ACF × HASSAN HAJJAJ
HASSAN HAJJAJ
A Long-Term Creative Dialogue Across Art, Fashion & Culture
Photography:
Hassan Hajjaj
Biyama Kadafa
Abderrahmane Ajja
Overview
A Creative Relationship Built Over Time
Art Comes First and Moroccan, British artist Hassan Hajjaj share an ongoing creative relationship shaped by friendship, cultural exchange and a mutual interest in art, fashion, music, craftsmanship and contemporary African culture.
Rather than a single collaboration, the relationship has evolved organically across different mediums and moments — from art and photography to collaborative objects, fashion collections, cultural spaces and football.
Through Andy Wahloo by Hassan Hajjaj × ACF, the two creative worlds have been translated into garments and objects, while wider projects have brought the relationship into exhibitions, cultural programming and shared spaces in Marrakech and beyond.
The collaboration continues to evolve.
Selected Highlights
5+ CREATIVE DISCIPLINES
Art · Fashion · Photography · Product · Cultural Experience
3 CONTINENTS
Africa · Europe · North America
7-PIECE CAPSULE
Denim · Hoodies · T-Shirts
2021 — FOTOGRAFISKA NEW YORK
Capsule Presentation & Photography
2023 — KAMOINGE
Collaborative Art Project Preview
154 FOOTBALL JERSEYS
Limited Edition ACF × Andy Wahloo 54
PARTNER
Hassan Hajjaj / Andy Wahloo
PROJECT
Ongoing Creative Collaboration
PERIOD
Ongoing
LOCATIONS
Marrakech · London · Paris · Abidjan
DISCIPLINES
Art · Fashion · Photography · Product · Cultural Experience
COLLABORATION
Hassan Hajjaj × Art Comes First
Andy Wahloo by Hassan Hajjaj × ACF
CONTEXT
Different Creative Languages. Shared Cultural Ground.
Hassan Hajjaj's practice crosses photography, portraiture, fashion, design, music and Moroccan visual culture.
Art Comes First similarly operates across disciplines, using tailoring, craftsmanship, cultural research, music, art and design as interconnected forms of expression.
Their relationship developed through this shared understanding of creativity as something that should not be confined to one medium.
The visual languages are distinctly different. Hassan's work is recognised for colour, pattern, portraiture and the collision of Moroccan and global popular culture. ACF's world is rooted in black, tailoring, craftsmanship, punk, music and diasporic research.
Rather than diminishing those differences, the collaboration uses them.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Collaboration Without a Fixed Format
There was never one conventional client brief.
Instead, the opportunity has been to establish an ongoing creative exchange capable of changing form according to the idea.
A photograph can become part of a garment.
A cultural symbol can become a graphic.
Tea can become a collaborative object and ritual.
Clothing can enter an exhibition environment.
A shop can become a place for cultural exchange.
A football jersey can connect portraiture, fashion, sport and contemporary Moroccan culture.
This freedom has allowed individual projects to retain their own identities while contributing to a larger body of collaborative work.
SCOPE OF COLLABORATION
CREATIVE COLLABORATION
Developing ideas through an ongoing exchange between multidisciplinary creative practices.
✓ Creative Direction
✓ Concept Development
✓ Visual Dialogue
✓ Collaborative Storytelling
FASHION & PRODUCT
Translating shared ideas into clothing, objects and limited-edition products.
✓ Collection Design
✓ Product Development
✓ Graphic Direction
✓ Collaborative Objects
ART & IMAGE
Extending the relationship through photography, artistic practice and exhibition.
✓ Artistic Collaboration
✓ Photography
✓ Image Development
✓ Exhibition Projects
CULTURE & EXPERIENCE
Creating environments where fashion, art, music and community can meet.
✓ Cultural Programming
✓ Spatial Activation
✓ Retail Experience
✓ Community & Creative Network
CREATIVE APPROACH
Two Visual Worlds. One Shared Language.
The creative process begins with difference.
HASSAN HAJJAJ
Colour · Pattern · Portraiture · Moroccan Visual Culture
↓
ART COMES FIRST
Tailoring · Black · Craftsmanship · Punk · Diasporic Research
↓
EXCHANGE
Symbols · Image · Music · Objects · Clothing · Culture
↓
COLLABORATION
Art · Fashion · Product · Space · Experience
BLACK PUMAS
ACF × Jajjah — Tea, Ritual & Collaborative Objects
The creative relationship between Hassan Hajjaj and Art Comes First extended beyond clothing through Black Puma, a collaborative tea developed with Jajjah.
Black Puma combined black tea, ginger and spices with a collectible visual identity created through the worlds of Hassan Hajjaj and ACF. The tea was presented in lacquered metal tins designed by Hassan Hajjaj and Art Comes First and produced in Morocco.
The project extended beyond the physical product. Art Comes First also curated a dedicated mixtape for tea drinking, connecting product, music, hospitality and ritual.
ACF ROLE
Creative Collaboration · Product Concept · Packaging Design · Visual Direction · Music Curation · Cultural Storytelling
OUTCOME
Black Puma demonstrated how the Hassan Hajjaj × ACF relationship could move beyond fashion and photography into everyday objects and shared rituals.
The collaboration brought together Jajjah's tea culture, Hassan Hajjaj's visual world and ACF's approach to product, music and storytelling, establishing another expression of the wider creative relationship.
ANDY WAHLOO by HASSAN HAJJAJ × ACF
Fashion as Cultural Exchange
The relationship developed into a broader fashion collaboration through Andy Wahloo by Hassan Hajjaj × ACF.
The capsule brought together Hassan's colourful visual language and Moroccan references with ACF's predominantly black approach to clothing and graphic identity.
The collection included a denim jacket, denim trousers, hoodies and T-shirts.
Graphics combined elements belonging to both creative worlds. The Fatima's Hand — or Hamsa — was reinterpreted holding ACF's iconic hat, while collaborative logos and all-over treatments created a visual identity specific to the partnership.
The Andy Wahloo archive currently documents seven pieces from the collaboration.
APPROACH
The collection was not approached as simply placing two identities beside one another.
Instead, visual codes were exchanged and reinterpreted.
Colour met black.
Moroccan symbolism met ACF iconography.
Streetwear met craftsmanship.
The resulting pieces became physical expressions of the wider cultural dialogue between Hassan Hajjaj and Art Comes First.
ACF ROLE
Creative Collaboration · Collection Design · Product Development · Graphic Direction · Cultural Storytelling
2025 - FOTOGRAFISKA NEW YORK
Fashion, Photography & Exhibition
The Andy Wahloo by Hassan Hajjaj × ACF capsule developed during a period heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, changing the circumstances in which the collaboration could be developed, presented and experienced.
The collection eventually became connected to Hassan Hajjaj's major New York exhibition at Fotografiska, bringing the fashion collaboration into the context of Hassan's wider photographic and artistic practice.
Hassan photographed the collaborative clothing, creating another connection between product and image.
Rather than existing solely as a commercial fashion release, the project became part of a wider conversation between clothing, portraiture, exhibition and culture.
ACF ROLE
Creative Collaboration · Fashion Design · Product Development · Visual Identity · Cultural Storytelling
OUTCOME
The New York presentation expanded the capsule beyond conventional retail, placing the collaboration within the environment of an international photography institution
KAMOINGE: A CALL TO FEDERATE
An Artistic Dialogue Years in the Making
Alongside the publicly released product collaborations, Hassan Hajjaj, Sam Lambert and Shaka Maidoh have spent years developing a collaborative art project.
Kamoinge: A Call to Federate represents another dimension of the relationship — moving the exchange directly into contemporary artistic practice and photography.
A preview of the project entered the public realm at Oasis: Into the Wild in 2023, within The Mbari House cultural programme.
Contemporary festival coverage described Kamoinge: A Call to Federate as an exclusive collaboration between Hassan Hajjaj and Sam Lambert & Shaka Maidoh of Art Comes First.
The larger body of work continues to develop.
ACF ROLE
Artistic Collaboration · Concept Development · Creative Direction · Cultural Research
OUTCOME
Kamoinge extends a relationship frequently expressed through clothing and objects into a longer-term artistic dialogue.
Rather than revealing the complete project before its formal release, its inclusion here acknowledges the continuing creative process behind the wider partnership.
ACF × ANDY WAHLOO 54
Football, Art & Moroccan Culture
The latest chapter brought together Art Comes First, Andy Wahloo by Hassan Hajjaj and Avery Dennison through football.
Developed around the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the limited-edition jersey brought together sport, contemporary art, fashion and Moroccan identity.
ACF reinterpreted the classic football silhouette through an all-over jacquard pattern constructed from the ACF insignia and ceremonial crest patches referencing heritage, ritual and identity.
At the centre of the garment, a photographic portrait by Hassan Hajjaj introduced his distinctive image-making directly into the jersey.
The back carries Andy Wahloo 54, referencing Hassan's Marrakech creative world.
Avery Dennison supported the technical development and material execution of the project.
ACF ROLE
Creative Direction · Product Design · Cultural Research · Graphic Direction · Collaboration Development · Product Storytelling
HASSAN HAJJAJ / ANDY WAHLOO ROLE
Artistic Collaboration · Photography · Cultural Direction · Andy Wahloo Creative Identity
AVERY DENNISON ROLE
Technical Development · Material Execution · Production
OUTCOME
The jersey debuted in Marrakech during AFCON, where the initial release of 54 pieces sold out.
The project subsequently expanded to a limited edition of 154 worldwide and was later presented at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.
The jersey brings together many of the themes developed throughout the wider Hassan Hajjaj × ACF relationship — photography, clothing, African culture, art, community and collaboration — within a single object.
BLACK SUPER MARKET — MARRAKECH
Space, Community & Cultural Exchange
The relationship has also extended into physical space.
Black Super Market — the travelling cultural and slow-fashion platform developed by Art Comes First and Marché Noir — became part of Hassan Hajjaj's Marrakech creative ecosystem through an extended shop-in-shop presence.
The space brought together clothing, vintage and transformed garments, objects, craftsmanship and cultural exchange.
Rather than operating purely as retail, Black Super Market functioned as a meeting point where fashion existed alongside art, music, conversation and community.
ACF ROLE
Creative Direction · Retail Concept · Cultural Programming · Product Curation · Community Building
OUTCOME
The Marrakech residency moved the relationship beyond individual collaborative products into an ongoing shared cultural environment.
Black Super Market has continued to evolve independently as a travelling ACF × Marché Noir platform, with documented iterations in Abidjan, Tokyo and Lagos and a later presence at Jajjah in Marrakech.
ACF ROLE
Building Through Collaboration
Across the relationship, Art Comes First has operated as a creative collaborator rather than within a conventional client-and-agency structure.
The role has changed according to each project, spanning:
Creative Direction · Artistic Collaboration · Fashion & Product Design · Cultural Research · Graphic Direction · Visual Storytelling · Product Development · Cultural Programming · Spatial & Retail Experience
This flexibility has allowed each collaboration to stand independently while remaining connected to a larger creative dialogue.
OVERALL OUTCOME
A Relationship Greater Than Any Single Project
The collaboration between Hassan Hajjaj and Art Comes First demonstrates how a creative relationship can grow without being restricted to a single medium or commercial format.
Across different periods, the dialogue has moved from objects and clothing into photography, exhibition, cultural spaces, contemporary art and football.
Each project has created a foundation for the next.
The result is not one definitive collaboration, but an evolving body of work in which both creative identities remain distinct while continually finding new points of connection.
PRESS & RECOGNITION
OASIS: INTO THE WILD — 2023
Kamoinge: A Call to Federate
Festival coverage documented the preview of Kamoinge: A Call to Federate within The Mbari House, identifying it as an exclusive collaboration between Hassan Hajjaj and Sam Lambert & Shaka Maidoh of Art Comes First.
ANDY WAHLOO
Andy Wahloo by Hassan Hajjaj × ACF
The official Andy Wahloo platform maintains a dedicated archive of the fashion collaboration, documenting seven pieces across denim, hoodies and T-shirts.
LARACHE
Andy Wahloo × Art Comes First
Larache documented the collaboration across apparel, art and beverages and described the meeting of Hassan Hajjaj's colourful visual language with ACF's predominantly black aesthetic.
NATAAL — 2026
Black SuperMarket / Marrakech
Nataal documented Black SuperMarket within the Jajjah / Kech United programme in Marrakech and traced the travelling concept through previous appearances in Abidjan, Tokyo and Lagos.
LEGACY
A Collaboration That Continues to Evolve
The significance of the relationship lies in its continuity.
Hassan Hajjaj and Art Comes First have repeatedly found new ways of working together without defining the collaboration through a single discipline.
Tea became an object.
Fashion became photography.
Retail became cultural space.
Photography became collaborative art.
Football became a meeting point for fashion, portraiture and contemporary Moroccan culture.
Across different years, cities and formats, the relationship has continued to evolve while retaining the individuality of each creative practice.
And the dialogue remains ongoing.
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