Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
05/11/2010 - Issue 39
Creative but unsponsored
The success stories and challenges that face the local fashion design ‘industry’by Suha Mustapha
When our team of writers and researchers decided to write about the Syrian fashion scene, we had many angles to tackle. We decided to focus on Syrian fashion designers, who seemed to have most grievances against the local fashion “industry.”
From the need to set-up a union for fashion designers to importing good fabrics, fashion designers here seem to have the talent, but not the sponsorship nor the financial means to make it big on the international scene. This dossier investigates the fashion scene in Syria while singling out success stories and the many set-backs that negate local talent.
No red carpets at VIP events can be found for those wearing Syrian-made fashion – no camera flashes clicking away, no stalking paparazzi photographers, and no glamorous actresses to stride the red carpets wearing the dazzling “Syrian outfits.” Fashion design in Syria is a newborn baby, still taking its early steps, much in need of institutionalization and syndicate organization.
Damascus remains completely off the international community’s fashion radar, light years from Paris or New York, for example, the world’s fashion capitals.
All one need do to see an alternative side to Arab fashion is jump into a car and drive for approximately an hour and a half to the heart of dazzling Beirut see what might look, sound, and feel like Paris, when it comes to fashion and glamour.
In addition to being a vibrant city that gets very little sleep, Beirut is where Western fashion was first introduced to the Arab world, over 50 years ago. While maintaining its Arab identity, Beirut developed an obsession for trendiness, eventually creating a fashion industry of its own. Even during the 15 year civil war, designer brands never disappeared from the display windows in either west or east Beirut. This was common for a people wanting to pull through the destruction and mayhem, in style.
Thanks to a closed economy, the Syrian fashion industry remained dormant for approximately four decades. Back in the 1950s, however, Syrian girls promenaded in miniskirts up and down Abu Rummaneh long before anybody else in the Arab and Muslim world. To digest how influential it was for the conservative city of Damascus to accept – in fact embrace – the miniskirt, we must first accept that free and liberal societies like that of France, for example, did not accept it.
The problem with Damascus was that it imitated Western fashion, rather than innovate a fashion trend of its own. It never tried to create a Syrian fashion brand influenced by Western trends that nevertheless, carried a Syrian element to it.
That explains why Charleston Jeans, straight-leg pants, and strapless dresses were very popular among Syrian girls in the 1970s – where young girls spent plenty of time flipping through the glossy pages of the German fashion magazine Burda – eager to see what the West had to offer – completely incapable, however, of developing an inborn fashion culture of their own.
The seeds of Lebanese fashion are now bearing fruit, thanks to the internationally acclaimed works of Lebanese designer Elie Saab, the “king” of haute couture in the Middle East. The legendary Saab famously dressed high octane Hollywood starlets on the red-carpet, like Beyonce and Halle Berry, who wore a burgundy Saab outfit during the 2002 Academy Awards.
The list of Lebanese designers on the international scene doesn’t stop with Saab but includes Zuhair Murad, Ziad Nakad, Rabih Keyrouz, George Chakra, and others. Those names, approximately 30 in all, are the core group of the Fashion Designers Syndicate in Beirut.
Such an institution, backed by numerous modeling agencies and a strong Lebanese media dedicated to promoting the works of those in the Lebanese fashion industry – all topped with glamorous fashion shows at the famous Casino Du Liban – speak volumes about how far Lebanese fashion has come, and where the few Syrian designers found in Damascus, remain standing.
On the other hand, the fashion scene in Syria is nevertheless, moving forward, in spite of its shortcomings. Syrian designers have participated in “fashion weeks” in Milan, Ukraine and New York while an academy to teach fashion design was established in Damascus in 1995.
Although modeling is still new and frowned upon by Syrian society, a competition for “top model” did indeed take place in 2005. Syrian designers still have certain setbacks; one being a need to import – with heavy tariffs – some of the material needed for design, like certain lace, silk, and organza.
Another limitation remains a lack of competition within the Syrian market – a reality that draws a heavy toll down on creativity. Also, there is a sharp need for skilled craftsmen and women to fill the ateliers of Syrian designers, despite the fact that no less than 186 companies in Syria focus on textile and cloth manufacturing.
When all of the above is addressed, and a syndicate is created to nourish the fashion design industry, then perhaps, Syrian fashion designers will get the boost they deserve and have long been waiting for.
