Amal Murad Abayas at Fujairah Fashion Style 2010

REDAA in Fujairah
* Amal Murad and her REDAA abaya range were first on the catwalk during opening night (14 May 2010) in Fujairah’s inaugural Fashion Exhibition at the Tennis and Country Club.

* As Fujairah is seeking to develop as a centre for art and culture, designer Amal Murad is keen to contribute to this development and she is constantly looking for ways to boost the fashion industry in the Emirates.

Inspiration
* Amal acknowledges the formative influence of her artistic family in encouraging her to explore her talents.

* Her father’s flair as an artist opened Amal to the vital contribution of beauty to society. She continues to be inspired by the beauty in art, nature and her Emirati tradition.

* Her mother who has regularly sewn was Amal’s first inspiration and when as a young girl she used her mother’s off-cuts to design and make clothes for her dolls, her talent turned into art.

* Designers like Yves Saint Laurent inspired Amal’s appreciation of colours and style.

* Amal works from home where in addition to responsibilities as a business woman, she is wife and mother to her four children.

REDAA Range in Fujairah—Part 1—(Link to Part 2)

Further
REDAA Collection at Fujairah Fashion Exhibition, Fujairah in Focus.(Part 2)
Dancers Star at Fujairah Fashion Launch, Fujairah in Focus.
Fashion Show to Attract the Crème de la Crème of Fujairah, Fujairah in Focus.
Fujairah’s First Fashion Exhibition, Fujairah in Focus.

Geoff Pound

Connect with Geoff Pound on Facebook, Twitter or at geoffpound(at)gmail.com

Opening Image
Amal Murad walks the Fujairah catwalk to the applause of her models and the appreciative audience.

Credit
Thanks to Alan Nambiar for all photos displayed in this article.

Acknowledgement
Information in this article is drawn from the web pages of Amal Murad as well as from a host of interviews in the public sphere.

Dancers Star at Fujairah Fashion Launch

Young ballerinas from Fujairah’s Ballet Group had the honour of dancing at Fujairah’s inaugural Fashion Exhibition over the three days, 19-21 May 2010.

Style 2010 was held at the Fujairah Tennis and Country Club under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Sara Bint Hamad Al Sharqi.

This exhibition was a spring board to develop the fashion culture in Fujairah with the hope that it would become a regular fixture at which the latest fashion trends may be showcased.

The annual event will gradually pick up speed, recognition and sponsorship in an effort to attract top designers and buyers from the Emirates and the region.

The core of the programme was the fashion segments which featured the labels, Redda, JYK, MIMI Fashion, Babyshop, Banan Suliman, Shrekanth and Bisma Ahmed.

Other attractions included make up demos, raffles, skin care clinics presented by Areel and Kaya, speeches and a segment by a major sponsor, Le Méridien.
The many activities over the three days required good comperes to keep the show on track.
The Fujairah Tennis and Country Club created a festive atmosphere and set up the catwalk to enable members of the audience to get close to the action.
Men as well as women enjoyed the activities and the fashion.
The three day event gave plenty of scope for networking for people from Dubai as well as Fujairah’s crème de la crème.

Models came from all over the Emirates to show off the UAE style of 2010 and it was the homegrown troupe of Fujairah ballerinas that set the stage alight for the opening night.

Geoff Pound

Connect with Geoff Pound on Facebook, Twitter or at geoffpound(at)gmail.com

Images: All photos taken by UAE photographer, Alan Nambiar who described himself in an article as “A professional but still on a photographic journey searching for ‘the elusive shot.’”

Does Fujairah Need a Makeover or Reconstructive Surgery?

Keith Fernandez thinks this weekend’s inaugural Style 2010 fashion show may give Fujairah a ‘makeover’.

By-Pass Surgery or Natural Therapy?
One travel writer recommended that tourists by-pass Fujairah city as there was little to see and head straight for the Al Aqah beach resorts. His article displayed more interest in sipping cocktails around the pool at Le Méridien than investigating what the emirate had to offer.

The Al Aqah beach resorts should not be missed but sadly, many tourists take this writer’s advice and by-pass the city completely. It is crucial for Fujairah tourism to highlight and makeover the emirate’s many attractive features.

Makeover or Reconstructive Surgery?
The natural beauty of Fujairah must be enhanced instead of performing radical surgery that produces something artificial and unrecognizable.

A good example of an enhancement rather than a facelift is the Style 2010 venue at the Fujairah Tennis and Country Club. This resort is nestled against the majestic Hajar Mountains and is such a picture, especially in the evening light.

So what might a Fujairah makeover involve? Here are some guiding principles:

Remove the Veil
Unfortunately Trip Advisor reports and blog postings by visitors to Fujairah (here’s one of the latest) repeat the chorus that there’s not much to see and do in Fujairah. The Al Aqah resorts highlight the lure of Fujairah as a place where you can getaway and do nothing. But the huge numbers that come to the Fujairah port on cruise ships believe the trip advisory reports and thus decide to spend a lazy day on board rather than explore the eastern emirate.

The challenge is to remove Fujairah's veil and face up to the bad press by showcasing the features that people will admire and enjoy.

Replace the Ugly Spots with Beauty Spots
Despite the efforts of the municipality and conservation groups there is still too much plastic blowing around the city, litter being tossed out of cars, rubbish left on the corniche after people have feasted on fast food and the trashing of scenic areas.

It is disturbing to see beach areas taken and sea views blocked by high-rise hotels on the Fujairah corniche.

The efforts of the municipality to plant trees and replace concrete with grass are to be applauded but gardens, fences, children’s play equipment and park benches must be done well and daggy public furniture scrapped.

Remove the Oily Pane
Beauticians use cosmetics to deal with an excess of facial oil but it’s much harder to remove the oil that is dumped by oil tankers into the Fujairah waters.

Inserting the word ‘oil’ into the search box of The National online newspaper will uncover a large number of articles from the black year of 2008 about oil dumping in the Fujairah waters by rogue tankers. This has caused hotel beaches to be closed, diving companies to be decimated and the marine life destroyed.

Fortunately incidents of oil dumping and spillage have been greatly reduced with the development of better surveillance and threats of tougher penalties. But there’s a tricky balance between managing a growing oil industry and keeping the environment in pristine condition.

Accentuate the Positives
Just as a beautician or fashion expert might highlight a person’s hair, face or parts of the torso so one must accentuate the positives of an emirate like Al Fujairah.

His Highness, Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, the Ruler of Fujairah and Member of the Supreme Council identified the fine features of his emirate when he wrote this introduction:

“It is…we believe, one of the most beautiful and interesting [emirates], with a combination of attractions found nowhere else in the country. It has no deserts and no oil. What it does have are the best beaches in the country, long sandy stretches washed by the Indian Ocean; the towering and rugged Hajar Mountains riven by valleys that run down to the sea with palm groves clinging to their sides; and a coastal plain verdant with farms that produce much of the UAE’s food.”
(Peter Hellyer, Fujairah: An Arabian Jewel, Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 2005, 4.)

Fujairah Features
Fujairah does not need to copy the things that attract people to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It has a unique ‘combination of attractions’ which must be showcased and made accessible to residents and visitors alike.

Geoff Pound

Connect with Geoff Pound on Facebook, Twitter or at geoffpound(at)gmail.com