AFTER seeing her wearing the complete hijab on the LBC reality TV program “Mission Fashion 2006,” Sulafa Filaiflan is once again a panelist for the “Lancôme Color Designs Awards,” a fashion design competition that is to be held for the first time this year in the Middle East.
Sulafa Filaiflan, a gifted child, has been designing fashion from a young age. “I used to watch my aunts make their own dresses and gowns for my sister and I on occasions like Eid Al-Fitr,” she said.
At the age of 15, Filaiflan took her first tailoring class and it was then that together with her sister, she began designing her own dresses and clothes for family and friends. She undertook a bachelors degree at the King Abdulaziz University, majoring in clothes and textiles. It was there that she began developing designs and interacting with clothes designers and fabric suppliers.
Her course at university covered almost every aspect of clothes design and provided her with all the necessary techniques and knowledge needed to develop basic fashion designs. There was no particular course just about fashion designing and so while pursuing her higher education she majored in fashion design. She then completed a masters degree in fashion designing from Riyadh’s College of Education.
“Talent and experience are great tools in a field like fashion design. But I do rely on my educational background regularly because it provides me with the basics in every piece I design. I believe it’s important that natural talent and education come together to allow one to achieve something powerful,” she said.
Filaiflan started her own workshop and currently has her own customers. Clothes are designed at her home and then sewn at a tailor’s shop. She is also looking forward to widening her horizon and moving into the international clothing scene.
Lancôme was one of the sponsors of the reality TV show “Mission Fashion 2006” that was aired on LBC last year. A few months ago, Filaiflan was selected by Lancôme to participate in the first ever Middle East edition of the “Lancôme Color Designs Awards.” Three winners will be selected in the regional final in Dubai on March 22 and will then go on to represent the Middle East in an international final that will be held in Paris this summer.
The competition will focus on both make-up and fashion. “Being one of the contestants is a great challenge and offers the possibility of international exposure. I hope to break into the international fashion industry,” said Filaiflan, who says she takes support from God, her parents’ prayers, her husband and the rest of her family and friends. Her hijab has not hindered her in the first competition and she says she is sure it will not be the case this time round.
The “Lancôme Color Designs Awards” was first organized in London 2001 and has now become an international competition. 11 fashion designers will show their designs in Dubai on March 22 in order to be able to qualify for their work to be worn by models who will be modeling Lancôme’s 2007 spring and summer makeup series.
Seven judges will be deciding who the three winners in Dubai will be. Judges include Robert Abi Nader, the Lebanese fashion designer; Sheikha Maisa Al-Qassimi, the Emirati photographer of the ruling family of Sharjah; Lulu Al-Sabah, writer for regional art magazines and publications and member of the Kuwaiti ruling family; David Dessureault, senior buyer for Dubai’s Saks Fifth Avenue; and Ingie Chalhoub, planning manager for Harvey Nichols Aurelia and CEO of Etoile Fashion Group; and Robert Sirot, general manager of L’Oreal Middle East.
Filaiflan will also be holding her first international fashion show that will take place in Dubai on April 4 during the fashion week and will be aired on Sama Dubai TV.
