Regardless of how little governmental support the fashion show received, Sinan Kamel, an Iraqi designer, still succeeded in organizing Baghdad Fashion Week for the third year in a row on March 20. Baghdad Fashion Week hosted local designers and models in the Babylon Hotel in downtown Baghdad.
“It is so difficult to find models who consent to get on the catwalk, as they fear [the reactions of] their families and clans and are apprehensive about the security situation,” Kamel told Al-Monitor.
Melad Hamid, a fashion designer known for his participation in international fashion shows, told Al-Monitor that the fashion industry in Iraq needs to further develop and focus more on design than commerce.
Hamid suggested founding an Iraqi fashion academy as well as university fine arts departments and art institutes inside and outside Baghdad to teach fashion. He also recommended taking advantage of Western expertise through inviting professors to Iraq to educate a new generation of diploma-holding designers who would enrich the Iraqi arts and fashion scene.
“There should be a government-sponsored mechanism that would bolster joint projects between clothing factories and traders, to create financial resources for designers with limited income who are unable to carry out their designs,” Hamid added.
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