One thing the designer was set on was incorporating tatreez, or traditional Palestinian cross-stitch, into her design. “It’s something that’s been part of our culture for a really, really long time,” the designer explains. “When you look at old Palestinian garments, they always have tatreez on them. Each motif represents something—you can essentially look at a Palestinian piece, and based on the cross-stitch, tell where that lady has been, where she’s had that cross-stitch made, where she grew up—it tells a story.”
Preserving the craft is crucial to Sobeih—who moved to Manchester from Gaza as a child—particularly within the context of the ongoing displacement of Palestinians, long before, as well as after, October 7. “[Tatreez] was something that a lot of women used to make their money off,” she says. “So when the nakba [the displacement of around 750,000 Palestinian people in 1948] happened, that was a big source of income that was lost for so many people, because of [the challenges of] importing textiles and thread.”
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