Every year, December 2 marks a special occasion in the UAE, but come 2021, National Day celebrations were a little brighter, a little bigger, and a lot more cheerful, as the nation completed 50 successful years. For the Golden Jubilee celebration, we at Vogue Arabia worked well in advance to present our readers with a collector’s edition brimming with insightful stories and inspiring moments that highlight the very best of the United Arab Emirates and its journey thus far.
No nation’s narrative is complete without a look at its rich past, and this month, we take a deep dive into the legacy of the UAE by sitting down with the women who work day after day to preserve its traditions via exquisite craftsmanship. Dressed in brilliant shades of vermillion, emerald green and canary yellow, the Emirati craftswomen, supported by the General Women’s Union as part of the late HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s vision, invited us into their world, full of age-old techniques like Al-Talli crafting, sadu and sewing, with immense pride.
In the midst of it all, generations collided when Rawdha Thani, the young designer behind illi, a brand that gives traditional abayas a contemporary spin, sat down for an intimate chat in Abu Dhabi with one of our shoot subjects, Atika bint Ali bin Taresh Al Mehairbi. What began as a timid conversation quickly unfolded into a bonding between two women who may come from different eras, but share the same heritage, and the very same love towards creating beautiful pieces. Watch as the duo discuss crafts (“I have been learning this craft since I was seven years old. The palm tree is like our mother and relatives,” the heritage protector reveals), jewelry, and their thoughts about the progress women in the UAE have made.
Read Next: Inside Vogue Arabia’s December 2021 Issue Celebrating the UAE’s Golden Jubilee
