"All my life, it was a dream": how local fashion brands find their marks in Somalia

Whenever young fashion designer Hawa Adan Hbadan makes a new dress for a paying customer, she also realizes her dreams.

"All my life, fashion design was a dream," says the 23-year-old university student, who started last year running a business in her family's Hamarweyne home. historic heart of Mogadishu, capital of the Somali coast.

For Hbadan, it started with art, when she was drawn to the drawing of clothes rather than the animals and the favorite landscapes of her peers. Then she went to work to turn her images into reality.

"I realized that this could be my area of ​​expertise," she says.

For decades, war and upheaval have left ordinary Somalis focused on the daily issues of life, death and survival. The bombings perpetrated by the al-Shabaab terrorist group, still linked to Al Qaeda, continue to affect Mogadishu.

But a creeping cosmopolitanism is sweeping the county and many Somalis are not afraid to want a look that stands out.

Somali clothing stores traditionally apply a simple formula: imported clothing for wealthy people, locally made clothing for the rest. Hbadan and others are beginning to modify this image with handmade clothing designed locally for the high end of the market.

In a nascent industry, Hbadan is necessarily self-taught. "I was watching fashion shows on TV, and every time I looked at one, I was trying to capture ideas by drawing what I saw," she says.

His favorite was Project track, an American reality show produced by the German model Heidi Klum.

"When I started, I did not have any model, it's something I imagined," she said, adding that she found now inspiration in projects such as Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab.

"Clothes with a story"

In his home studio, Hbadan draws and inks new patterns of abaya and hijabs, in a variety of black or bright colors, tight and ample fittings, with plain or embroidered finishes.

Fashion also became a family affair, with Hbadan's father – a craft tailor – and an older sister helping to cut and sew clothes.

Visitors to the workshop can hear children playing in neighboring rooms and kitchen smells emanating from the kitchen.

His older brother was an investor, helping to buy sewing machines and other equipment.

Now, the business is taking off, she says.

"At first it was my dad, my older sister and my brother who helped me get started, but now I'm self-reliant and I can make a living with my job," she says proudly.

Muna Mohamed Abdulahi, another startup fashion designer, aims to encourage local people to be proud of products made in Somalia.

"Some people go to my store and, when they realize that these clothes are designed and made locally, they run away because they have a negative impression about locally made clothes," he said. said the 24-year-old girl.

Like Hbadan, Abdulahi is self-taught – "I was my own model," she says – and insists that she is more than a bespoke tailor to the work of others.

"A designer creates clothes with a story, but a tailor does it without thinking, they just do the same," says Abdulahi.

A generational gap

The clients of the designers are mostly young, like them, and wealthy.

"I love clothes designed by Somalis because they are adjusted and attractive," said Farhiyo Hbadan Abdi, a 22-year-old student. "The imported costumes are mostly out of shape and do not fit you well."

"I will not look for imported clothes anymore," she says, pointing out that the price of local fashion is often cheaper than that of imports and that it is easy to make changes.

When I started, I did not have anyone as a model. It's just something that I've imagined

Hawa Adan Hbadan, designer

As a men's fashion designer, Abdishakur Abdirahman Adam faces criticism to realize his dreams.

"In Somalia, it's very difficult for a boy to become a fashion designer because people believe it's women's work," says the 19-year-old, who was introduced to fashion by watching fashion shows on satellite television.

Nevertheless, he plans to continue, designing for women and men, hoping to compete with foreign imports.

"What I do, is just create fashionable clothes with the material that I have here without spending more money so that it looks like something from overseas. . "