fashion FeaturedJuly 25, 2022

The Palestinian who is revolutionizing the fashion industry despite Gaza’s blockade

Nirmeen Hourani is the first ever female to own a fashion house in Gaza and has overcome many challenges to be where she is today.

A luxurious two-story building called Nemo Design Fashion House is in the heart of Gaza City’s downtown. It is one of the few fashion houses in Gaza and the first to be owned by a female fashion designer.

Nirmeen Hourani, who won a grant of $2,000 from the French Institute and decided to pursue fashion, established this fashion house earlier this year. She got herself a sewing machine and started working from home.

“I then started making clothes and selling them on Instagram, I was surprised by the large number of orders I got, which made me sure that my project would succeed and grow,” Hourani told the Middle East Eye.

Her work is widely praised for being totally different and for her skills in making custom-tailored pieces. More than remaking old designs, she tries to create her own pieces. “Since the day I first joined the fashion college, I knew that I wanted to be more than a tailor in a sewing workshop, I wanted to make a change in the fashion scene in Gaza,” she adds.

Nourani first opened a small boutique in 2017 and then moved to a more upscale part of the city a year after that and finally opened the fashion house earlier this year in January. Her customers mainly consist of middle-class women who love to experiment with their style and wear unique pieces which is hard to find in high-street stores. Opening the fashion house without relying on anyone else is her proudest moment. “I used the profit I got from the boutique to open this fashion house, without any financial assistance from anyone. I’m very happy to see my business grow organically,” she said.

The 15-year-old Israeli blockade on Gaza has presented the designers, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople living there with several challenges that is crippling their economy and restricting various industries. Hourani, who has also faced the impacts of this, says that she has to pay excessive amounts for an electricity generator to keep her business alive.

As Hourani wants to expand her fashion house, she usually travels to Turkey and sells her designs to locals and Palestinians living there, and source new fabrics as well. She also strives to empower women and has started working in Gaza schools as a trainer who educates people about the fashion industry. She employed 6 people to her company and has over 10 trainees who are all women.

Hourani wants to see more women make it in the fashion industry and is happy to share what she knows and does not see others as her competitors. “I think that the market in Gaza is enough for all these talents, and I will be happy to see more women around me opening their own business and becoming financially independent. I too will get my designs outside of Gaza’s borders one day,” she stated.