Imaan Hammam poses for resort, sportswear labels

The model posed for US resort wear brand Louisa Ballou. (Instagram)
Short Url
Updated 15 July 2024
Follow

Imaan Hammam poses for resort, sportswear labels

DUBAI: From Victoria’s Secret sportswear to luxury resort wear, Moroccan Egyptian Dutch model Imaan Hammam is spending the summer broadening her horizons.

The model, who is usually found on haute couture catwalks and modeling for high-end eveningwear labels, took to social media this week to share snaps from campaigns for Victoria’s Secret and US label Louisa Ballou.

Hammam posed for fashion photographer Nikki Arya in outfits from Louisa Ballou’s Archive High Tide collection. The model was photographed on a beach at dusk wearing a cobalt blue-and-black sheath dress with graphic patterns across the length of the ankle-grazing outfit.

Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, in the US, designer Louisa Ballou founded her brand in 2018. The label seeks to offer “an unconventional perspective on resort wear, creating beautifully crafted and covetable luxury clothing that transcends the beach,” according to its website.

From the beach to the gym, Hammam shared campaign images from a shoot with US label Victoria’s Secret this week. In the images, she shows off nude-toned gym wear, complete with a zip-up sports top and matching pants.

“Keeping comfortable,” the model captioned the images on Instagram.

Earlier this month, Hammam took to social media to share a fashion shoot in which she celebrates Moroccan culture.

“I will always be proud when I get to show off the beauty that is Moroccan culture and collaborate with so many amazing artists and creatives,” Hammam captioned a carousel of snaps on Instagram.

The model collaborated with auteur Marwane Jinane, photographer Hamza Lafrouji and a fellow model and creative who goes by the name Cheb Pablo on the shoot, which sees the pair posing in various locations in Casablanca.

Hammam is known for working with and promoting artists and creatives from the MENA region with her 1.7 million Instagram followers. The runway star — who is a fashion week staple and is currently the brand ambassador of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder — is known for dropping personally curated playlists of regional music for her social media fans and she has also promoted regional artists in the past.

In June, Hammam hit the runway at the Vogue World event in Paris alongside Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadidi, French Algerian icon Farida Khelfa and Venus and Serena Williams.


Lebanese filmmaker turns archival footage into a love letter to Beirut

Updated 28 February 2026
Follow

Lebanese filmmaker turns archival footage into a love letter to Beirut

LONDON: Lebanese filmmaker Lana Daher’s debut feature “Do You Love Me” is a love letter of sorts to Beirut, composed entirely of archival material spanning seven decades across film, television, home videos and photography.

The film premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in September and has since traveled to several regional and international festivals.

Pink Smoke (2020) by Ben Hubbard. (Supplied)

With minimal dialogue, the film relies heavily on image and sound to reconstruct Lebanon’s fragmented history.

“By resisting voiceover and autobiography, I feel like I had to trust the image and the shared emotional landscape of these archives to carry the meaning,” Daher said.

A Suspended Life (Ghazal el-Banat) (1985) by Jocelyne Saab. (Supplied)

She explained that in a city like Beirut “where trauma is rarely private,” the socio-political context becomes the atmosphere of the film, with personal memory expanding into a collective experience — “a shared terrain of emotional history.”

Daher said: “By using the accumulated visual representations of Beirut, I was, in a way, rewriting my own representation of home through images that already existed."

Whispers (1980) by Maroun Bagdadi. (Supplied)

Daher, with editor Qutaiba Barhamji, steered clear of long sequences, preferring individual shots that allowed them to “reassemble meaning” while maintaining the integrity of their own work and respecting the original material, she explained.

The film does not feature a voice-over, an intentional decision that influenced the use of sound, music, and silence.

The Boombox (1995) by Fouad Elkoury. (Supplied)

“By resisting the urge to fill every space with dialogue or score, we created room for discomfort,” Daher said, adding that silence allows the audience to sit with the image and enter its emotional space rather than being guided too explicitly.

 The film was a labor of love, challenging Daher personally and professionally.

“When you draw from personal memory, you’re not just directing scenes, you’re revisiting parts of yourself and your childhood,” she said. “There’s vulnerability in that.”