Emirati women designers shape bright future

For Khawla bin Khedia, it was the accolades for her homemade clothes that set her on the path to becoming a professional fashion designer.

“During my first year at university, people used to stop me and say they liked the clothes I was wearing and ask me where I bought them,” said the 21-year-old Emiratis.

“Then my friends started telling me that I should create a clothing line. I wasn’t sure about starting, but my friends and family pushed me in that direction.”

Ms bin Khedia runs a Dubai-based fashion label with her 19-year-old sister Roadha.

Their company, Khawla W Roadha, was launched just over a year ago and their clothing is now available in a number of boutiques in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and neighboring Qatar.

The sisters’ story is not unique in the UAE, where a growing number of young Emirati women are building their own fashion businesses.

This growth comes as authorities across the UAE continue to encourage more female Emiratis to enter the private sector.

For fashion designer Sara al-Madani, social attitudes have shifted in recent years.

Ms al-Madani set up her company in Sharjah, near Dubai, in 2010 when she was just 15 years old.

“When I started this company, it was still a man’s world,” she said. “We have [since] Saw a revolution in mentality. “

Women now make up 30% of UAE business owners, according to a 2013 report Entrepreneurship report Zayed University has campuses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

At the same time, earlier study The university found that the number of women entrepreneurs in the UAE increased by 1.4 percent in 2011, compared with a negligible increase of 0.1 percent in 2006.

Hopefully, women entrepreneurs in the UAE will eventually equal or surpass their male counterparts, as they have done in the well-paid public sector.

This follows a huge increase in the number of women working for government, from less than 5% of public sector employees in 1975 to 13% in 1995 and 59% in 2012.

Not only are the UAE’s changing policies helping future female entrepreneurs, but so is the country’s work culture.

As the working day tends to start early and end around 14:40, Emirati men and women alike find they don’t necessarily have to choose between well-paid government jobs and starting a business.

“I work for the government, but spend my free time on my business,” said Fatma al-Mosa, a 35-year-old Emirati who designs the abayas that many women in the Gulf region wear Traditional tunic dress.

“I get off work weekends and after hours [office] operating hours. “

Ms al-Mosa founded her company, Folak, in February this year. She has seven staff but insists she has no plans to quit her day job as communications director for the Abu Dhabi government.

Ms bin Khedia is currently working full-time in the fashion business, but from January she will split her time between corporate and public sector work.

She added that this would bring her back to the way she ran the company at university – employees would work on their own in the morning and she would join them between 13:00 and 18:00.

“Eighty percent of UAE entrepreneurs work full-time — most of them for the government,” said Connie Van Horne, an assistant professor of small business studies at Zayed University.

For many, their small business “is like a hobby,” she added.

To help promote their companies, most young female fashion designers use social media, Ms. Van Horne said.

“Most of these fashion companies started on Instagram,” says Dr. Van Horn. “They’re doing Instagram and Twitter — and some Facebook.

“They are also using [messaging services] Whatsapp and BBM. “

One such designer is Abu Dhabi’s Noor Alsherif, who posts photos of her clothes on Instragam.

“Instagram is easy and fast,” says the 34-year-old.

However, there are downsides to any business using social media, such as the ease and directness with which the public can criticize.

Sumayyah al Suwaidi, a 33-year-old designer from Abu Dhabi, said: “I got a lot of negative feedback after my show in London last year.

“I have see-through gowns and the models are in onesies [swimwear] Down.

“in England [the response] That’s great, but when the pictures started circulating on here, I had many girls tell me they didn’t want their abayas to look like this in the west.

“But I do it for the West [because] They don’t wear it like we do. “

Some young female designers have also been criticized for having little or no training in fashion design. However, there are signs that this is changing.

More than 40 percent of students studying at Esmod Dubai Fashion School are Emirati women, according to its chief executive, Tamara Hostal.

Ms al Suwaidi added that many Emirati families are now supporting their daughters to become fashion designers.

“[Families] saw the potential and income in fashion,” she said. “The fashion industry in the UAE is booming.