Quasim is a multidisciplinary designer, textile artist, tailor, and cultural archivist whose journey is defined by creativity, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to telling the stories of overlooked communities. As the founder of Paper Brown Bag Art, he has built a practice that brings together fashion, fine art, storytelling, and Black American cultural history. Through one-of-one garments, intricate patchwork, and textile-based compositions, Quasim transforms fabric into a document of memory, identity, struggle, and survival.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Quasim was the youngest of five siblings in a deeply creative household. His father was a self-taught oil painter, tailor, and wood sculptor, while his mother was a painter and fashion designer. His parents taught their children that education extended beyond the classroom and that creativity required discipline, patience, and independent thought. Their home became Quasim’s first creative institution and provided the foundation for his lifelong relationship with music, fashion, and visual art.

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After studying graphic design at the Art Institute of Atlanta, Quasim worked with fashion businesses and creative associates before becoming chief clothing designer for Birmingham-based brand 205Flava. His work gained national recognition when 2003 American Idol winner Ruben Studdard wore Quasim’s custom garments on and off the television stage. In 2007, Quasim relocated to New Jersey, where he and his brother developed Paper Brown Bag NYC into a respected independent brand.

His designs eventually reached influential figures throughout music, fashion, sports, and entertainment. Quasim has worked with or created pieces for Dave Chapelle, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Leong, Kimora Lee Simmons, Angela Simmons, Vanessa Simmons, André 3000 Benjamin, Mason Vale Cotton, and Mike Epps just to name a few. Yet his path has never been defined solely by celebrity recognition. It has been shaped by the continuous challenge of sustaining an independent Black-owned creative practice while protecting its originality, cultural meaning, and authorship.

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Quasim’s evolution from fashion designer to textile-based fine artist represents both continuation and expansion. His passion project, O.S.O.G.—The Other Side of the Game—uses hand-constructed professional sports jersey silhouettes to examine the social conditions surrounding major stadiums. While professional games create spectacle and economic power, nearby disenfranchised communities endure displacement, poverty, over-policing, discriminatory policies, and institutional neglect. Every O.S.O.G. garment is sourced, cut, sewn, assembled, and adorned by Quasim through a patchwork technique he has refined since 2001.

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His entry into contemporary fine art has allowed that language to move beyond clothing and into works that exist between painting, sculpture, fashion, and historical record. His first exhibition with Richard Beavers Gallery marked a new chapter in a practice that continues to grow without abandoning its foundation.

For Quasim, continuation means refusing to disappear. It means honoring what his parents placed in him, preserving the stories of his community, mentoring young people, and creating despite limited resources and systemic barriers.