Dubai-based Sanaa Kayum brings freshness to WIFW with flexible clothing which offers both ease and pizzazz
By Asmita Aggarwal
Kuwait-born and Dubai-based Sanaa Kayum has had quite a multicultural upbringing from schooling in Mumbai, apparel design at SNDT, Mumbai, to FIT, New York. Though the seeds of success were sown pretty early, when she won an award for her graduating show Chrysalis (best embellishment).
However, she didnt let fashion overpower her and to balance creative knowledge with business basics, she graduated for the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics.
Sanaa, who will be participating in the WIFW SS 15, attributes her understanding concepts and structure to her training at FIT, New York where her love for draping and Western evening wear skills found expression.
Sanaa honed her craft working with the formidable force in fashion, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, becoming a part of their team and for five years managing their production and quality. Working with perfection as the ultimate goal, strongly spelling out a fashion philosophy with every master piece they created and a super inspiring work environment were priceless gifts I got from AJSK, says Sanaa.
The time she spent with the famed duo also made Sanaa understand that modern women face a challenge while coordinating their wardrobes; combining the right colours or experimenting with accessories. Here we come into the scene making little collections out of their current wardrobe, adding more functionality to silhouettes to fit various occasions. We let them experience styles and silhouettes which otherwise they would never visualise, she confesses.
A lover of art, Sanaa translates inspirations into design, calling it clothing art, which gives a contemporary look to traditional embellishment. Finely and intricately worked pieces give a fresher look to age-old techniques like Bandhini, chikankari and zardozi, converting them into contemporary designs in keeping with modern aesthetics.
Presenting her WIFW SS 15 line, inspired by the beauty of the desert, which gets reflected on the Tent silhouette or flared pants and sassy tunics, Sanaa counts clothing with a flexible quality easing transition from day, corporate or formal wear as her USP.
Though she is also an innovator par excellence, the evening wear Abaya was introduced to the Middle-Eastern women for the first time in 2001, using Swarovski elements. The idea is to engineer trends which will give women a taste of something bold which they yearn for as well as feminine; to make these two oxymoron work together is what I hope becomes my brands prowess, she concludes.