Sharjah24 – Reuters: Tired of the global fashion industry's attempts to homogenize body sizes and styles, an Egyptian woman and fashion designer decided to start her own line of clothing, tailoring each piece to the client's shape, size and style preference.
Dubbed "Rafeya" - Arabic for "the woman who mends clothing" - the company was launched in 2015 by 29-year-old Noura Galal, whose main goal was to make the Egyptian woman feel beautiful, comfortable and in control of her own body.
"(We are trying to fight) the idea that the chubby girl should wear black and not white so that she looks thinner, or that the dark-skinned girl shouldn't wear colours for whatever reason," said Galal, citing different obstacles facing women in day-to-day fashion.
Rafeya not only tailors clothes to each woman's body, but also lets the client chooses the colours, cuts and fabrics, giving her complete control over how she wishes to represent herself in a piece of fashion.
"I also want to give ideas to other girls, especially plus size girls, who can find clothes that fit their exact sizes, that suit their bodies and make them look nice," said Mireillee Gobran, who models for Rafeya and who has often struggled to find clothes complementing her figure.
Rafeya hopes to change public attitudes about women's bodies, normalizing the right to dress without conforming to global fashion standards.
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