The Sheffield Designer Stitching Yemen into English Sportswear

Raised in Sheffield, based in London, Kazna Asker distinguishes her brand through the marriage of sportswear and traditional Middle Eastern fabrics. Her designs speak to a British upbringing in the Yemeni diaspora.

For Asker, fashion means activism, community, and education—whether she’s winning the Debut Talent Prize at Fashion Trust Arabia, watching her designs walk the runway of London Fashion Week, protesting for Palestine, or empowering her local community through a documentary film.“Fashion has always been a uniform to wear your morals and wear what you stand for,” she said.
If you were in London or Sheffield this past September, you might have seen the fashion designer’s billboards that read:

“Free Palestine. Free Sudan. Free Congo.”

“What Are We Fighting For?”

And, “What Is Community?”

Asker brought her current Autumn-Winter 2025 collection to life through a billboard campaign where she presented the ensembles beside poetry, Qur’an verses, and messages hand-written by her Sheffield community. In other words, Asker brought her designs to life in the context by which they were inspired.
Asker goes shopping for inspiration in her grandmother’s house, who immigrated to the UK with her grandfather from a village called Yafa’a in the mountains of southern Yemen.

Keffiyeh neck ties, Yemeni silver headpieces and heritage upholstery fabric sown onto upcycled tracksuits tell the story of her grandmother’s living room. Asker remembers her grandmother wearing an abaya and hijab among furniture crafted from classic textiles, in a house that Asker is convinced should be an antique shop. She remembers her cousin in the same frame, sitting next to their grandmother in a Nike tracksuit.
How then, she wondered, could she combine an abaya with athletic wear?

In 2022, Asker's final collection as a Central Saint Martins master’s student did exactly that. She became the first student to showcase a Hijabi line in the university’s history, combining technical fabrics and sports silhouettes with jilbabs and abayas.
Now, Asker is in her third and favorite collection, the centerpiece of which is a tall blue straw hat that evokes the Yemeni madhalla with its wide brim and pointed top—a handwoven hat worn by Yemeni women goat herders to keep cool in the desert heat. In this line, she was inspired by the “Yemeni shepherdess,” she said. She has pushed herself to integrate two different techniques, draping and tailoring, that seemingly are at odds with one another, while still hinging off the storytelling and sportswear roots of her previous collection.
The 4th annual Fashion Trust Arabia in 2022 honored Asker’s work with the Franca Sozzani Debut Talent Award, where she had the opportunity to showcase her work to a jury of fashion designers, stylists, and journalists from labels like Moncler, Tiffany & Co., Zuhair Murad, and Oscar de la Renta.

In her acceptance speech at this glamorous event, Asker turned the focus of the night to her home country. “Even as we celebrate our culture, so many of our people are suffering,” she said to a crowd full of celebrities. “I’m not assuming anyone has extra money, but if you do, consider donating to Yemen.”
Charity and education are at the heart of Asker’s fashion brand. It was a mission that came naturally to her—she went to her first protest in London at 8 years old against the Iraq War. She sees fashion as a powerful tool to connect with young people and spark conversations about what’s happening in the world.

“If they can relate to something they love—like streetwear—and there’s a meaningful message behind it, it triggers conversations and educates people,” Asker said.She focuses on global and local causes, from Congo to Sheffield. In her hometown, she works with asylum seekers and refugees, as well as a youth club that “inspires her to keep going.” She puts her youth, friends, and family at the forefront of her work, using fashion as a way to educate, collaborate, and uplift her local community.

“For me, fashion has never been superficial,” Asker continued. “Weaving in activism felt natural, and I believe more brands should embrace this approach, too.”