(Note: Images and text provided exclusively by Dubai Fashion Week for Hijabtrendz.com and used with permission)
Designer Mariam Al Mazro showing at the Dubai Fashion Week met with resounding approval from the large contingent of Emirati support it attracted. The homegrown label made a striking presentation of maxi-dresses and gowns that adapted elements from international and modern fashion into the traditional jelabiya and demonstrated the huge appeal and potential that lies in creating contemporary Middle Eastern fashion.
Chiffons were the main fabric in play and the long dresses swept across the catwalk as models allowed MIMI Fashion Designs’ outfits to do the talking – sans accessories and other gimmicks.
Unique combinations of prints and patches were juxtaposed onto a canvas with pretty shades of teal, baby blue and pinks. Gold was used minimally, occasionally functioning as delicate piping on the bodice or as waistbands. The influences ranged from a Mao collar, long peasant sleeves and free-flowing cravats to wraparounds and even the poncho. Layering was in full play as dresses interestingly employed multi-tiers in their silhouettes.
Mariam Al Mazro’s collection was inspired by flowers – delicate cuts with petal-like impressions and a splash of hues from sunny, bright palettes. Patterns on the lean silhouettes were masterfully matched as mixing colors and producing appealing combinations has long been her specialty.
wow, that first one! what a beautiful garment! the print is so unique too!
The second has nice colors, but it’s just all wrong in styling (at least for my body type) who wants to look like you’re wearing a box? I could live with the skirt though.
The last one though. Oh man. I’m totally channeling the little matchstick girl. I would never in a million years consider wearing that.
Funny story: A few years ago my Pakistani neighbor’s daughter was getting engaged and the kids and I were invited over for it. I put my dd who was about 4 at the time into a patchwork dress that was very cute. The mother was absolutely mortified, and went to find something else for her to wear because “only peasants wear such clothing.”
I would wear 1 in particular, 3 too, but not 2. I’d look ridiculous in it. And what, pray tell, is wrong with peasants? I happen to know some very nice peasants here in Poland
Kelly I actually love the last picture with the patchwork!!
It’s like elegant hippy hehe.
Your neighbors are hilaroius.. it sounds like a typical thing from folks overseas lol.
Caraboska I think it’s because they literally have peasants in their countries and it’s about social status. They don’t want to dress like someone from a lower class.
But we have real peasants in Poland, too! Farmboys who are definitely ‘lower class’. To this day you can tell just from a person’s last name whether or not they are a peasant. I went to school with some real peasants here. And whenever they went home for the weekend, they came back loaded down with all manner of delicious food straight from their family farm!
Of course, class consciousness is not what it was before Communism. Nowadays it’s normally fine to be a peasant, as long as you avoid that stereotypical narrow-mindedness. But it still survives – for example, perhaps, in families with old aristocratic titles and among some elements of what I shall term ‘old intelligentsia’.
But I grew up in a family of professors in the States. And unlike Poland, that means 1) two parents who are professors, nothing more i.e. no dynasty, and 2) political correctness and being horrified at the idea of noticing social class, unless someone has egregiously bad manners.
I mean, I’ve brought home young gentlemen with long scruffy hair and an earring, who arrived in a leather jacket on a motorcyle, and that was no problem (indeed, my stepmother has been trying for decades to persuade my father to get an earring!). The only time anyone was banned from our household was when someone I invited over stole some of my toys.
But to this day my beloved probably still wonders in a corner of his mind whether it is REALLY true that my father doesn’t give a **** whether he got a college degree – indeed, quite the contrary, he gets about 500 points for giving up the opportunity to do so.
See, he didn’t exactly get extra points with the admissions people (this was back in the early 1970s) for being a devoutly religious person from a devoutly religious family. Someone offered him the use of certain connections to gain admission, but not wanting to engage in corruption, he refused masha’Allah…
I’m not personally saying anything is wrong with peasants, but when a young lady is trying to snag a well to do young gentleman it can certainly make a lot of difference
Elegant hippie? Elegant quilt haha. Did you ask your hubby? Is it for the farmers?
I think every country has real peasants (I’m sure Pakistan has more than their fair share!).
Arabic has some names that can tell you what their forefathers did. I have one friend her hubby’s name is “father of the button.” lol.
Anyhow, peace! Tis only a story of my wacky neighbors! (Plenty more where that came from!)