ABAYA, the traditional black outer gown worn, is a must-have in every Saudi woman’s wardrobe. Because of this, in order to be successful, the abaya business must be new, creative and original. Enterprising women use their homes to open boutiques and exhibit the abayas they have designed. Women don’t want to be seen wearing the same clothes as other women and this method of shopping — in the privacy of someone’s home — gives them the design they want and try it until they are satisfied with what they are about to pay some thousand riyals for.
Thana Addas, who owns Thana Addas Boutique, has been in this business for six years. She started from her home and after five years has moved her business to a new boutique. After being in the US for nine years, she found time weighing on her hands once she was back in Jeddah. “I found that everything had changed in Jeddah during these nine years except for the abayas. They were still black,” she said.
She started from scratch. Her house was in an area that had not yet been populated and was far from most people. “They used to tell me that this would be an unsuccessful project and it wouldn’t last. But I was persistent, even with my small capital,” she said.
Addas started with SR5,000. She bought the stands and started with some 10 to 15 simple standard abaya designs.
Her villa in north Jeddah was in an area that was just developing but word-of-mouth advertising made her a hit. People talked about the abaya designer who was in a faraway house. And with every woman wanting a custom-made abaya, they called her for business. And invariably the first question was, “Are you Thana Addas who lives very far away?”
That Addas’s interest ran to abayas was no accident. When she was young, she took an interest in fabrics. This was largely due to the fact that her father owned fabric stores and was distinguished by his choice of fabrics. It was easy for Addas to develop her interest into business. When she goes shopping for fabrics, her mind moves linearly to the next step — design. And the meld that takes place in her mind comes out as another new abaya.
Initially she worked with the common base fabric to give it a lift with her varied designs. But after a while, when the business began to take off, she became bolder — both with fabrics and designs. She added unusual materials and styles to a line of abayas that were becoming the rage, especially the double-faced colorful abayas. “The abaya became more colorful and even foreigners started loving to wear them for style rather than compulsion.”
Her confidence increased in the first year when she participated in a bazaar with a small stand. “We started with special designs, and despite the bad location in the bazaar, all the 100 abayas we had were sold — not to mention the range of orders.” Today her abayas even have wooden accessories that were not used before. Her popularity is such that other designers have started imitating her, but she is not worried and says, “Imitation is not a problem for me. It is a problem for those who copy.” Addas has a word of advice for young women wishing to enter the abaya business: “Have your own special line and do not imitate. You can start at home with limited capital. All you need is originality and soon the word will spread.”
Another abaya designer, Suha Ashi, has expanded into a boutique from her home. “When the business grew, we moved to a boutique in Tahlia. Importing labor was the hardest thing to do and we have a limited number of visas.
Governmental procedures take a long time,” said Arwa Ashi, sister and partner in the boutique. Ashi started with more than 30 abaya designs, but women got to know about Ashi in a fashion show organized by the group “Circle of Light.”
Ashi uses fabrics from her father’s shop and, like Addas, ideas she picks up from her travels. Also like Addas, she is innovative in her designs.
