Marrakech store

Constructions started about 3 weeks ago in the Marrakech store. I am very excited to see the progress. It seems like I'm going to be opening soon...

New tailor

I made a yellow gandoura a few months ago. I liked the work so much that I wanted to reproduce it in another color. Since my tailor in Rabat ruined so many of my fabrics, I decided to search for a new one in Marrakech. He seemed serious when we first met. Told me to bring one piece to try out his work. He said I wouldn't be disappointed (how many times have I heard this before?).

I explained to him for an hour what I wanted it to look like, the colors that he needed to work with and the type of embroidery I wanted. I even brought the yellow one I made in Rabat with me to show him the details of the work. He told me that it would be ready in 3 weeks max. A month later, I called him and he apologized for completely forgetting about my piece and that it would be ready in 2 days. I called him 2 days later to avoid the unnecessary drive only to tell me that he lost the gandoura but he just found it and that it should be ready the next day. The next day of course it wasn't ready. So I asked him to give me my fabric back but it was too late because he already started working on it but of course completely neglected my instructions!!! 2 months later, it was finally ready.... 

When I picked it up, he told me to bring him at least 20 other fabrics, to hire him full time, give him a salary and a car so he sells my pieces for me! True story! I promise....

This is the result:

...And I'm loving the weather

Summer is just around the corner....

First Gandoura I designed

This was the first Gandoura I designed. I wanted something sexy, young, simple and easy to wear.

Overcoming my fear

I have been so reluctant to publish my blog. I had this crazy fear that I would be making a fool out of myself. I was afraid to be criticized in the same way I allowed myself to criticize so many things. I read once somewhere that overcoming your fears makes you grow as a person and opens up more possibilities and opportunities. In a way, you set yourself free by letting go of something that is holding you back. You choose to be happy over being miserable. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "when a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers." I do not want to be scared away and I therefore decided to overcome my fear of being judged, disliked or criticized in order for me to grow as a person and as a designer. If I make a fool out of myself, then at least I'm doing it happily by opening up to all of you. 

What I have been up to!

It's been a while since my last post. As I was writing this blog, I decided that it was time for me to stop writing and start acting. With the few means that I had and great emotional support from my husband, I decided to go into fashion.

I never held a needle in my hand before but I felt that mom's fashion skills were magically transmitted to me. I also felt that with the proper motivation and the right amount of passion, nothing was unattainable. It was time for me to become a fashion designer.

After many hours of vivid imagination, inexplicable drawings, incoherent measurements and countless meters of ruined fabric, my designs began to look like actual clothes.

I wanted to specialize in tunics because it was a good compromise between Moroccan clothing and modern clothing. I was rushing to make as many pieces as possible before the opening of my store in Rabat in August 2011. I didn't even have time to take professional pictures of my designs. Luckily a friend of mine was kind enough to pose for me.

This blog will still discuss women’s issues for those of you who want to comment about women’s rights and it will also be a chance for me to share with everyone my designs and get feedback. It will also discuss my struggle to make it as a woman in the fashion industry.

Thank you all in advance for your help and support.