Female-run Gaza fashion house combines tradition and style
Nisaa FM: - A female-run fashion house in Gaza boasts two boutiques that sell its original designs melding traditional Palestinian aesthetics with modern tastes. And employs 30 local women doing it.
The pioneering design house gives employment to 30 women
Aziza Msabeh, who lives in the central Gaza Strip neighborhood of Deir al-Balah, is one of the four founders of a fashion house and boutique called “Dar Organza Fashion,” a pioneering fashion design house in downtown Gaza City.
The first boutique was opened in February 2017, followed in September by a second branch in the Rimal neighborhood. The fashion house provides employment for 30 women who had never worked professionally before.
The four founding women opened the fashion boutique under the sponsorship of the nongovernmental organization Premiere Urgence Internationale. The organization covered the initial costs of the project, including rent and basic needs such as fabric, thread and sewing machines. Today, the women are able to cover the expenses with their sales.
Msabeh and the other women behind the project — Faten Habib, Lamia Jaber and Lina al-Hartani — were brought together by a common interest in fashion and design. “Our love for fashion and participation in the Tasmimi competition in late 2015 gave us the idea to open the boutique. The competition was organized by the International Humanitarian Relief organization with 58 participants, and we were the four winners. We also attended several fashion and design workshops organized by the International Humanitarian Relief organization,” Msabeh explains. The fashion house is a dream come true for all four.
Evening gowns for national ceremonies and holidays
Dar Organza, which takes its name from the soft, floating fabric used in many evening gowns, creates a variety of pieces used in national ceremonies, holidays and other celebrations. It also produces embroidered accessories and bags.
Founder Faten Habib says that some members of their team are freelancers who work from their homes on embroidery. The aim is to help unemployed women overcome the financial difficulties they face under the Gaza blockade. It has been difficult, but the designers have managed to establish a customer base outside Palestine, designing clothes and exporting them to France and Britain. Habib says they plan to recruit more unemployed women.
She continues, “We [founders] have many things in common, like our will to empower women in Gaza and introduce the world to Palestinian culture through traditional clothing.”
According to another of the four founders, Lina al-Hartani, they focus on embroidery as one of the traditional crafts of Palestine. Adding that, in Palestine, there are few employment opportunities and a lot of talent and potential goes to waste. Gaza suffers high rates of unemployment, including among university graduates.
One of the women working for the boutique, Halima Nashbat, says, “The four designers chose me for my designs and asked me to work with them. Together, we rush to deliver orders on time. A dress takes around three hours to make, and I earn around $7 per design.”
Unemployed before she joined the boutique, Nashbat is now able to support her family and husband through her work in fashion.
Source: www.al-monitor.com