Casablanca (Q4046)
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Casablanca is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Casablanca |
Casablanca is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
2018
founder/creative director
“When I was much younger I remember feeling that Mexicans in the US were a bit like us Arabs in Paris. We were both the outsiders, the underdogs who created our own culture, and our own way of dressing in clothes that are not super expensive but which have a really defined style. Now, 25 years after falling in love with that culture, this is my homage.” So said Charaf Tajer before this well attended Casablanca show this evening. More notable than the high-profile attendees who wore the brand top-to-toe—because business as usual—were the industry eminences who chose to be here for the first time: managerial changes inside this fledgling brand are bringing a cloutier crowd.They were greeted by a runway parked with four lowrider cars, emblems of that Mexican-American youth culture Tajer had related to from afar. However, as this collection started rolling out from backstage, it quickly became apparent that his starting point had evolved into a broader social portrait of what Tajer termed “LA subcultures.”We started with pinstripe blazer dresses and a leather-edged Chanel-esque set in mesh before a suit that didn’t have the waistline to look zoot: Tajer’s release said the tailoring was inspired by Pat Riley in his pomp. There was a luxury-amplified “homage” to Chicano tropes that featured a crystal-set hair net, satin work shirt worn open from the top, a bandana folded into the waistline of shorts, plus socks and slides. This and other looks veered shakily into the realm of gangster cosplay: possibly dangerous, and not in the manner intended.The house’s graphics team adapted the free-wheelin’, hard-tripping aesthetic of Californian psychedelic artists such as Rick Griffin into the seasonal house font and house-specialty foulard prints. There was a nice stoplight-on-windscreen gradient glare to the multicolor fades in crystal edged shirting. A vaguely Venice surf-inflected section betrayed the ocean between this collection’s conception and subject, applying candy tones to Dogtown codes: the oversized denim edged in rainbow frays was a strong look. Tajer said he’d been in touch with Bootsy Collins (who’d wanted to attend) and that look 49 was a specific tribute. This Casablanca homage felt sincere and contained some appealing garments, yet was sometimes apparently as underthought as the fate of a GTA bystander.
26 September 2024
Charaf Tajer, founder and creative director of Casablanca, explained backstage that this collection told the story of ancient Greece and “the bridge between them and us—how they influence us in architecture, philosophy, mathematics, psychedelics…” Hold on a sec…You, like me, may have had no clue that the ancient city of Eleusis near Athens was once a hotbed of secret and sacred initiations. Beyond serving as a pilgrimage for mythical minds such as Cicero, it seems members of a cult would go for an altogether different kind of trip that involved fungi added to a potent drink—essentially a precursor to modern LSD.This is not the first time that psychedelics have informed a Casablanca collection, and the press text even noted the brand’s “idealistic and psychedelic identity.” Here, within the Cirque d’Hiver, chosen for its amphitheater-like design, we were transported to what felt like a beach at sundown, where rows of seated performers conjured waves through an elaborate choreography of arm movements led by Sadeck Berrabah.They might have had a hypnotic effect were it not for the many ways that the line-up seduced. Often this involved riffing on archetypes: statuesque draping reimagined as a clingy dress with a high slit and suiting that gathered around the waist, or else retro sportswear adapted for sleeker times. The recurring gradient blue treatment that washed across coats and coordinated looks was striking—and a calmer statement than the flashy foiled and quilted silver pieces. While hybrid wrestler belt-cummerbunds embroidered with 2024 were playful, if not borderline schtick, the letterman jackets covered in patchwork motifs and a quote from Cicero (a collaboration with Jeff Hamilton) made a winning statement—they clearly had fun geeking out over Greek. Five years on—and Casablanca’s second season on the women’s calendar—the brand shows equal confidence with the men’s and women’s lines; the main difference is that the latter leans noticeably sexier (see Jessica Stam in a lustrous corset with a generous flash of underboob for the finale).The show’s title, “Venus as a Boy” nodded to a Bjork track and Tajer said the line, “he believes in a beauty” speaks to his ongoing ethos.
He is a peripatetic soul who can riff on cultural ideas without uncomfortable appropriations, perhaps because at each destination—last season, Nigeria—the team does a full immersion and then produces a collection that convincingly checks all retail categories (note the bags, sneakers and ancient Greek sandals gladiator styles). He’s like that rare student who excels at school without taking it too seriously. “It’s almost a sociological study to do fashion today,” he said. “I think aesthetics are just a reflection of a full intellectual world.” Evidently other, more transient worlds, too.
28 February 2024
“I love menswear—but growing up in Paris, this feels like a step up into the big leagues.” So said Charaf Tajer before Casablanca’s debut appearance on the womenswear schedule this afternoon. This public-facing shift coincided with one in Casablanca’s C-suite: The able Stella McCartney veteran Frederick Lukoff recently came on board as CEO.Shown on the 63rd anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from the British, this collection was titled Day of Victory and featured a son of the West African nation’s towering cultural icon Fela Kuti. Seun Kuti, who is also a gifted performer and leads the band his father founded, walked the show’s 33rd look. This was a to-the-navel neckline, boot-cut bodysuit that looked reminiscent of his dad’s coordinated stagewear, but Casablanca-fied via the addition of slightly tweaked All England Lawn Tennis Club colors. The rest of the now traditional Casablanca throwback tennis section was similarly hued.Tajer and his team had spent time in Lagos seeking inspiration for this collection and were clearly energized by the dynamism, drive, and dash of Nigerian culture. The extensive moto section—which Tajer said was inspired by his admiration of Lagos’s speed demons—featured helmets and handsome leathers with raglan sleeves in the same dégradé rainbow hues as Casablanca’s signature organza dresses and tailoring. Fela’s album-cover artwork was incorporated into knits, and the house’s heart monogram was applied as an embriodered trim to denim and patent separates (it also featured on suiting).Novelties included menswear shorts and a woman’s top in meshed wood beading. Naturally, there was a smattering of richly printed or decoratively stitched shirting for OG Casablanca collectors, and a broad accessory offering starred some covetable monogram grip bags. Dedicating a collection to the home of the Super Eagles was a supersmart move on Casablanca’s part, and this collection was proud, playful, and a pleasure to watch unfold. Tajer aced that big-league debut.
1 October 2023
Before the Casablanca show, Charaf Tajer stepped up to a podium in front of a microphone and electronic prompt screens, like a politician. Knowing Tajer’s propensity for creating fun, it momentarily felt as if this might be a spoof. But the set behind him should have been a harbinger: the fuselage of a Syrian fighter jet, garlanded with flowers. What Tajer had to say was no joke.His impassioned speech about the reality behind the show deserves to be read as he delivered it:“Last year, my friend Maya told me an incredible story about young people in Syria who risked everything to find joy. They were doing something that you would find ordinary: partying, except they weren’t trapped by the fear under bombardment. So, for them, partying was an act of courage and resistance. Inspired, I went to Damascus, and lived in the paradox where beauty and devastation coexist. I found there humanity, generosity, and relationship.It was a great reminder for me to celebrate life in all conditions. “He took a breath and continued:“So let’s not think of refugees as numbers, but as human beings, as equals, without any discrimination. Refugees carry so much from their past, their homes they lived in, the loved ones lost. But we have a simple choice today: to accept the tragedy, or use our platform to spread this important message. I'm not saying that fashion is the solution, and some people might say it’s just clothes. But the idea is to use our voices to shout and to do anything we can to create a better world. The purpose of this collection, it’s a piece of theater, inspired by courage, reflecting the pain and the beauty that I witnessed in the war zone. I stand here in front of you, and if I talk about it, maybe you will be touched by what you see and talk about it too.”Casablanca is a burgeoning successful brand—the huge scale of the show production was testament to that. As Tajer promised, the clothes were, as always, about fun, optimism, and sexiness, this time with a dressed-up 1970s accent, and retro-sporty tennis and ski-wear later on. The Casablanca logo was everywhere, but not as usual. Tajer pointed out that he’d lopped off half of his monogram “so it becomes a heart.”
22 January 2023
The steaming deposits delivered by the four horses corralled in the middle of this Casablanca runway mid-show made for powerful critical statements. Charaf Tajer said he’d wanted to reflect his recent time spent in Mexico by creating a “psychedelic ranch in Paris,” and that he did. Yet you felt sorry for the poor dumb animals in the room—despite frantic air-freshening mid-show we were in very fragrant territory—and even more sorry for the horses, who did not seem delighted to attend Paris Fashion Week.That caveat aside, this was a highly entertaining if slightly unhinged show. You wondered if perhaps the creative team had pursued its research into the mushrooms that featured on radiantly embroidered bolero jackets and dresses with extra gusto. There was also an entertainingly wide-eyed rabbit and an illustration of what looked like Guatemala’s Tikal. The arches of the Bourse, this show’s venue, were clad in radiantly colored panels to reflect what Tajer said was an inspiration drawn from Mexico’s colonial architecture that was also in the collection: It felt very much like a doors of perception reference too.Even without a microdose he gave us a trip. Stylized vaquero-wear included embroidered chaps and embellished denim ranch gear. A few satintraje de luceswere beautifully finished with pearlescent beading. There was one stand-out womenswear look, a dress in layered shades of burnt orange with a white piped low scalloped neckline. Hippie tailoring looked spot-on. Casablanca’s core louche tennis pro vibe remained discernable, but came over-layered with a powerful hit of exactly what Tajer had intended to spike us with. He said of the brand’s M.O.: “the conversation is really around this idea of looking at the beauty of the world and always paying homage to different places and different cultures that inspire me.” Tajer clearly has the verve, drive, and imagination to twist fashion’s landscape in a diverting direction: I’ll have what he’s having.
27 June 2022
Since starting his brand in 2018, Casablanca’s Charaf Tajer has played with the idea of the haut monde. Leisure is the privilege of the affluent, and his après sport concept combined with the idea of romance attached to the city signaled wealth and status. The fillip in this narrative was the way the designer played with ideas of masculine identity and gender fluidity. When Casa’s playboys started wearing pearls on the runway, for example, it wasn’t the trend it is today. And Tajer literally softened clothes, offering cashmere terry tracksuits and printed silk shirts.The brand narrative started to change in 2020 with the extension into womenswear. On the whole, the Casablanca woman—well-groomed, icy, vaguely mysterious, and loaded—is less nuanced than her male counterpart. Actress Emma Mackey—the star ofLe Monde Diplomatique,fall 2022’s collection film—certainly adds charm to the Casa woman’s résumé. And this season her wardrobe is more glamorous than it’s ever been, befitting Tajer’s theme.“It’s the first collection that we do about Paris; specifically about Paris at the end of the nineties. The era of the Concorde and Lady Diana, and Dodi Al Fayed at the Ritz, and all the world of Jacques Chirac, the former French president who was so iconic,” the designer explained over Zoom. “I grew up in this era… And it stays with me, so I wanted to dedicate this winter collection to this moment.” One of the ways he did so was adding couture touches in the form of intricately beaded pieces. These really soar and also build on the brand’s signature printed pieces. A more-clean-lined use of sparkling embroidery on a bolero tuxedo (look 67) draws the eye as well.Also referencing haute couture are this season’s feathered looks, including a winter white cape and a blue swan minidress. The swan—“beautiful but mean, like Paris”—Tajer jokes, is the animal of the season. The film makes a connection between the gracefulness of this bird to that of the Concorde. The plane’s clean, triangular shape also inspired an abstract print in Gallic red, white, and blue.Grounded in 2003, the supersonic Concorde could make the trip between Paris and New York in about half the time of a regular jetliner and remains a symbol of glamour. It was the preferred form of transport for supermodels, moguls, and the occasional fraudster.
Christophe Rocancourt, a French con artist, who according to a 2002 interview took “cross-Atlantic jaunts on the Concorde ‘like packing a daily lunch,’” has a cameo in the movie. The film was shot, in part, at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace outside of Paris.
22 January 2022
Since starting his brand in 2018, Casablanca’s Charaf Tajer has played with the idea of the haut monde. Leisure is the privilege of the affluent, and his après sport concept combined with the idea of romance attached to the city signaled wealth and status. The fillip in this narrative was the way the designer played with ideas of masculine identity and gender fluidity. When Casa’s playboys started wearing pearls on the runway, for example, it wasn’t the trend it is today. And Tajer literally softened clothes, offering cashmere terry tracksuits and printed silk shirts.The brand narrative started to change in 2020 with the extension into womenswear. On the whole, the Casablanca woman—well-groomed, icy, vaguely mysterious, and loaded—is less nuanced than her male counterpart. Actress Emma Mackey—the star of Le Monde Diplomatique, fall 2022’s collection film—certainly adds charm to the Casa woman’s résumé. And this season her wardrobe is more glamorous than it’s ever been, befitting Tajer’s theme.“It’s the first collection that we do about Paris; specifically about Paris at the end of the nineties. The era of the Concorde and Lady Diana, and Dodi Al Fayed at the Ritz, and all the world of Jacques Chirac, the former French president who was so iconic,” the designer explained over Zoom. “I grew up in this era… And it stays with me, so I wanted to dedicate this winter collection to this moment.” One of the ways he did so was adding couture touches in the form of intricately beaded pieces. These really soar and also build on the brand’s signature printed pieces. A more-clean-lined use of sparkling embroidery on a bolero tuxedo (look 67) draws the eye as well.Also referencing haute couture are this season’s feathered looks, including a winter white cape and a blue swan minidress. The swan—“beautiful but mean, like Paris”—Tajer jokes, is the animal of the season. The film makes a connection between the gracefulness of this bird to that of the Concorde. The plane’s clean, triangular shape also inspired an abstract print in Gallic red, white, and blue.Grounded in 2003, the supersonic Concorde could make the trip between Paris and New York in about half the time of a regular jetliner and remains a symbol of glamour. It was the preferred form of transport for supermodels, moguls, and the occasional fraudster.
Christophe Rocancourt, a French con artist, who according to a 2002 interview took “cross-Atlantic jaunts on the Concorde ‘like packing a daily lunch,’” has a cameo in the movie. The film was shot, in part, at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace outside of Paris.
22 January 2022
With its après-sport ethos, Charaf Tajer’s Casablanca exists in a dusky, liminal space between day and night, play and partying. On top of that the designer has blurred gender lines, at least in one direction: His ideal—represented by the house muse, Sid—is representative of the new masculinity of our times. (The Casablanca woman, in contrast, is more Amazonian and less nuanced.)Having co-owned a club in Paris called Le Pompon, Tajer must have spent a lot of time in the suspended hours between night and day. It seems safe to say the man knows how to party. Yet this season, when the prevailing mood is, to quote Mary J. Blige, “let loose and set your body free,” Tajer isn’t in a clubby mood. Chummy is more like it. His latest collection is called Masao San, after a close Japanese pal of the designer, and is, says Tajer, “an homage to friendship.”It’s through Masao that another side of Tokyo—“the world of ping-pong and the people who used to work at Sony during the ’90s and salarymen”—opened up to Tajer. “Japan is a foundation for me in terms of iconography in general and the way [the Japanese people] think and the way they are dedicated to what they do,” he says. The season’s bags are puckish takes on bento boxes.The most obvious influence on the collection is, however, the Memphis movement that came out of Milan in the 1980s. The bright colors and cartoonish shapes of Memphis are cleverly and, for the most part, subtly translated by Tajer into a pastel-to-bright palette and curvilinear cuts. A wavy lapel on a dress jacket and an undulating hem on what Tajer describes as a “strict, Fisher-Price” suit are unexpectedly chic, in contrast to a more literal shell-shaped halter top and miniskirt.On a deeper level, Tajer’s celebration of Memphis is a celebration of Karl Lagerfeld, the movement’s greatest collector and the man Casablanca’s ambitious creative director considers to be the father of modern fashion. “The exercise that Lagerfeld did with Chanel is definitely quite surrealistic when you think about it,” says Tajer. “He took one of the oldest houses of fashion and turned it into one of the most Pop and still-relevant brands in the world. He had this panache that we want to put in Casablanca as well—this sort of freedom to not take itself seriously. And [Lagerfeld] always talked back to the child that he used to be, and I think this is something that is very, very important.
You have to remember who you were when you were more innocent, in a way, and I think this is where his genius comes from.”The strength of Casablanca is its focus not on partying but play—and not only in the sense of sport. A fête is limited to time and place. A sense of play, in contrast, is a state of mind—and the essence of youth, fashion’s grail.
27 June 2021
With its après-sport ethos, Charaf Tajer’s Casablanca exists in a dusky, liminal space between day and night, play and partying. On top of that the designer has blurred gender lines, at least in one direction: His ideal—represented by the house muse, Sid—is representative of the new masculinity of our times. (The Casablanca woman, in contrast, is more Amazonian and less nuanced.)Having co-owned a club in Paris called Le Pompon, Tajer must have spent a lot of time in the suspended hours between night and day. It seems safe to say the man knows how to party. Yet this season, when the prevailing mood is, to quote Mary J. Blige, “let loose and set your body free,” Tajer isn’t in a clubby mood. Chummy is more like it. His latest collection is called Masao San, after a close Japanese pal of the designer, and is, says Tajer, “an homage to friendship.”It’s through Masao that another side of Tokyo—“the world of ping-pong and the people who used to work at Sony during the ’90s and salarymen”—opened up to Tajer. “Japan is a foundation for me in terms of iconography in general and the way [the Japanese people] think and the way they are dedicated to what they do,” he says. The season’s bags are puckish takes on bento boxes.The most obvious influence on the collection is, however, the Memphis movement that came out of Milan in the 1980s. The bright colors and cartoonish shapes of Memphis are cleverly and, for the most part, subtly translated by Tajer into a pastel-to-bright palette and curvilinear cuts. A wavy lapel on a dress jacket and an undulating hem on what Tajer describes as a “strict, Fisher-Price” suit are unexpectedly chic, in contrast to a more literal shell-shaped halter top and miniskirt.On a deeper level, Tajer’s celebration of Memphis is a celebration of Karl Lagerfeld, the movement’s greatest collector and the man Casablanca’s ambitious creative director considers to be the father of modern fashion. “The exercise that Lagerfeld did with Chanel is definitely quite surrealistic when you think about it,” says Tajer. “He took one of the oldest houses of fashion and turned it into one of the most Pop and still-relevant brands in the world. He had this panache that we want to put in Casablanca as well—this sort of freedom to not take itself seriously. And [Lagerfeld] always talked back to the child that he used to be, and I think this is something that is very, very important.
You have to remember who you were when you were more innocent, in a way, and I think this is where his genius comes from.”The strength of Casablanca is its focus not on partying but play—and not only in the sense of sport. A fête is limited to time and place. A sense of play, in contrast, is a state of mind—and the essence of youth, fashion’s grail.
26 June 2021
When we connected via Zoom, Charaf Tajer was in his car, wearing pearls over a black knit sweater. It’s difficult to imagine a more fitting scenario to speak about his fall 2021 collection, titled Grand Prix, which takes inspiration from Monaco by day and night. Formula One racing—or, as the designer says, a “kid’s dream” of it—represents the former, and the casino, illustrated by playing-card motifs, the after-dark theme. That’s not the only duality at play here: with this collection, Tajer officially debuts a full line of women’s wear.This development, he says, comes sooner than expected because of demand, arriving on the heels of a women’s capsule with Net-a-Porter. Watching the collection video, what struck me was seamless expansion of the brand into lifestyle via luggage, bags, jewelry and accessories. It’s easy to see homewares following.Like Emilio Pucci, Casablanca has made proprietary prints a brand signature, but whereas the aristocratic Italian designer segued from activewear to ready-to-wear, Tajer has intriguingly chosen après-sport as his niche. Up to this point, the magnetism of the brand has derived from this in-betweenness, which Tajer takes beyond place and gender and applies to masculinity. His male models wear pearls, cardigans, and pleated blouses. “When we play with pearls, with prints, with silk and all of that, we [take] the macho man into a situation of more softness,” he says. In the “moment when you show your sensitivity, you can show your strength as well.”Tajer has largely taken the opposite approach to dressing women, in defiance, he indicates, of patriarchal stereotypes of femininity and weakness. The danger in underlining a woman’s strength is that it can move her toward a stereotype of an assertive dame, rich bitch, and the like. There’s a complexity to a woman wearing Casablanca’s “soft” menswear that doesn’t exist when she’s wearing the sexy evening wear. The cut-out playing card dresses lack subtlety, in part because there is a sometimes too literal take this season on the gambling theme. In contrast, Tajer’s suiting for women is ace. In terms of prints for women, a faux-fur harlequin coat is a keeper statement piece; a skirt-suit printed with playing card clubs and diamonds feels of the season, rather than like a collectible.Tajer, who notes that his brand’s “eternal muse” is Aristotle Onassis, celebrates the “material girl” in all of us, symbolically and literally.
Onassis (like Jay Gatsby, for that matter) was a self-made playboy. Similarly the Casablanca man is the toast of the town not because of who his father or grandfather might be, but because of his talents and beauty. Just as the Casablanca character is centered in self, so Casablanca products are distinguished by their materiality. Tajer transformed the ubiquitous tracksuit, for example, by taking comfort to new levels of luxury and making it from a proprietary cashmere terry cloth. This collection includes materials that are bonded, and others enhanced with essential oils. The dramatic red-quilted to-order coat is hand-worked. Tajer’s focus on quality is an indication that he’s in this for the long haul. “I don’t drive fast, but I love the idea of the extremeness of the sport of Formula One,” says the designer, whose well-made pieces deliver more than passing thrills. Slow and steady wins the race.
23 January 2021
When we connected via Zoom, Charaf Tajer was in his car, wearing pearls over a black knit sweater. It’s difficult to imagine a more fitting scenario to speak about his fall 2021 collection, titled Grand Prix, which takes inspiration from Monaco by day and night. Formula One racing—or, as the designer says, a “kid’s dream” of it—represents the former, and the casino, illustrated by playing-card motifs, the after-dark theme. That’s not the only duality at play here: with this collection, Tajer officially debuts a full line of women’s wear.This development, he says, comes sooner than expected because of demand, arriving on the heels of a women’s capsule with Net-a-Porter. Watching the collection video, what struck me was seamless expansion of the brand into lifestyle via luggage, bags, jewelry and accessories. It’s easy to see homewares following.Like Emilio Pucci, Casablanca has made proprietary prints a brand signature, but whereas the aristocratic Italian designer segued from activewear to ready-to-wear, Tajer has intriguingly chosen après-sport as his niche. Up to this point, the magnetism of the brand has derived from this in-betweenness, which Tajer takes beyond place and gender and applies to masculinity. His male models wear pearls, cardigans, and pleated blouses. “When we play with pearls, with prints, with silk and all of that, we [take] the macho man into a situation of more softness,” he says. In the “moment when you show your sensitivity, you can show your strength as well.”Tajer has largely taken the opposite approach to dressing women, in defiance, he indicates, of patriarchal stereotypes of femininity and weakness. The danger in underlining a woman’s strength is that it can move her toward a stereotype of an assertive dame, rich bitch, and the like. There’s a complexity to a woman wearing Casablanca’s “soft” menswear that doesn’t exist when she’s wearing the sexy evening wear. The cut-out playing card dresses lack subtlety, in part because there is a sometimes too literal take this season on the gambling theme. In contrast, Tajer’s suiting for women is ace. In terms of prints for women, a faux-fur harlequin coat is a keeper statement piece; a skirt-suit printed with playing card clubs and diamonds feels of the season, rather than like a collectible.Tajer, who notes that his brand’s “eternal muse” is Aristotle Onassis, celebrates the “material girl” in all of us, symbolically and literally.
Onassis (like Jay Gatsby, for that matter) was a self-made playboy. Similarly the Casablanca man is the toast of the town not because of who his father or grandfather might be, but because of his talents and beauty. Just as the Casablanca character is centered in self, so Casablanca products are distinguished by their materiality. Tajer transformed the ubiquitous tracksuit, for example, by taking comfort to new levels of luxury and making it from a proprietary cashmere terry cloth. This collection includes materials that are bonded, and others enhanced with essential oils. The dramatic red-quilted to-order coat is hand-worked. Tajer’s focus on quality is an indication that he’s in this for the long haul. “I don’t drive fast, but I love the idea of the extremeness of the sport of Formula One,” says the designer, whose well-made pieces deliver more than passing thrills. Slow and steady wins the race.
23 January 2021
Charaf Tajer has a penchant for breathtaking resort destinations, and he found himself spending part of the confinement period in Maui, Hawaii. In terms of inspiration, all he had to do was look around him. Tajer said he decided to call the collection “After the Rain Comes the Rainbow,” because he is also a born optimist.“This collection is based on a moment of life and how strong nature is,” he said during a Zoom interview, adding that from his island perch he was able to admire rainbows every day. “What’s happened is pushing us even more into our lane, as idealists and nature lovers. We want people to come together and create a positive dynamic.”In filtering the Aloha State through Casablanca aesthetics, Tajer also incorporated touchstones such as architecture and psychedelia. Toying with tailoring codes, he reshaped the classic safari jacket into “a piece as relaxed as a summer night,” and riffed on tennis attire in both relatively pared down and amped up looks. In the former, an all-white crepe suit and polo/pants combo nodded to the umpire, and a tennis outfit with green and red stripes would be court-ready were it not 100% silk. The shoes, too, are a teaser: Casablanca’s upcoming New Balance 237s have a wave detail in front (patience: those hit stores in January).As is the designer’s wont, prints dominated the narrative: a Hawaiian landscape appeared on a classic, quilted English jacket; a denim suit with a ’90s air was hand-painted in the atelier, a feat the designer reckoned took 100 hours to complete; and a shirt featured the Hawaiian goddess of the sea set against traditional architecture on the front, while the back nodded to contemporary Hawaii’s more touristic side. In the last look (#32), what appears to be a denim ensemble is actually wool jacquard woven with the Casablanca monogram. In addition to a few jackets, some of the knitwear looked like it had crossover appeal.Tajer said that as well as practicing gratitude, he is listening to Brazilian music for his mental health. That, plus memories of his Hawaiian adventure make him happy right now. In all likelihood, where he’s going the Casablanca base will happily follow.
11 July 2020
Both personally and on the runway, Charaf Tajer translates his vision of male beauty through the luster of pearls, the glint of diamonds, and all the colors of a life at the top of the pistes and along the shores of the elegant Lake Garda.The designer noted backstage that, on a recent trip, he had been impressed by the area’s difference and elegance. Meanwhile, his exuberant runway show was not just standing room only— throngs spilled out the ballroom door at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel.Original prints made by a small in-house team—a member of which also walked in the show—showed dalmatians and vistas transposed onto silky, sometimes pleated shirts. Double-breasted suits with flared floods, shown on both men and women, were sharply cut and came in classic fabrics as well as windowpane checks or all-over motifs inspired by Tajer’s home base in Morocco. Outerwear, like a glossy trench and coats printed with interlocking C’s, or with embossing inspired by traditional tile motifs, showed considerable crossover appeal. The designer also confessed to a particular fondness for his ski wear (the skis were functional, too).Tajer makes no secret of taking cues from women’s wear. “We need to bring beauty and love into menswear,” he offered. “I think there is too much irony everywhere. I think we should just go for it. The most important thing is to make the clothes wearable, push the boundaries and let men wear what they see on the runway. You can be feminine but very strong at the same time, it’s not a weakness.”Given the number of ladies who have gravitated toward Casablanca, the designer has decided to push into women’s wear too, and is readying a women’s collection—“with a special partner”, he teased—to be unveiled in March.
19 January 2020
For the second time this week, a quintessential Parisian café—specifically, theterrasseat Café de Flore—was re-created as a runway setting. But where the ambience at Vuitton played up the whimsy, tonight’s Casablanca show shepherded people to the picturesque grounds of the Musée de Montmartre where, a century ago, artists lived, created, and caroused. Casablanca’s founder, Charaf Tajer, happens to know a thing or two about hosting epic get-togethers, and within the museum’s garden was a scene that felt transplanted from one of these.Now, though, two seasons into his brand, he said he was about plugging into the music of Jorge Ben and donning his designer hat. “That’s what I do—and it’s a job,” he said. “I love applying my vision to things.” And his vision is a fun one. Mostly it consists of rather lovely prints worn in a way that provokes immense swagger. Just check out Swae Lee, one half of the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, who appeared second in the lineup dressed in a double-denim look drenched in hot pink and perfume bottles. Tajer confirmed that every animation—from dragons to deserted islands, peeled oranges to swimming pools—is created in-house.Pieces toggled between tropical leisure attire and put-together sportswear: spread-collar shirts open past the chest; retro-fitted trousers in Miami Beach hues; knitwear tracksuits. This was an ambitious collection, totaling 65 looks accessorized with day bags, suede loafers, and embroidered moccasins. The tailoring could have benefited from a bit more finesse—or else have been dropped altogether for more of the embellished denim, which was gaudy in a good way. Whether Tajer was imagining certain archetypes—off-duty soccer player, yacht-owning eccentric, dandyish millennial—he was essentially recasting and convincing his crowd to embrace a wider range of style codes.Casablanca has arrived at a moment when people are wondering what comes after, or at least exists as a counterpoint to, streetwear. “There are two schools,” Tajer said, using the French word,école. “I think there is an école of cool and an école of beautiful. Me, I am the école of beautiful.” In fact, he is shaping up to be both.
22 June 2019
Casablanca—a new ready-to-wear line from Charaf Tajer, which is now in its sophomore season—showed a Fall collection that was both convincingly fun and a much-needed jolt of arid, languid heat in a fairly dreary Paris.Tajer’s jump-off for the lineup had a heartfelt backstory: “My parents met at an atelier in Casablanca. They fell in love in the city,” he said. Casablanca is Morocco’s biggest metropolis, abutting the churning eastern Atlantic and teeming with color and charisma. Tajer channeled its beachside, chromatic verve while also layering in a pajama-esque sort of lover’s loucheness through his silhouettes. See: silk shirts with prints of palm fronds and star-filled skies or ancient columns, or knit jumpers with intarsia bowls of oranges or crustaceans. Examples of suiting and tracksuits weren’t as convincing—the construction seemed a little iffy—but these didn’t draw away from the sunniness elsewhere.Other highlights included a best-in-show green car coat with golden clasp closures, terry sweatpants, and a print of Champagne on ice; Tajer clearly knows how to live the good life. (He’s about to host an outing, post-Paris, at Marrakech’s famous La Mamounia.) He summed it up simply before the show began: “I just . . . want to be known as a new go-to Parisian house.” He’s got a ways to go, but there’s promise.
17 January 2019