A finalist at the Prix de la Mode du Monde Arabe
Karima Bidar, who founded ISLI in 2019, is a finalist in the Talent Accessoires category of the 2026 Prix de la Mode du Monde Arabe. The winners are announced on 30 September 2026, in Paris.
The Moroccan outlet Le360 covered the shortlist and described ISLI as a house of accessories that draws on the skills and stories connecting Morocco and France to create contemporary objects with a strong graphic identity. That sentence is a fair summary of what the studio has been trying to do since the beginning, and it is a little strange to read it written by someone else.
What the prize is
The Prix de la Mode du Monde Arabe distinguishes designers working across the Arab world, in several categories. Morocco is the most represented country in the 2026 edition, with eleven finalists.
Being on a list like this is not the same as winning one, and we are wary of studios that blur the two. So, plainly: finalist, category Talent Accessoires, result unknown until 30 September.
Why it matters to a studio this size
ISLI is small on purpose. The bags are cut and stitched by hand in Casablanca, one pair of hands at a time, from leather that arrives in irregular quantities because it is upcycled. That model does not scale by pressing a button, and it means the studio is rarely in the same room as the houses it gets compared to.
A shortlist puts the work in front of people who would otherwise never see it, which for us is worth more than the trophy. The Monoprix week taught us the same thing: what changes a young studio is being read by an audience that did not come looking for it.
Between Morocco and France, again
What is fitting about this particular prize is that it does not ask us to pick a side. ISLI has never been a French brand that manufactures in Morocco, nor a Moroccan brand that sells in France. It is drawn in one place and made in the other, and the tension between the two is the whole point. A prize that looks at the Arab world from Paris is, in that sense, standing exactly where the studio stands.
Read more
The full announcement is on Le360. Other coverage is gathered on our press page, and the story of how the studio started is on our story.