratives. It stands as a visual protest against the marginalization of LGBTQI+ individuals in the Arab world and a testament to the power of queer creativity as a tool of dissent, reclamation, and visibility.

Hijacking Copenhagen Fashion Week, 2023

Performance, logo design by me, dress by Sarkis Dersahagian