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Magazine |
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A star designer
in the making
Admit it, we
all love clothes. But for Fazreena Tasneem Ismail, clothing is a
passion that has taken her to great heights. Born and educated
in Sri Lanka, Fazreena found her forte in fashion only a few months
ago. A student of Bishop's College, Colombo, she left for Dubai
in the United Arab Emirates soon after her Ordinary Levels. "I
went there just for a Business was
always in her bones. "My entire family was involved in some
sort of business or the other. So it was always an option." She soon decided
that the time had come for her to open up her own store. It was
mainly garments that she was interested in but fate had other ideas.
"I went to this large mall in Dubai and was allotted a reasonable
amount of shop space. But there was a catch. The only item of clothing
I was permitted to sell was lingerie as that was the only thing
that the mall lacked. It was a great place to start in, so I had
no option but to agree to the clause." She began by
importing items of clothing from Sri Lanka and selling it in Dubai.
She soon found that there was a growing demand for nightclothes.
"Cotton nightgowns were a great favourite. We were the only
store that stocked them. Soon I began to create individually designed
cotton nightgowns like Dubai had never seen before. It was under
my own label of Desert Dreams." Fazreena herself
supplied the designs for the nighgowns. The fact that they were
individually crafted was what caught most people's attention. As with any
business, changes had to come about. "I found that though I
could design the patterns for the nightgowns, I was unable to communicate
the technical details to the factory in Sri Lanka. That was when
I enrolled at the London College of Arts where I trained for the
one year Diploma in Fashion Designing." Eight months
into the course and her teachers presented another idea. Why not
participate in the annual show held in Dubai for young designers?
"I toyed with the idea and sent in my application. Around 30
of us applied from the school and 16 were chosen. There were five
schools that participated. After I was chosen, I knew that I had
to give it my best shot." The participants
were asked to design around the theme of the 'Four Elements' and
the design could either be related to Earth, Wind, Fire, Water or
a combination of all four. "Fire to me could not portray anything
softly, Wind and Earth too did not hold much fascination but as
a lover of nature, Water seemed to be the ideal theme." Her creation
for the evening, which was held on May 1, 2002 at the World Trade
Center in Dubai, caught the judges' eyes and she carried off both
the awards that were to be presented. The Design of the Year award
and the Best Use of Fabric award, the first Sri Lankan to ever do
so and also the very first in Dubai to win both awards. The judges
for the evening included a host of fashion professionals. Made of shades
of blue, the dress which was designed for Evening Wear is stunning.
"It's haute couture," she says, "a lot of work went
into it." Each participant had to design and sew her creation
by herself. "We could enlist the help of a fashion house but
the majority of the work was done by ourselves." After she completed
the diploma, Fazreena decided to go one step further. "I was
already immersed in a business and I couldn't study full time. But
I wanted another qualification and more experience. And where else
could I obtain it but at a school in Milan, one of the fashion capitals
of the world." The Moda Burgo,
where she studied was situated between the great fashion moguls
of the world - Giorgo Armani and Versace. "It was only when
I was in Milan that I understood this concept of fashion thoroughly.
There you would bump into designers and models on a daily basis.
It's a completely different world." And that world
has now crept in on her. While she has no retail outlet directly
under her wing, she is a supplier of cotton nightgowns to nearly
all the countries in the Gulf region. But what of her training as
a fashion designer? "Everything
happened so quickly that I was not able to keep track of it. There
are so many plans in the pipeline now. I've found on my numerous
trips to Sri Lanka that there is a lot of scope for fashion designing
here. So I'd like to start up a boutique that would specialise in
not ready to wear but designer wear. My office and warehouse in
Dubai also needs to be looked after. But I'm going to take one step
at a time and decide as it happens." As that is
the identical way in which her designs are put on paper, it should
be worth looking out for this young designer. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
holiday,
liked the place and decided to stay back."
