Fabric (2026, Documentary) – The Reliance Of Paris’ Refugees
Fabric (2026) is a documentary directed by Anabelle Marshall that follows the story of the Paris-based atelier, Espero. It follows the team members and trainee tailors Ibrahim, Suad, Haider, and Sumaiya, and Cynthia, who all like the majority of the staff at Espero, are refugees living in Paris.
The film follows them as they prepare for a showcase at Musée d’Orsay with a collection based on their experiences of being immigrants, being far from home, and the ones they love; what it means to be a refugee in France, and the harrowing experiences they all went through to get to where they are now.
The atelier was co-founded in 2016 by Maya Persaud, an American designer living in Paris. The stars are kind of a line for this project, because during the refugee crisis, at the beginning of the refugee crisis, I said, ‘You know, it’s happening in my backyard’,” said Persaud.
She ended up recruiting a bunch of friends in the fashion industry to get started. Espero employs mentors like Joy Acevedox and Ginvanchy’s Cathrine Brickhill, and, like in the film, partners with Sylvain Amic, President of the Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie.
They release most of their creations that work on in collaboration with these designers and their houses as well, giving the tailors the experience and the relationships with some of Paris’s premier designers and fashion houses as well.
“ We’re in Paris, you know.” Said Persaud, “ Why not keep it couture, you know? So that’s why we like to work with people who’ve worked in big luxury houses, and we also like to work with Noble Fabrics, because we’re in Paris, we’re in the Paris area, so we’re in France, and we gotta represent”
The collections are also sustainable, using dead stock fabric to create the pieces. And due to the EU’s laws about wasting things like fabric used in clothing production. The fabric comes from Luxury houses as well, again keeping the quality of craftsmanship that goes into what Espero has set out to do.
Filmmaker Anabelle Marshall, whose producer, Sanam, brought the story to her attention, said she was drawn to the juxtaposition between two worlds that Espero brings together.
“Obviously, the fashion industry is not always like this, but it has a reputation for being wealthy and elitist, and you have refugees who often arrive in France with absolutely nothing. So I thought it was a really interesting combination of those two worlds, but also I think it’s really important to go beyond stereotypes,” said Marshall.
And Persude echoes that sentiment, “ I hope this, the story, the way that the story was told was beautiful, the way that Annabelle and Sanam told the story, I thought it was really beautiful, and it really showed that immigrants and refugees have a lot to bring to our countries, so my country, I’m an immigrant, I’m an American living in France” she said.
Espero has just finished a project with the European Commission and the University of Arts of London, where they worked with two other countries to create a fashion collection based on the stories of the people who work in their ateliers. “So migrants and their story of, you know, their stories of, you know, struggle of hope, resilience,” said Persude.
With that, she explained, they invite a guest designer who’s a refugee or from a country that has a lot of refugees. More recently, working with designers from Venezuela, and previously Ukraine and Afghanistan.
FABRIC will screen at the 2026 Raindance Film Festival on June 19th.