Sukeina I Omar Salam

The Kent State University Museum is honored to host the first museum exhibition in the United States dedicated to the work of the brand Sukeina founded by Omar Salam. While his family’s origins go back to Senegal in West Africa, Salam lived around Europe before coming to New York City to study at Parsons School of Design for a degree in fashion. He originally planned to study film but realized that he would be more effective telling the intricate, vibrant stories he sought to tell through fashion.

Salam began his career working for Sonia Rykiel in Paris then becoming visual director for the New York office. He spent seven years with Rykiel before joining Christian Lacroix in 2010. Salam launched his own brand in 2012 which he named Sukeina after his mother. The word means “bright light.” As he describes it “Light is what reconciles us with the value of everything, and without it, all goes missing.”

Sukeina is driven by Salam’s commitment to make women look and feel special. His designs feature clean lines but also intricate hand crafting. Many of his pieces incorporate silk fringe tied by hand onto a ground of lace and mesh. He also creates stunning origami-like pieces of dimensionally folded neoprene. His designs at once obscure and reveal the woman’s form. The exhibition is grouped according to his collections which each bear a name evoking the spirit which unify the pieces such as Rise, Hue, Miracle, Bloom and Cardinal.