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november 2005 26 november 2005 27

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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