[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="A Fashionable Collaboration " ids="89785,89786,89784,89787,89788"]
By Mariam Nihal
The District is a platform for exciting brands and innovative designers who dare to do something different.
“The District is a mixture of friends and relatives who’ve had great experience in fashion designing and small enterprises,” Alanood Al Mansoori, one of the co-founders told Saudi Gazette. Al Mansoori, Fatma Bel Rmaitha and Fatma Al Habshi currently run the district, which is home to runway brands.
She said the team has achieved great success for their individual fashion lines including Wings Collection, Le Monochrome and Curves Vogue.
Al Mansoori claimed to know the initial struggle faced by most upcoming designers and wanted to bridge the gap by establishing a meeting point between retailers and customers.
“That’s when we, decided to set up our own store that reflects the hip, trendy and modern female shopaholics. We wanted to reflect the young generation of this country and be the haven of such trend enthusiasts,” Al Mansoori said. We caught up with the young team to find out more about their project.
SG: Tell us about your journey, vision and how you helped built this together.
Al Mansoori: We are a group of friends and relatives and we have really enjoyed every bit of this journey so far. We really mesh well in terms of choosing the right partners to work with, as we seem to have the same design aesthertics. We have a lot of grand plans ahead but we are trying our best to take baby steps and focus on stabilizing the store in Dubai before setting up our next goal of a GCC branch.
SG: Tell us more about what you’re working with this season.
Fatma Al Habshi: We do not want to give too much away but we are all so excited for the upcoming collections we plan to have in-store! We have several of surprises this summer, starting with some sale whispers we’ve heard from amazing brands we have. We also plan to have a summer, outdoors, poolside style inspired fashion show soon. For now, all we can say is watch this space!
We had a lot of fun with our selection of Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr pieces and are now getting ready for the fun, beach dresses and outfits that fit our climates with lots of lovely white and light coloured abayas. We are also in the process of finalizing a couple of contracts for our next quarter of designers that will start from September 2016 and I can’t share much now but, all I can say is - sunglasses and shoes!
SG: What is your experience in the fashion industry?
Alanood: We have all had previous experience in the fashion industry even prior to opening of The District.
Fatma Al Habshi and Bakheeta Al Mansoori are the founders of Le Monochrome. Le monochrome is a brand focused which started as a brand with a focus on Indian styled kaftans with a modern twist and has now moved to become the pioneers in what we design. As being a fashionable brand we expanded the brand to sell in GCC, moreover we added a trendy line of kaftans n dresses which was highly demanded by customers worldwide. Le Monochrome is seeking to be an international well known brand globally.
Fatma Belrmaitha is the founder of Curves Vogue. Fatma has always been fascinated by the processes and methods involved in the fashion industry. This endeavor is solely driven by vision, persuasion and execution. Fatma’s desire for designing garments and supervising the buying and stitching process until the end product is delivered, will never fade. Fashion is continually evolving and her work is strongly influenced by trends, cultures, people and their attitudes.
Fatima Bel Rmaitha: Alanood Al Mansoori and Mey Al Suwaidi are the founders of the Wings Collection. The Wings Collection had a very quick growth stream in the industry since its launch around two years ago. Initially the collection was only sold online, through Instagram, and eventually became a very well known brand in the Gulf countries and internationally as well. The abayas are showcased in different fashion shows, pop up stores and exhibitions in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE. They are also displayed internationally in Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, London, Paris and Spain too. We were always eager to widen the sales channels by trying to simplify the ways in which we reach the customers by being active in social media and ensuring we are always on trend.
SG: Is this positioned to eventually become an online shopping destination or where do you see it going?
Fatma Bel Rmaitha: To be honest, we are all crazy about online shopping whilst wearing pajamas at home! However, the store aims to decrease the level of confusion and create a one-stop shop where clients can find a variety of pieces at different price ranges and actually see the product they are buying. We aim to be more of a hub for fashionistas and trend enthusiasts, where they can chill in an environment that’s shopping-friendly and has all the latest trends and designs too.
Al Mansoori: We most definitely hope to have a online shopping portal in the future and we our aim is to link that with our pre-orders in terms of latest collections. We also aim to provide delivery options for GCC countries as a start. We have quarterly contracts with designers from different areas in the world and we aim to ensure diversity. We will always collaborate with latest trends and new designers in the field to give them the opportunity to showcase their collection and also for the customers to always have latest and new brands in the store.
Top 10 must-have pieces this summer
Lavender cocktail dress from I SAW IT FIRST
Lavender dress from CURVES VOGUE
Light crop top from ZENA PRESLEY
Light colored Abayas from WINGS and EGO abaya
Blue dress from LE MONOCHROME
Jogging pants and t-shirt from HENDAM
Summery colorful maxi dress from DAFFODIL
Pastel colored purse from BALQUIS bag
Orange and Yellow mixed abaya from LEENAZ
Straight cut white pants from CLO
