In November 2020, laundry detergent brand Persil launched a design competition for its Persil Abaya Shampoo, titled Abaytik Stylik (Your Abaya, Your Style), and earlier this month, it announced the winner: Richa Chouhan. While there were six winners who will be granted scholarships at the French Fashion Institute ESMOD Dubai, Richa was the grand prize winner, and will receive a scholarship for the school’s Modest Fashion & Abaya course.
Richa is an Indian expat living in the UAE. She is an engineer by profession, and designing is her passion. She first found out about the competition through a friend, and says she had always wanted to try her hand at designing clothes for Middle Eastern and Muslim women. She does not have a fashion background, but that did not deter her from entering Abaytik Stylik. “No, I don’t have any, but I’ve loved sketching dresses in my free time since childhood,” says Chouhan. She says was heavily influenced and inspired by her own culture for the designs. “I’m Indian, and traditional clothes are still in heavy use, so using them in fashion collections is an obvious choice, that’s what my designs show,” she says.
One of the judges of the competition, Emirati designer Amal Murad, who owns a brand by the same name, stated, “The aspiring designers were judged based on their creativity, design, originality, confidence, mastery, and vision. Their sketches are a testament that we have so much talent in the region waiting to be discovered.”
The abaya is often a highly misunderstood garment, and Persil is trying to change that with this platform, while promoting self-expression, empowerment and creativity, and supporting local aspiring talent. According to Richa, modesty is not just about clothing. “To me, modesty is more than just the way you dress, it’s also about the way you carry yourself in public and how you treat other people. It is not something that is mandated to me, rather, it is something I choose to be,” she says.
Richa believes the abaya represents simplicity and purity. “In other countries, people have stopped wearing traditional clothing. I truly respect UAE for keeping this purity and tradition alive,” she says. Her winning sketches are true to the traditional black colour of the abaya, while embellishing it with subtle design elements such as rope belts and dramatic belt sleeves.
After winning the competition and scholarship, Rich says she plans to continue designing and sketching, and is looking forward to building a name for herself in the fashion field.
