sheikhanooralthani nov2005 woman today
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8/14/2019 SheikhaNoorAlThani Nov2005 WOMAN TODAY
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She is all o 23, and has already
dressed Haia Wehbe, Arab
musics most popular star.
With maturity that belies her
age and modesty that cloaks her achieve-
ments, Sheikha Noor Al Tani spreads
out her sketches on the cae table. At that
meeting, our months ago, she says little,
and leaves it to her cousin to ll i n about
her personality.We sat down again, on the rst day o
Ramadan. She has a lot more to display,
a lot more to say. In our months, she
has had two more shows in Beirut and
Rome. She is dierent too still sot
spoken and mature, but more condent
and orthcoming.
A graduate o ashion design rom
Virginia Commonwealth University in
Qatar, Noor Al Tani was born into
auence, but has sweated and sewn her
way orward, gaining recognition and
making a mark abroad, where her am-
ily name does not automatically extend
avours. Last year, she was among the
winners o the most promising designer
award at the Lux Fashion Show in Beirut,
or young designers.
In August this yea r, she went onceagain to Lebanon or the show Hiqayet
Musamam (Designers Story); the theme
demanded a traditional piece, and she
came up with a stunni ng toubanashel.
She also gured in the Honours Book,
the youngest o 10 designers eatured.
While in Rome...
And just beore her second L ebanon
oray, she participated in her rst Euro-
pean show the Italian Fashion Week
2005- 2006 in Rome, a show entitled
An Oriental Night directed by Waq
Salbeikh.
I had chosen Breaking the Ice a s my
theme or the Oriental Night, as in many
ways that was what I did then. I broke
the ice.
I am very shy and closed. Most Qatari
women are. I expressed mysel through
my art. My paintings, my designs. I
showed 16 pieces in Rome. Tat show
would not have been possible without
the support o HH Sheikha Mozah bint
Nasser Al Misnad. I was sponsored by
Qatar Foundation, and I owe a lot to
her. Without her, my dreams would have
remained so.
Te Rome show gave her unprecedent-
ed exposure.
Haia Wehbe liked a dress I showed
there... I had hand painted owers on
it. And it hangs in her wardrobe now. A
Lebanese team which came or the show
photographed my creations and showed it
to her. She liked it and her agents got in
touch with me. And I was only too happy
to git it to her, beams Noor.
A lot o people rom Doha have ap-
proached me to do their evening wear
and casual clothes. Response has been
good rom abroad too. Ater the Rome
ashion show, I received a call rom Lon-
don to design a wedding dress, ater she
saw the one on show. For the show I had
done a wedding dress, with a Swarovski
crystal collar. I have a person in Leba-
What Dreamsare Draped of...
By Vani Saraswathi
F for...Favourite DesignerVivienne Westwood. A BritisDesigner. She is so totally funkand stylish. I like her designs apersonality.
Fabric of choiceI love to work with raw silk; apink and off-white.
Favourite AccessoryEar rings. For my designs, thaonly accessory I used. I designand in different colours to suit design. It was in Swarovski cry
Flair for the AbhayaDespite the designs she spins, is always clothed in an abhayawonder, that she is toying withan abhaya line.
I want to try something diffePlay with fabrics and cuts. To ment. I want to explore possib at present it is rather impractYou get abhayas only in crepe synthetic material. It is so hot iand we are wearing multiple la
Female DesignersWhy are male designers so mupopular? Probably because pfeel they know how to dress a But I feel women designers una womans body better. They wmore adept at dressing other w
Faux PasI hate to see people not dressappropriately for their age. Yowearing clothes meant for oldeand vice versa. You cant blindtrends, the clothes should suit
Food for thoughtA lady came up to me in Londand was telling me I should wodesigns for bigger women. Theavailable now are so ugly. We to Milan and Rome on an eductrip from VCU and we saw at Vthat buyers were ordering specdepending on the market. Thatinteresting concept. You get thbeautiful design, but to suit yoYou need to keep you customemind, put their needs rst.
YOUNG&HAPPENING YOUNG&HAPPENING
Noor is an extremely talented, self-motivated person. She is in a position to get
whatever she wants, yet she works really
hard, and is willing to do what it takes. She
checks every little, minute detail. Usually
designers supervise, but we encourage our
students to be more hands-on.
Sandra Wilkins, Area Chair, Fashion
Design, VCU-Q
The stunning wedding dress, with a high collar made of Swarovski crystals,received great response
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november 2005 28 november 2005 29
non who specialises in accessories, so I
worked with him and he executed my
idea, says Noor.
Seeking a signature
Noor grew up with colours, patterns
and designs. She grew up watching her
ather, Hamad bin Salman Al Tani a
renowned artist, paint. He excels in so
many dierent styles, that you wont be
able to connect one work to a nother. And
somewhere I picked up that trait. My
designs are so dierent. It is good in one
way. Tere is variety. At the same time,
I am not getting my signature... but I
guess the paintings on my designs is my
signature, she adds as an a terthought.
Last year, Noor participated in her rst
big event, in the Lux Fashion Show in
Lebanon, winning a promising young
designer award.
For that I had shown two rom my
Senior Collection at VCU and two done
exclusively or the show. Tis year, it was
a totally new collection.Te concept itsel
was so removed rom what I did last year.
I work on hundreds o sketches and
play around with my designs beore
nalising. I make sure that some part
o every dress I design and execute, I
work on with my own hands. I paint on
it, I airbrush. It is not my creation just
because I design. It is not my creation i
I sketch it and someone sews it. I need to
be involved in it. I I dont touch it, it is
not mine, she emphasises.
Painting still continues to be a pas-
sion. I escape to my painting when I am
stressed or angry. It clears my mind.
Even as her ather inspired, her entire
amily encouraged her. I keep dressing
up my cousins, sisters and even my mum.
When I showed in Rome, they were all
there by my side.
Dressing up the men
While she has been zipping around show-ing her creations, Noor has also been
holding down a ull time job at the Qatar
National Olympic Committee, (QNOC)
acing tough assignments and tight
deadlines.Tough my job at QNOC is
to design as well, the work is so dierent
rom what I do otherwise. I am design-
ing clothes or Qatari sportsmen, I am
working against a tight deadline. Tis is a
totally dierent ball game.
I have been given a reehand, in that
I dont have to stick to maroons and
whites. But I have been educating mysel
too. Looking at anti-bacterial abric
or one... I need to show the designs to
QNOC bigwigs or approval in two
months. Tere are two categories o
kits I need to work on. One is or the
competitions and the other or opening
ceremony, she says, barely hiding her
pride.
My amily is most supportive. But
I want to be sel-sufcient. I spend my
entire salary on my creations. I
expensive business. I need to tr
source material abrics, acces
beads... I go to Dubai, to Leban
She recently attended an exh
Paris, on new trends in abrics,
accessories. I participated mai
educate mysel. o get to know
new in the market or the utur
Mixed response
Noor interned at a local boutiq
and realised that while some Qloved to work with a Qatari des
many dont want to wear their
It is difcult or them to rea
am Qatari and a qualied desig
will do a good job. Tey eel W
designers are more aware o tre
However, western designs also
be altered or local need, she p
Mainly because o the weat
wearing the abhaya. We have to
light abrics. But the cuts and p
are the same. Qatari women ar
aware o ashions and trends. E
youngsters are so aware.
Recounting a amily anecdot
says, Tough I am designing nwhen I was in school I wore wh
mother picked up and gave me
sister who is only seven years ol
opinionated she will not wea
she doesnt approve o. She is s
lar. So when I am buying or de
a dress or her, I make sure she
involved in it.
She says that she is not yet co
satised with her work. I some
eel something is missing in de
Tat I need to go the extra mile
depressed when my designs do
me. But I have my mentors. M
at VCU. I go to them to clear u
get their comments.My dream is to oer the wo
International Ready to Wear l
originating rom Doha. I am d
ing the idea with ellow designe
to present an international line
local touch. But the immediate
the show to be held in Doha
opening o the re urbished wom
at Salam Studios and Stores.
The dress that caught the eye of Haifa Wehbe
YOUNG&HAPPENING YOUNG&HAPPENING
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november 2005 30
slug name
november 2005 31
Parks, a mild-mannered daugh-
ter o a teacher and a carpenter,
was 42 when she commit-
ted the act o deance that
changed the course o American history
and earned her the title o midwie or
mother o the civil ri ghts movement.
At that time, Jim Crow laws in place
since the post-Civil War Reconstruction
required separation o the races in buses,
restaurants and public accommodations
throughout southern USA, while racial
discrimination kept blacks out o many
jobs and neighbourhoods in northern
USA.
Te seamstress, an active member o
the local chapter o the National Associa-
tion or the Advancement o Coloured
People, was riding on a Montgomery city
bus on Dec 1, 1955, when a white man
demanded her seat.
Parks reused and she was jailed and
later ned $14.
But her one-woman act o deance
inspired 50,000 blacks in Montgomery
to join in a h istoric 381-day boycott,
organised by a then little-known Baptist
minister, Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
So they walked, nally reusing to
endure their daily humiliation on the
citys buses.
Parks bravery became the catalyst
or a movement that broke the back o
legalised segregation in the US.
Speaking in 1992, Rosa said history
too oten maintains that my eet were
hurting and I didnt know why I reused
to stand up when they told me. But the
real reason o my not standing up was I
One small, but strong
gesture of Rosa Lee
Parks changed the
course of history.
She refused to give up
her bus seat to a white
man in Alabama, in
1955. And with that, she
inspired an entire raceto stand up for its rights.
The mother of Americas
civil rights movement
died last month, at the
age of 92. WT pays trib-
ute to this truly inspir-
ing woman.
elt that I had a right to be treated as any
other passenger. We had endured that
kind o treatment or too long.
She added, At the time I was arrestedI had no idea it would turn into this. It
was just a day like any other day. Te
only thing that made it signicant was
that the masses o the people joined in.
Te 1956 Montgomery bus boycott,
which came two years ater the Supreme
Courts landmark declaration that sepa-
rate schools or blacks and wh ites were
inherently unequal, marked the start o
the modern civil rights movement.
It culminated in the 1964 ederal Civil
Rights Act, which banned racial dis-
crimination in public accommodations.
Still, ater taking her public stand or
civil rights, Parks had trouble nding
work in Alabama. Amid threats andharassment, she and her husband, Ray-
mond, moved to Detroit in 1957.
She worked as an aide to Rep John
Conyers rom 1965 until retiring in
1988. Raymond Parks died in 1977.
Parks said upon retiring rom her job
with Conyers that she wanted to devote
more time to the Rosa and Raymond
Parks Institute or Sel Development,
which she ounded in 1987 to develop
young leaders.
She worried that young people takelegal equality or granted and said that
older blacks have tried to shield young
people rom what we have suered. And
in so doing, we seem to have a more
complacent attitude.
We must double and redouble our
eorts to try to say to our youth, to try
to give them an inspiration, a n incentive
and the will to study our heritage and
to know what it means to be black in
America today, she said.
As long as there is unemployment,
war, crime and all things that go to the
iniction o mans inhumanity to man,
regardless there is much to be done,
and people need to work together, sheonce said.
Even into her 80s, she was active on
the lecture circuit, speaking at civil rights
groups and accepting awards, including
the Presidential Medal o Freedom in
1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal
in 1999.
Tis medal is encouragement or all
o us to continue until all have
she said at the June 1999 cerem
the latter medal.
Parks was the subject o the dtary Mighty imes: Te Lega
Parks, which received a 2002 O
nomination or the best short d
tary.
Parks health had been declin
the past 10 years. She was said
ering rom dementia and had s
making public appearances.
In one o her last interviews,
asked what she would want peo
say about her, ater her death, s
Id like people to say I m a per
always wanted to be ree and w
not only or mysel; reedom is
human beings.
She said the love o reedom instilled in her rom childhood
grandather her mothers ath
whom she lived when she was g
up. He taught his children and
children not to put up with mi
ment. It was passed down alm
genes, Parks wrote in her 1992
ography, My Story
Rosa Parks passesaway
Voice againstdiscrimination
Left: Rosa parks being arrested aftof deanceAbove: The historic bus
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