FASHION
The Evolution of Emerging Designer Razbel
Navigating fashion trends, consumer tastes and the utilise of AI
BY VANESA KRIZONYTE
There is deep fascination in the lives of artists – memories and emotions quietly shaping their work. Every brushstroke moves in tune with the maker’s history. Fashion by contrast, is more detached from designer’s traits and the individual story is left untold. From the first interaction with Razbel, the fashion house operating between Dubai and London, creative director Muhammad Bilal Raza shifted personal narratives and self-expression. A ready-to-wear range treated as a messenger.
Dressed in pink silk, a pearl collar and layered with the scent of Valentino Roma, I recall discovering Razbel’s emotional depth. The Mémoire hoodie carried the idea of scent nostalgia. A little memory in every scent and travelling through time. For us, Valentino Roma forever circles back to the pop-up store, where our introduction to Razbel unfolded.
Muhammad’s creative language has evolved. With recent campaigns inhabiting surreal dimensions, curiosity surrounds the transition to couture and female silhouettes. Inspired by recent conversations with leading photographers on finding summer rawness, we stepped away from the city hustle – reclining on a balcony lounger and telephone line connecting to Muhammad for a free-spirit dialogue about his creative process.
Has summer influenced your creativity?
Yes, I’m making swimwear. Summer is when you observe, what people are actually wearing, what prints are moving. And this year colour has come back. Loudly.
With peaks of colour coming through this summer, is society shifting towards maximalism?
Personally speaking, modern architecture is nice and sustainable but it has made the world lose colour. When I’m driving, I see white, grey and black cars no matter the model which is sad because if you go back to the 80s you see red, yellow, and blue cars. The colour would tell a personality, and you would see it in the driver which you don’t find anymore because everyone is driving the same white, black or grey car. That’s why when a brand puts loud colour into a modern silhouette, it feels refreshing. It gives something back that we’ve lost.
Will you introduce more colour in your new collections?
Yes, in a way which doesn’t hurt me commercially. A cashflow keeps a brand alive no matter what you say as an artist. I’m bringing more colour in a way that people will adapt to it.
Tell us more about The Arts Club collection…
The identification t-shirt has a mirror embroidered on the right side and on the back, it says identification in reverse. You must be in front of a mirror to read the logo correctly. The Razbel logo is flipped because when I started the brand I realised we go around looking for answers, but you need to stand in front of a mirror to realise the answer is you. Stop going after other people and depending on other people. If someone wants to do something for you it has to be you. It won’t be anyone else. That is why Razbel is flipped.
Does consumption of Razbel enable inner self discovery?
The inner self is a journey which will not end until the day you die because you become a different person every time you learn something new.
It’s within you, you have control and navigation of things. Your lived experiences reflect in the mirror.
I sense inspiration from Salvador Dali and connection to surrealism.
I won’t deny Dali is my inspiration, his quirkiness is very attractive to me.
The faceless memory t-shirt is purely shapes of triangles and circles formed into a face. A face where you will not understand what the face is because there are certain memories we have but don’t remember the faces.
The fading faces are the beauty but pain of memory, those moments tend to sit with us but also fade very quickly. Life is about gripping onto the memory but also letting go to be present and make new ones.
One of the pieces references the Angus painting by Konstantin Korobov, a mythological exploration of peace amongst violence. What made you identify with the artwork and stimulated incorporation into your fashion line?
Inspired by the painting, I sketched out a lace dress with exposed skin and added wolves. The painting symbolizes Jesus Christ, spiritual purity and the quiet endurance of innocence facing a hostile world. I tried to replicate how certain men have perceived women in society. There is always a predatory aspect in men for certain women. It is something I do not wish to address but exists. The dress says it instead. That’s what a garment can do that a sentence can’t.
The wolves all have a different expression. Each wolf has a different expression, because there isn’t one kind of man. The lowest one is the one I care about. He loves the sheep. He isn’t hunting her, he’s performing for the others, because if he doesn’t, they’ll turn on him. He doesn’t want to be doing what he’s doing. He’s doing it so he isn’t the one being laughed at.
Who is the consumer of this dress?
With Razbel, I’m creating whatever inspires me, an idea, something I dreamt and treating the garment as the canvas. The consumer arrives after. They recognise something, or they don’t.
Sounds like you allow garments to exist naturally.
If I design backwards from the consumer as in starting from the buyer than the idea, I stop designing. I start guessing and guessing is how you end up making the same jacket as everyone else.
The Evol hoodie is embedded with deeper thoughts. There is Love, Evil, Evolve and Live. The colour orange is a representation of prison so whatever we read first is where we are in prison of that perspective.
A lot of people read love because they are in prison of that mindset. I mean it in a good way. You’re in prison looking for evil, looking for love or looking for evolve.
Those words are the most powerful way of defining the world because that is pretty much all there is to life.
Is there an AI influence in the new campaigns?
Yes, there is AI involved. I’d love to project these shots and ideas but right now in my journey AI is a huge help. Everyone has mixed feelings about this and with the recent Dubai pop up we found 50/50 responses.
Your campaigns have a surreal quality which you wouldn’t be able to replicate unless you had a million-pound budget. I do really see your creative imagination.
I’ve an idea and AI generates it. Otherwise, the idea would go to another person, because as artists I believe the universe sends us ideas and if we don’t implement them the idea moves on to the next best. With AI I do not have the excuse of budget or resources it allows me to express the way I want to.
Everyone has access to AI but there aren’t many examples of this surreal infused artwork. Tell us your navigation and conversation with AI to create this vision.
We all have access to AI but in the end AI is not the one directing anything it is us. We are the ones in control. An accountant is using AI to file their taxes and as an artist, I’m using it to portray my message.
While I experience life and have different ideas going on in my mind. I’ve learnt to prompt correctly. I’ve studied camera angles since starting to use AI. If you do not have knowledge of camera settings, you won’t generate a proper image.
What is meant by lace is treated as architecture and how does understanding of buildings interplay with textiles?
Architecture has been around me living in London, Dubai and when travelling. If the architecture isn’t right, you wouldn’t enjoy a simple coffee. We love the London streets because of the right planning and setting.
The thing with my lace is it has a floral pattern and way it drapes on dresses. The skirt and building are the same form in one way or the other and that shape creates an architecture. If you look at the skirt it is a rectangular shape with curves and there are buildings with the same shape.
The female figure is an architectural form, and every consumer of this dress would make their own metaphorical building due to their shape.
The lace architecture is built on the way it is absent. You need the concrete on buildings to show beauty, but lace doesn’t need that. If you put lace on a human, you can see through it. It doesn’t need mass to show it is beautiful.
Is there anything you wish to add to Mohammad?
The Pearl Mother collection has a fictional story attached about a family who lived in a coastal town. They are pearl divers and sell pearls in the town. The father and grandson go out to pearl dive but one day they do not return and no one could find their bodies.
The mother did not give up even though the whole town did. The mother started going out to pearl dive. The metaphor here is the mother was actually going out to find her pearl. An oyster is like a womb and when you open it there is a pearl. So, when you open an oyster you find a pearl and a mother makes a child in her womb in the same shape of an oyster. She goes to sea to find her pearl which is her son. This story is a tribute to mothers.
This story links to the EVOL hoodie, drawing on all the principles of life including Evil, Love, Evolve and Live.
When I first started Razbel the first collection was called The Message. A Message can be from God in any form or way, till this very day every piece that comes out has some connection to the first 4 hoodies or as we can call them the first 4 messages.
Razbel has proven that fashion collections can hold a deeper existential purpose beyond pure aesthetics. Navigating through the collection, a culturally infused narrative unfolds. Mohammad’s tactical logo flip encourages inner self-discovery and the dress draws inspiration from Konstantin Korobov as a form of social commentary. The powerful words embroidered into fabrics reinforce the principles of life. In a time where AI is reshaping visual culture, Mohammad utilises it to map the landscape of his imagination. The campaigns present a futuristic vision for fashion – where nothing is impossible if you are grounded in your beliefs and embrace self-discovery.
Interview for this story was conducted on 25th July, 2026 . With gratitude to Muhammad Bilal Raza.
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