RIYADH: The fast-growing fashion industry in Saudi Arabia is looking through the lens of history and heritage to produce clothing draped in the history of traditional garb worn during the time of the Kingdom’s founding.

At the Saudi Cup on Feb. 13, a number of designers showcased their couture inspired by the country’s rich history.

Saudi designer Fahda Al-Battah, one of the minds behind brand Adara by Fa alongside Abeer Al-Moammar, spoke to Arab News about their debut collection “Journey Through Time.”

The emerging brand’s collection was designed with the intention of displaying the country’s diversity.

The collection’s six pieces each represent a region of the Kingdom, either through motifs, symbolism, or patterns that are hand drawn by Al-Battah and her team.

The first dress is heavily inspired by the Qassim and Al-Ahsa regions, and features illustrated scenes of people collecting dates from palm trees and using them in various ways. “It’s a story, basically,” Al-Battah said.

“Heritage must be preserved and if anything new comes up now, we must create new heritage and not replicate the past,”

Amar Al-Amdar, Saudi designer

Another piece uses the patterns and colors that are prominent in the Southern region as motifs, with a backdrop of lush mountains and colorful architecture.

A drapey blue piece is inspired by the coasts of both Jeddah and the Eastern Province. “It's very fluid, even in design,” she said.

Two other pieces are inspired by the central Najd region, the designer said, a dark green ensemble with wing sleeves and another white dress, each elevated with decorative pieces resembling a string of dates.

The hero piece is an extravagant gown that displays every part of Saudi Arabia chronologically along the trim, starting with Najd and meshing into the other regions.

“The last dress has each part of Saudis, any culture and heritage, and it unifies us with the sheila (headscarf), which has King Abdulaziz’s quote, ‘We united on the word of monotheism, and so our hearts and lands united,’ which shows unification of us as a whole region,” she said.

“Saudi is very rich in heritage. So, most of the designers right now are looking for a way to identify themselves in the global market and showcase the beauty of what Saudi has.

“Each designer in Saudi is paving the way in a new field, which makes it very exciting and very creative,” Al-Battah said.

ASL Line, for example, was inspired by the lavender found in the heart of the desert. The soul of the plant was translated into a story through stitching and colorful motifs.

“We don’t look for inspiration from far away … we go back to our land,” according to a post on the brand’s social media account.  

MD29, another brand supported by the Fashion Commission, was inspired by the Saudi spirit of hospitality, taking Saudi coffee as a central element in their latest collection.

“You can see in the collection the color variations from the plant to the grind. This time, they wanted to highlight the character more, not just in the silhouettes, but in the fabrics, in the Arab spirit,” Manal Al-Dawood, founder of the brand, told Arab News.

Through their technique of layering the fabric, the prints used in the collection try to show the journey of coffee beans, from the moment they are planted into the earth to making it to the grinding process.

Saudi designer Amar Al-Amdar shared with Arab News his thoughts on the art scene through his experience of being a prominent figure in the industry.

He said: “We are now in phases of focusing on respecting the identity and culture in Saudi designs across all its regions, of course.

“And that’s a beautiful thing, but an important thing to focus on in this phase is that, in the past, when they were working on creating our pieces and wearing these (traditional) designs, that was considered innovation. That was the new look.

“When there was a swift pause on the development of our clothing, our past became heritage. But heritage must be preserved and if anything new comes up now, we must create new heritage and not replicate the past.”

He did not mince words about the wave of amateur designers that are adapting traditional clothing to use as decorative elements for newer, unconventional designs.

“For example, some of the worst things I’ve seen is taking something like the shemagh (scarf) and incorporating it into pants, or taking the agal (headwear) and making it a belt.

“This mix and crossing is wrong. Long ago, when they designed something for the head, it was intended to serve a purpose. It wasn’t decorative,” he said.

He felt it was important to caution novel fashion designers to innovate for the future and not simply look to the past for inspiration, and not create pieces that use heritage as merely a decorative motif.

“We need to form new paths, some renewal. There was a functionality to things, everything served a purpose in its design.

“But when design only becomes shifting a placement of something, that’s the biggest misuse of the original Saudi design … heritage is made to serve a purpose, so if we want to innovate it, it must have a functionality to it,” he said.