How Layla’s costume designer Cobbie Yates used fashion to explore complex queer identity

In Amrou Al-Kadhi’s feature film directorial debut Layla, the clothes worn by the titular protagonist (played by Bilal Hasna) tell much of the story.

Layla, a British-Palestinian non-binary drag queen surviving in London’s queer underbelly, is making ends meet like all drag divas have to. Yet during one particularly sad corporate gig at a ready meal company (featuring a perfect cameo from Self Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor), Layla’s life is flipped upside down.

It’s here she meets Max (Louis Greatorex), a straight-laced advertising executive who slowly but surely begins to fall for her. Their relationship blossoms but it soon becomes clear that their worlds are far too separate for it to be plain sailing.

In telling the story, costume designer Cobbie Yates had a pivotal role in reflecting how the

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