1. RICHARDHALL
65 HarpersBazaarArabia.com June 2016
POINTTalking
K I NGDOM
POWE R
The customs of the holy month
influence the region’s creatives
as assuredly as they shape the
pace of life during Ramadan.
Two young Saudi designers take
Bazaar on a journey of the
Ramadans of their youth as they
rework tradition into modernity
Words by ALEX AUBRY
Jacket, Dhs2,760;
skirt, Dhs6,164, both
Arwa Al Banawi.
Boots, stylist’s own

2. CREDITHERE
66 HarpersBazaarArabia.com June 2016 67 HarpersBazaarArabia.com June 2016
“The scent of bakhoor and oud
always reminds me of
Ramadan, especially in Saudi
Arabia, where you find the
most refined varieties,” smiles
Saudi designer Arwa Al Banawi, who thought about
Ramadan while designing her autumn/winter 2016
collection, Albidaya. “It roughly translates from Arabic
to The Beginning, and I wanted to explore my roots,
having spent quite some time travelling throughout
the world,” says the UAE-based designer, seated at an
outdoor café in Munich during a trip to the German
city to visit family. “I still have memories of visiting
this café when I was 10,” remembers the designer, who
although born and raised in Jeddah, where she
attended high school and college, also spent much of
her childhood in Zurich and Munich visiting her
grandfather who lived there for over 30 years. After
graduating from college, Arwa briefly lived in Zurich
before deciding to move to Dubai in 2012 to pursue
a career in banking. “I wasn’t conscious of it in the
beginning, but my designs are informed by my experiences of growing
up between Saudi and Europe. There tends to be an androgynous or
gamine sensibility to my style that I picked up while in Switzerland and
Germany,” continues the designer, who tries to merge both cultures into
her collections.
Initially starting out as a fashion and lifestyle blogger in Jeddah,
as a teenager Arwa also took to designing her own gowns for special
occasions. “I remember one summer I attended a wedding in London
wearing a dress I designed, and a woman asked me which couture house
had made it. It was the best compliment I have ever received,” recalls the
designer, who studied at the Dubai campus of the London College of
Fashion. “I had to get out of my comfort zone to become a designer,”
admits the 28-year-old, who credits her parents with introducing her to
fashion and a love of tailoring.
“My father has always appreciated a well-cut suit, and I would
accompany him to his favourite tailor when we visited Italy. I observed
the way each detail was tended to, from the choice of buttons, to the
fabrics and the lining in jackets,” smiles Arwa, who also admired her
mother’s chic approach to dressing in classic Chanel tweeds and Saint
Laurent suits. “My mother is an impeccable dresser, and she has an
incredible collection of vintage pieces by Italian and French designers
which she passed on to me. So when I design, it’s very much a merging
of my dad when it comes to suits, and my mum in terms of a very
Parisian and feminine approach to style,” explains the designer, whose
grandfather’s recent passing pushed her to launch her own label in 2015,
with a collection of statement blazers and suits in eye-popping prints.
“My first collection was very much inspired by my grandfather, who
was a big collector of Versace’s menswear, particularly during its heyday
in the ’90s. He had some amazing pieces that you simply can’t find today
because only five examples of a particular style were made. We were very
close and when he passed away I inherited some of his collection, which
I began to wear because I missed him so much,” recalls Arwa, who
subconsciously channelled her grandfather’s sartorial style into her debut
collection. “It was completely unintentional and it only occurred to me
afterwards, when people mentioned that the collection reminded them
of ’90s Versace. It was then that I realised I had been selecting the same
colours that my grandfather loved to wear,” adds the Saudi designer,
whose cosmopolitan upbringing influenced her latest collection.
“Travel has always played a large part in fuelling me creatively.
But growing up bi-cultural has also allowed me to absorb influences in
a much more fluid way, and I wanted to take that sensibility and apply
it to my Saudi heritage,” explains Arwa, whose autumn/winter collection
marks a turning point for her. Gone are the bold patterns and structured
tailoring, giving way to fluid shapes that skim the body in earthy tones
recalling Arabia’s landscapes. “When I first launched my label it was
a challenging experience, as I was producing the line while still working
in a bank. Now that I am a full time designer it’s given me the freedom
to explore new directions,” reveals the designer, who describes herself as
a storyteller.
“Fashion plays a huge role in our lives whether we are aware of it or
not. It’s not only a way for us to communicate who we are to the larger
world, but can also serve as a medium to explore our past and future,”
explains the designer, who wasn’t looking to recreate the past through
her latest collection. “Fashion should respond to the current times. In
my case I was interested in exploring what it means to be a Saudi woman
in the 21st century. It’s about acknowledging a heritage, while reflecting
the reality of our lives today,” says Arwa, whose collection features
effortless tops, robe-like coats, and easy liquid trousers geared towards
“ I A M E X P L O R I N G W H A T I T
M E A N S T O B E A S A U D I
W O M A N I N T H E 2 1 s t
C E N T U R Y . I T ’ S A B O U T
A C K N O W L E D G I N G A
H E R I T A G E , W H I L E S T I L L
R E F L E C T I N G T H E R E A L I T Y
O F O U R L I V E S T O D A Y ”
A r w a A l B a n a w i
The
TALKINGPOINT
Left, Arwa Al Banawi
wears: Dress, Dhs2,070,
Arwa Al Banawi. Boots,
her own. Right, model
wears: Dress, Dhs2,070,
Arwa Al Banawi. Boots,
stylist’s own
Ahead of the “incredibly inspiring fashion scene that
emerges during Ramadan”, budding Saudi designer
Arwa Al Banawi reveals her autumn/winter 2016 collection
inspired by memories of the holy month in her homeland
TH ROWI NG SH A PE S
Cloak, Dhs2,346; dress,
Dhs1,932, both Arwa
Al Banawi. Bangles,
stylist’s own
➤

3. CREDITHERE
68 HarpersBazaarArabia.com June 2016 69 HarpersBazaarArabia.com June 2016
The
TALKINGPOINT
Dress, Dhs9,246, Arwa
Al Banawi. Boots and
bangles, stylist’s own. Prices
approximate. Styling: Katie
Trotter. Photography: Richard
Hall. Hair and make-up:
Toni Malt. Photographed
on location at Media One
MediaOneHotel.com
active career-driven women.
Sprinkled throughout are subtle
details alluding to her Saudi
heritage, such as witty crests
featuring a pair of swords inspired
by the Kingdom’s coat of arms.
“This collection still reflects the
codes I established for my label,
particularly taking garments
associated with menswear or
power dressing and subverting
them. In my last collection
I wanted to reimagine the men’s
suit for women, as the brand is
very much about empowering the
wearer,” says Arwa, who took
a similar approach to her latest
collection. “For autumn/winter
I wanted to take the equivalent of
the men’s formal suit in the
Arabian Peninsula and transform
it into something women would
want to wear. In this case it was
the thobe, bisht and waistcoat,”
adds the designer, who has
expanded her collection to
include more separates just in time
for Ramadan.
“I was very much aware I would be launching
the line around Ramadan, and wanted to
create pieces that not only delve into Arabia’s
rich heritage but are also a merging of East and
West. For example, I took a classic men’s thobe
or tuxedo shirt and elongated it with thigh-
high slits and exaggerated cuffs, as an
alternative to the traditional kaftan,” says the
designer, who also included floor-length skirts
in soft cottons sourced from India and Turkey,
in addition to a special pleated runway fabric
acquired in Paris. The designer, who invests
considerable time in researching new materials,
is increasingly focusing on sourcing fabrics
made with special techniques. New this season
are playful embroideries of motifs symbolic of
the region, such as the palm tree and the Arabian ibex, a long horned
gazelle indigenous to Saudi Arabia. “My name in Arabic means Ibex,
which is why I used it as my logo,” points out Arwa, who also
incorporated Arabic calligraphy into her designs, hand embroidered by
artisans in India and Dubai.
“As we move into Ramadan, I think more women are looking for
alternative ways of dressing that are both comfortable and modern,”
observes the designer who spent many a memorable Ramadan in her
hometown. “Although I live in Dubai, Ramadan is the one time of year
I can’t spend anywhere else but in Jeddah. When I was growing up,
it used to fall around the same time as Christmas and New Year. So it
became a homecoming of sorts for family and friends who were studying
abroad at college and boarding school, as they would all fly back to
Jeddah for Ramadan,” says the designer, who describes the port city
overlooking the Red Sea as a “very small community”.
“Although it’s a large city, Jeddah feels like a small town because all the
families know each other. As a result, Ramadan is all about warm and
intimate gatherings in people’s homes for both suhoor and iftar, when
family and friends come together to break the fast,” observes the Saudi
designer, adding that it is the one time of year when Saudi Arabia’s
rich culinary traditions emerge in their mouthwatering variety.
“It’s a time for families to show off their prized recipes, or compete to
serve the best varieties of dates, which Saudi is famous for,” smiles Arwa,
recalling her favourite Ramadan dessert, Al-Haysah, a Saudi-style fudge
made from a mixture of cooked dates, flour and melted butter.
“In Riyadh it’s called gisht, and each region of Saudi Arabia has
a particular way of making this dessert,” she explains, noting that the
Jeddawies of the Hijaz will add
cardamom. “We typically serve it
with Arabic coffee, and you can
always tell from which region
a family is from based on the way
they brew it. In Riyadh or the
central Nejd region, they will add
saffron to their coffee, where as
in the Hijaz we tend to add
more cardamom,” Arwa observes,
alluding to the diversity of cultures
and traditions within the
Kingdom’s borders. That diversity
can also be found in the designer’s
own extended family, who will
congregate at the home of her
Lebanese grandmother. “She is
an amazing cook who makes
everything from scratch, and our
iftars are typically a fusion of Saudi
and Lebanese traditions,” says
Arwa, noting that Ramadan is also
a time when women become
creative in their sartorial choices.
“Evenings are often filled with
visits to the homes of family and
friends, and it’s one time during the year when
you will see the most amazing variations on the
traditional kaftan and exquisite custom thobes,”
says the designer, whose own prized kaftans
were gifted to her by her elegant mother,
a talented artist and abaya designer. “She created
a gorgeous kaftan for me from a bisht fabric
covered in Bedouin-inspired gold embroidery,
which I always wear each Ramadan. I also have
a beautifully embroidered thobe my mother got
me from Syria which is very special to me,” says
Arwa, who will accessorise her kaftans with
stacks of traditional Saudi gold bangles called
banajer on each arm.
The designer points out that there is another
sartorial side to Ramadan, which few Westerners
experience outside Saudi Arabia. “Sometimes
when I meet with Western editors, they assume
Saudi Arabia is devoid of creativity when it comes to fashion, because
they immediately think of the black abaya. It’s true we are a conservative
society, but there is also an incredibly inspiring fashion scene that
emerges during Ramadan, which takes place in private gatherings,”
notes the designer, who is often amazed by the creative ways Saudi
women are combining Eastern and Western references in their outfits to
create thoroughly modern looks.
“In the last few years women have gotten very creative in reinterpreting
the kaftan in unexpected ways. You’ll see a 20-year-old wearing
a colourful floor-length kimono she purchased at a boutique in London
with a pair of jeans, a tank top and the traditional Saudi niaal or men’s
sandals,” observes the designer. “Because we have the sea, Jeddah’s
fashion scene tends to be more bohemian. Women here love flowing
styles with lots of colour, but you also see this very edgy fashion sensibility
emerging during Ramadan,” says Arwa, pointing to one trend amongst
chic Saudi women which made its way into her latest collection.
“The bisht is a distinctly male garb, but for years now some women
have been wearing it as an abaya. I wanted to introduce my own feminine
and modern take on this traditional garment for next season,” says the
designer, whose version comes in the softest brown bisht fabric, cut into
elongated floor-skimming gossamer cover-ups edged with metallic
thread. The designer will typically wear her bisht with a slip dress or
a T-shirt and jeans, accessorising the look with bracelets fashioned from
traditional misbahas or worry beads purchased in Jeddah’s old souk. “It’s
a reminder that we have an incredibly rich heritage in Saudi to mine for
fashion inspiration, and it’s up to us to show the world that Saudi Arabia
is a place of diversity where tradition and modernity come together.”
“ T H E B I S H T I S A M A L E
G A R B , B U T F O R Y E A R S
N O W S O M E W O M E N H AV E
B E E N W E A R I N G I T A S A N
A B A Y A . I W A N T E D T O
I N T R O D U C E M Y O W N
F E M I N I N E A N D M O D E R N
T A K E O N T H I S
T R A D I T I O N A L G A R M E N T ”
A r w a A l B a n a w i
Jacket, Dhs3,450;
trousers, Dhs1,564,
both Arwa Al
Banawi. Boots and
bangles, stylist’s own
■