In the historic ruins of Umm el-Jimal, where ancient stone meets the endless desert horizon, Soul Arabia‘s Unity. Rebirth. Renaissance. The campaign brings together nine influential voices shaping the region’s cultural landscape. Among them stands Hannah Rasekh, a British-Jordanian fashion entrepreneur whose work in circular fashion and regenerative design positions her at the forefront of a movement redefining how we value what we wear.
As the Head of Communications at Save Your Wardrobe, a fashion tech company specializing in repair, and a regional advocate for sustainable style with over 88,000 Instagram followers, Rasekh represents a new generation of cultural leaders who understand that renaissance isn’t about rejection, it’s about intention. Her presence in this ensemble of icons speaks to a broader shift happening across the Middle East, where ancient traditions of care and longevity are being reborn through modern systems and fresh perspectives.
A Natural Progression
For Rasekh, the path to sustainability wasn’t marked by a single revelatory moment. Instead, it emerged from a growing awareness in her twenties of the excess surrounding her. She describes reaching a point where the sheer volume of clothing moving through her life felt disconnected from genuine value or enjoyment. Her commitment to circular fashion evolved naturally from a lifelong gravitation toward pieces with stories, vintage finds, and items crafted with care and intention. Quality, she explains, isn’t just her approach to clothing but to everything: friendships, food, life itself. Anything built to last becomes more meaningful over time.
This philosophy challenges the fashion industry’s superficial engagement with sustainability. Rasekh is frank about how the sector has treated environmental responsibility as another fleeting trend rather than commanding the structural seriousness it deserves. Only a handful of people, she notes, have committed to it as the fundamental shift it needs to be.
Digitizing Care
Rasekh’s role at Save Your Wardrobe places her at the intersection of cultural heritage and technological innovation, a perfect embodiment of the Renaissance theme. She points out something crucial: repair is already embedded in Middle Eastern culture. She grew up in homes where things were mended rather than discarded, where moth holes were stitched, cushions re-stuffed, gowns passed down and re-hemmed, jewelry reset rather than replaced.
What’s been missing, she explains, isn’t the mindset but the infrastructure. The care economy still operates largely through small neighborhood shops, local tailors, and workshops functioning manually. Her work involves bringing these traditional practices into the future by digitizing the entire repair experience to meet the scale and expectations of modern retail. It’s a rebirth of something that already exists, reimagined for contemporary life.
The Why, Not the What
When asked whether the Middle East is experiencing a cultural renaissance in conscious fashion, Rasekh’s response reveals the nuance that makes her voice so vital. She acknowledges the region’s historical culture of valuing belongings, repairing, preserving, and passing them down. But she also embraces the joy of newness, insisting there’s nothing wrong with that excitement.
Her vision of conscious fashion isn’t about denial or sacrifice. It’s about intention. You can buy whatever you love, she argues, as long as you’re doing it for the right reasons. The question to ask isn’t what you’re buying, but why. Does this mean something to me? That’s where the real rebirth can happen, in the motivation behind our choices rather than the choices themselves.
This perspective dismantles what Rasekh identifies as the single biggest misconception about sustainable fashion: that it’s a checklist. People assume that buying something organic or ethically sourced automatically makes it a better choice. But a supposedly sustainable t-shirt worn twice is less sustainable than a high street blazer worn repeatedly for years. Materials, traceability, transparency, and repairability all matter, but they’re part of a larger picture centered on intention.
Heritage and Endurance
Rasekh’s Palestinian heritage informs her understanding of longevity in profound ways. As she puts it, Palestinians know something about longevity and endurance; they hold onto things. This cultural foundation naturally directed her toward pieces she can wear repeatedly rather than items that feel disposable. It’s a mindset, she explains, shaped by how she was raised to value things. She gravitates toward clothes that hold up, maintain quality, feel relevant beyond a season, and actually fit into her life.
The Lens of Motherhood
Becoming a mother transformed Rasekh’s perspective entirely. She admits she can’t do anything now without imagining the future through her son’s eyes. She thinks about the places she wants to take him, the cities she’s loved, the experience of encountering the world in its fullness and richness, and genuinely wants all of that to still exist for him.
This shifts sustainability from theoretical to visceral. It becomes about whether her son will grow up in a world that’s abundant, safe, and beautiful. Whether the places she shows him will still feel alive. Whether the things created today will support his generation or burden it. It’s a thought that makes her sad, but also one that drives her work forward with renewed purpose.
Unity in Authenticity
What resonates most with Rasekh’s audience isn’t any single category of content, fashion, sustainability, or lifestyle, but the honesty threading through everything she shares. Whether posting an outfit, discussing the restoration of old boots, or reflecting on grief and the postpartum journey, it all emerges from a genuine place. People respond to that authenticity.
Standing among the cultural icons at Umm el-Jimal, Rasekh embodies the unity this campaign celebrates. Her work bridges heritage and innovation, cultural tradition and modern systems, personal values and commercial reality. In her vision of fashion’s future, renaissance means asking better questions, embracing intention over impulse, and building systems that honor both the joy of newness and the wisdom of longevity. Together, these legends rise, not in uniformity, but in shared commitment to a new era where creativity, consciousness, and care unite under one vision.
Soul Arabia January 2026 – The Rebirth Issue in collaboration with Imseeh Jewelry and Bitget.
Editor-in-Chief & Visual Director: Sultan Abu Tair, Produced by ThreeSixty Mena and photographed by Cihan Alpgiray, Styling by Jony Matta, Hannah’s Black Dress by Karoline Lang & Red Dress by Hussien Bazaza, words by Amira Shawky & Mohamed Alaadin, and special thanks to Grand Hyatt Amman
