Karime Salame

For her final project for the master program Fashion Matters at the Sandberg Instituut, interdisciplinary Mexican-born designer Karime Salame’s project HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER?presents coats as mobile homes and spaces of interaction. When Karime arrived in Amsterdam in 2015, she found herself once again in a new country with a new culture, trying to search for a sense of belonging and a way to adapt to this new situation.

“I was born in Mexico, my father is Jewish and my mother is Catholic. I emigrated from Mexico ten years ago and since then my life has been a constant process of moving from one place to another. I have been always fascinated by the mix of different cultures and religions around me.”Karime’s project HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER? is a collection of coats with double functionality: as space providers and triggers of interaction. They can be worn, put flat on the floor and be joined together to create a communal sitting space to gather and share experiences with others. For the last two years, Karime has been taking a critical look at the role of clothes in our society. In her work fashion becomes a powerful tool, not only to create your own identity but also to relate to a social space and create a sense of belonging.

“HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER? came from my own experience but also my admiration of nomad culture and the concept of the old tabernacle - a mobile temple used by the Jews to travel in the desert. This temple refers to the idea of not destroying a space after moving around and instead creating a temporary one, of keeping the smoothness of it, and not owning something, only borrowing it while showing respect for the environment.