Young and curious, Nora Al-Shaikh has carved a niche in the Middle Eastern fashion industry, creating forward thinking designs incorporated with bold combinations of colour in fearlessly modern silhouettes. Here the Saudi-based designer shares with us the story of her design process for her Ramadan collection.
Using the Red City as her inspiration for the Ramadan collection
I recently moved my design studio from Riyadh to the cosmopolitan Red Sea city of Jeddah, which has historically been a melting pot of cultures thanks to centuries of pilgrims and traders passing through it. It’s not unusual here to find Saudis with Turkish, Asian or even African ancestry, whose families had settled in the area decades ago. As a result Jeddah today is a city of cultural fusions and an incredibly inspiring place for a designer.
That was really the starting point for me, but I also wanted to explore this notion of 21st century African chic by looking at the work of noted Malian photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta. Their images of youth in 1960s and ‘70s Bamako, is incredibly captivating in that they somehow merge tradition and modernity. At the same time I didn’t want to just look to the past, but also explore how their work inspired artists today such as Janet Jackson, whose 1997 video, Got Till It’s Gone, was inspired by Sidibé and Keïta’s rich imagery. There is a very urban feel to the clothes and it was important to ground them in the present.
Bridging tradition with the contemporary
The unifying thread throughout the collection is a focus on long dresses for both day and evening. It’s a reflection of how we dress in Saudi, but I wanted to reinterpret it in a way that appeals to both a local and international audience. I explore different shapes such as the shirtdress, the shift and the trapeze in a variety of fabrics from soft striped cottons to weightless chiffons. At the end of the day the clothes need to look modern and effortless. Being modern today isn’t about looking overly contrived but comfortable in one’s own skin. But I also wanted to inject a little whimsy into the collection and included Masai-inspired beaded tops in burnt orange, turquoise and coral.
As a Saudi designer I’m informed by my own culture and how women dress around me, but at the same time we live in a global and connected environment and I am slowly expanding my brand internationally.
Nora Al-Shaikh
The woman she designs for
It’s incredibly inspiring for me to see how women from different backgrounds wear my clothes because it allows me to grow as a designer. A few seasons ago I began creating a line of modern hooded abayas for my Saudi clients who were looking for a modern alternative to this traditional garment. It became a best seller at my trunk shows abroad amongst women who would use them as evening coats. For Resort I created a lighter version in a print fabric that is also a reflection of how women in Jeddah dress. It’s another side of Saudi that people outside the country rarely see and I wanted to celebrate that diversity.
