After crowdfunding, releasing the Qabbeh and the Benayiq collections, we are ready to introduce the final collection in our Anatomy of a Thobe series. The Irdan Collection We took our inspiration from the beautiful, bell, long and pointed sleeves, as seen in the image in this post. Known as the irdan, these large and bellowing sleeves were tied behind the woman's back while she would be busy doing manual labour. This collection is designed with the modern woman in mind, no matter what kind of business she may be up to. We are staying true to our concept of crowdfunding, but executed a little differently. Our subscribers responded to a survey where they could preview our designs. Together with their insights, we think this...
Featured in the press once more, this time in Palestine Monitor! We spoke about the social workings our enterprise. “We really realized working with women that we need to work around their schedule and not the other way around” explains Noora Husseini. It took her and her team a year to find the perfect network of embroiderers in all corners of Palestine. They were looking for women that would be reliable, and whose crafts would meet their high standards of quality. “For instance, we had the hardest time to find women that could do a proper 'Couching’ stitching, the traditional embroidery style of Bethlehem, and to this day, we only work with two women that really master this stitching,”...
The lovely Tina Ghanim wrote up a piece for Wamda on why we choose to crowdfund our collections: “Because we commission the women per piece, it is better to see our demand for the collection, and it helps the women artisans plan their time better too as it takes them a while to make it,” Husseini said. The experience is highly personalized: once a customer places an order on the crowdfunding site, they are contacted directly by the Taita Leila team - Husseini and a colleague who is a touch point for the women making the clothes - to ask details about size and preferred color. “Because we are a new brand, is hard to get customers to trust our...
The Palestinian dress or thobe is full of wonders and hidden stories within each stitch. Palestinian women embroidered their interests, history, and even their social status on their clothes! Our next collection continues our series investigating the anatomy of a thobe. We focused on an interesting part of the dress, the Benayiq, referring to an extra triangular piece of fabric that was added to the the side so women would move more comfortably. It was popular in Palestine in the areas starting from Nablus across to the south. This animation gives a hint into what our next collection will look like, and will be part of our crowdfunding video that will be released very soon! Can’t wait to share it!...
