A new generation of designers is busy contemporising traditional dress.
A new guard of designers is bringing traditional Arab clothing into the modern era. The evolution of this style is about embracing and developing, rather than rejecting, heritage and tradition.
Designers showing at Fashion Forward Dubai (FFWD), a designer showcase in its tenth season this week, have been part of this development, including women’s outerwear brand Utruj, Emirati designer Zareena, and ready-to-wear brand Mashael which is interested in “Saudi heritage, and breathing new life into handicrafts,” according to designer Mashael Alrajhi.
“We see these styles evolving at Fashion Forward each season,” says Bong Guerrero, CEO and co-founder of Fashion Forward Dubai. The organisation’s event is running from 26 to 28 October this year. “Arab fashion is one of the industry’s fastest growing sectors and is estimated to be worth $368 billion by 2021,” he adds.
Fashion Forward Dubai, a fashion platform for Dubai and the Middle East, provides development and exposure for those in the fashion industry with a focus on the region. It encourages members of the regional and international fashion communities to come together in support of Middle Eastern design.
(Credit: Mashael Alrajhi/Getty)
London College of Fashion graduates Nelly Rose and Odette Steele are part of a growing number of designers focused on updating the abaya, the traditional robe-like cloak dress worn by many Arab women. Italy’s Dolce & Gabbana also launched an abaya collection last year, selling designs decorated in house patterns.
Rose and Steele collaborated with Indonesia’s Dian Pelangi in 2016, to create a hip collection of so-called modestwear, or updated abayas. Showing at Jakarta and London Fashion Weeks, some of these were decorated in modern-looking prints.
“Embracing the layers traditionally associated with Arab and modest fashion, I used these as a canvas to interpret traditional culture with a modernity of expression,” says Rose. “Working with modest fashion is to work at the intersection of many borders. The luxury and richness of traditional textiles and fabrics can be interwoven with an urban element.”
It has become a global market, she says. “This is what makes it so exciting. You know that you are enabling a piece which can be worn by any woman in the world and that is inclusive of all beliefs.” Rose is also currently working with artisans from Guatemala to “elevate traditional design” there into something more contemporary.
Palestinian designer Faissal El-Malak recently spent three months travelling in the region, looking at traditional textiles for his next collection.
El-Malak trained at Paris’s Atelier Chardon Savard. He settled in Dubai in 2014 and has shown his collections at Harvey Nichols, Dubai and in Fenwick of Bond Street this summer, among other places. He has worked with Egyptian, Yemeni and Tunisian textiles in the past, and makes Western-style clothing using fabrics that are “far from their initial and traditional use,” he says.
“The fabrics from Yemen are exclusively used by men in their daily wear. The fabrics from Tunisia are ceremonial fabrics used for weddings and formal traditional wear,” he says. “Taking the textiles out of their context and changing the way they are used and their reach has been a source of pride for the artisans and myself.”
“I thought about our traditional crafts, such as the embroidery and the mother-of-pearl work,” he says.
He has now commissioned a Beirut design studio to “create modern interpretations of the traditional Palestinian embroidery” that he will produce for next season.
He is also working with an association that collaborates with Palestinian refugee women in camps in Lebanon. “I hope that with every collection my work with every artisan grows into a richer collaboration, in addition to aiding crafts and artisans from the region,” he says. “Dubai has been great place to launch, as the market is still hungry for newness and for regionally-based design.”
(Credit: Faissal El-Malak)
Randall Bachner, an American photographer-turned-designer, relocated from New York to Marrakech more than four years ago to launch Marrakshi Life, a clothing-and-lifestyle brand that has created a modern style adapted from Moroccan traditions. Everything is handmade.
Bachner employs 20 fabric weavers, as well as tailors, to make his hip, urban pieces. He started by selling menswear, but the brand is now unisex, and his designs re-work traditional silhouettes in quality fabrics that epitomise understated, and often utilitarian, luxury.
He relies heavily on local artisan know-how, and this is a cornerstone of the brand’s identity. “The work of the weavers is what brought me to Morocco and kept me here,” he explains. “Every day, we learn from the weavers new techniques or how to address a new texture or motif. It is a constant exchange of information.”
Together, they have been re-thinking tradition. “Prior to living here, I was always attracted to the local, slim-cut, plain front-tailored trousers, and narrow tailored shirts,” says Bachner. “However, this silhouette in 40-plus degrees is not so comfortable. Because of this, I began to open my mind to a looser silhouette and started playing with drop-crotch trousers, long shorts and flowing kaftans, robes and tunics.”
What did he keep from tradition and what did he omit? Bachner says he doesn’t use embroidery, or gold or metallic threads. “This would be much more the norm in Arabic fashion,” he says. “But it is important that ML remains non-embellished, so that it can be worn in urban settings, as well. I think we have achieved this in the choices we make weaving the textiles.”
The Arab world represents “the most important market,” for fashion, says Jacob Abrian, Founder and Chief Executive of the Arab Fashion Council, a non-profit representing more than 20 Arab countries. “The spend on luxury fashion by Muslim consumers is expected to reach over $480 billion by 2019. This is not only from modest fashion but in the luxury sector, including fashion accessories.”
According to Abrian, the trend to modernise Arab styles can be seen in general in womenswear, with some more conservative changes being made to menswear. Updating colours and using new materials is key. “It is quite common to see abayas with different layers of fabrics and more trendy materials, like lace, designs or even transparent PVC,” he says.
“It needed someone like Dolce & Gabbana to make the traditional dress more trendy,” he adds. “There were obviously many designers who set the trend before them but a renowned International name has motivated others to express their style in a more obvious way.”
Who is buying? “Fashionable women in the Arab world are driving the modest trend, and it is most relevant for their culture, however women from around the world have embraced it,” he says. Indeed, Dubai-based brand Bouguessa’s client list includes Beyoncé and Jessica Alba.
(Credit: Bouguessa/Getty)
“Dubai and the region is increasingly becoming a hub where cultures from the East and the West merge, creating a contemporary melange that has influenced local and global markets,” says Jazia Al Dhanhani, Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Design and Fashion Council.
“Many designers have taken this direction to customise traditional clothing into everyday wear, and to allow women from the region to celebrate global fashion trends, without compromising on their uniqueness and heritage.”
“There is also an increase in modestwear found in the West within the diasporic communities, that find it integral to their roots and culture,” adds Jazia Al Dhanhani. “It will continue to gain prominence internationally and locally with the influx of global fashion houses that are locating their offices in Dubai.”
(Credit: Nelly Rose/Odette Steele/Dian Pelangi/Getty)