AFP | by Mustafa HAJI ABDINUR | Mogadishu – Every time young fashion designer Hawa Adan Hassan makes a new gown for a paying customer, she also makes her dreams come true.
“My whole life, fashion design was a dream,” says the 23-year-old university student, who last year began running a cottage business out of her family’s home in Hamarweyne, the historic heart of Somalia’s coastal capital Mogadishu.
For Hassan, it began with art, when she found herself drawn to sketching clothes rather than the animals and landscapes preferred by her peers.
Then she set to work on tailoring to turn her images into reality.
“I realised this could be my field of expertise,” she says.
For decades, war and upheaval left ordinary Somalis focussed on the daily matters of life, death and survival.
Bombings by Al-Shabaab jihadists still dog Mogadishu today.
But a creeping cosmopolitanism is challenging entrenched conservative attitudes and many Somalis are undaunted by wanting a look that stands out.
Somalia’s clothing stores traditionally adhere to a simple formula: imported garments for the well-to-do, locally-made clothes for the rest.
But Hassan and others are starting to alter that picture with locally-designed, handmade attire for the high end of the market.
In such a nascent industry, Hassan is, by necessity, self-taught. “I used to watch fashion design shows on TV, and every time I watched one, I tried to grasp the ideas by drawing what I saw,” she says.
Her favourite was “Project Runway”, a US-made reality programme fronted by German model Heidi Klum.
“When I started I had no-one as a role model. It is just something I dreamed up,” she says, adding that she now finds inspiration in the likes of Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab.
– ‘Clothes with a story’ –
In her home studio, Hassan sketches and inks new designs of abaya gowns and hijab headscarves, in a variety of black or bright colours, tight and loose fittings, with plain or embroidered finishes.
Fashion has also become a family affair, with Hassan’s father — a tailor by trade — and older sister helping cut and sew the clothes.
Visitors to the workshop can hear children playing in nearby rooms and cooking smells waft in from the kitchen.
Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu, Somalia
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