East meets West styling discussion

How gorgeous is this dress worn by Berenice Bejo at the Cannes film festival?

This golden palm winning actress walked the red carpet in an Elie Saab guipure lace number in a lovely shade of blue paired with some Louboutin's.

Did you notice how intricate the details are?How beautiful the beading is?

An embroiderer's job well done.

I recently attended an interesting talk organised by the Alliance Francaise,Cafe Arabia and sponsored by Chalhoub group. Khulood Thani ,Elisabeth Roulleau as well as the National's fashion editor Katie trotter discussed the cross cultural aspect of embroidery.

Bint Thani Turbans available at Sauce & Valley Dez.

                                             

Khulood Thani, graduate from ESMOD Paris in Master of Fashion Management & Marketing and currently a designer of local brand Bint Thani told us all about embroidery in the arab world.

Embroidery was in fact already mastered in the UAE for centuries with the use of 'Tella' which is a metallic thread used on different fabrics such as 'Dameet Farid'.

She also gave some advice to aspiring designers  : 'Learn and observe,Follow your passion,have your own special touch'.

Elisabeth Roulleau, professional embroiderer who worked with the likes of Hermes,Azzaro and Dior gave us an insight on embroidery .

To her embroidery is a dream,a masterpiece,something rare that everyone should be able to enjoy.

However , embroidery is definitely not an easy job and takes up a lot of time and dedication.

One of the hardest challenges Roulleau had to face was embellishing Feathers as requested by a designer in Jakarta .

All in All , each region has it's own identity and specialty which makes it stand out.

Paris is famous for its draping, London for its creative pattern cutting ,Milan for its structured technique and the list goes on..However,nowadays it's all about bridging cultures and merging styles.This is something that local designers have perfected : Fashion Forward speaks for itself!

The discussion was followed by a cocktail during which I had the time to browse around Cafe Arabia,a stylish artsy cafe which showcases exquisite creations from Arabic speaking nations.

I will definitely be going back to enjoy a middle eastern meal and a good book (they recently created a small community library for costumers to unwind).