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Mogadishu (AFP) – 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 a cottage business in her family's Hamarweyne home last year. 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 bomb attacks perpetrated by al-Shabaab jihadists continue to affect Mogadishu.
But a creeping cosmopolitanism challenges well-established conservative attitudes and many Somalis are fearless in wanting a distinctive look.
Somali clothing stores traditionally apply a simple formula: imported clothing for well-off clothing, locally-made clothing for the rest.
But Hbadan and others are beginning to change 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 project was Project Runway, an American reality show starring German model Heidi Klum.
"When I started, I did not have a role model, it's something I imagined," she said, adding that she found it today. From the inspiration for the Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab.
– & # 39; Clothing with a story & # 39; –
In his home studio, Hbadan draws and inks new models of abaya dresses and hijab scarves, in a variety of black or bright colors, with narrow or loose trim, 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.
Like many Mogadishu residents who have been used to violence, Hbadan rejects the frequent bombings and bombings in the city, describing them as a "drawback" that could ruin his delivery schedule.
Muna Mohamed Abdulahi, another startup fashion designer, aims to encourage local people to be proud of products made in Somalia.
"Some people come into my shop 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. the girl of 24 years.
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.
– Generational ditch –
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'm not going to look for imported clothes anymore," she adds, pointing out that the price of local fashion is often cheaper than that of imports and that it's easy to make changes.
But these young designers and customers, looking for a unique fashion and wanting to look good, seem to live in a world different from that of the city.
Dahir Yusuf, a 49-year-old father, is appalled by the love of his teenage daughter for branded clothes, which he considers immoral.
"These girls are crazy about designer clothes, which are mostly adjusted and reveal the features of their bodies," he says. "Morally, it's not good to wear such things."
As a male fashion designer, Abdishakur Abdirahman Adam eliminates double criticism in the pursuit of 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. . "
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