Some call Footscray ‘An African village’ these days, as the many restaurants and different shops owned by people of African origin flourish among other businesses. Annu Designing Dress is one such shop, owned by Anwar Abdela Abdurahman who moved to Australia from Eritrea eight years ago.
Abdurahman’s growing success is clear from his store’s many visitors, especially women of African origin, who come to browse and buy his garments.
The shop walls are lined with Eritrean and Ethiopian traditional clothes, the designs of which are worn on a daily basis by folk in East African nations. Many who migrated from these nations still wear the traditional clothing in Australia too, as one might expect, for in daily life or for special events like weddings or holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
“I like art and drawing, and I consider designing our traditional clothes as art work,” says Abdurahman, gazing at the colourful and shining evidence of his skill hanging in the store.
Abdurahman showing one of his designs Source: SBS Tigrinya
Abdurahman grew up in a family that ran a business of designing and selling clothes. While he was in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital city, he used to design and sell clothes in his father’s shop, and his name came to be known by many young people involved in singing and other performing arts as they required his skills for their costumes.
“When I migrated from my country, I would not think there would be an opportunity for me to use my skill and experience of designing,” Abdurahman says, as his memory takes him back to eight years when he first migrated to Australia from Eritrea through a refugee camp in Uganda.
He has to also had to adjust his skills and style to the more current trends. Abdurahman does so by blending older traditional designs with newer fashion in order to have a unique and desirable style.
“By preserving the East African original traditional clothing combined with a Western modern touch, one can create a classic and unique outfit that everyone would be happy to wear,” says Abdurahman. “I am more concerned in showing the Australian people the rich culture of minority multicultural communities through my designing.
“Australia is home to many cultures and traditions and this is what opened my eyes to think about designing clothes that reflect those many traditions. When I started designing clothes here in Australia, I first worked with a West African designing shop to gain new experiences of other cultures.”
This experience broadened his designing skill and helped him to produce different styles to attract many people other than those of Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somalian and Sudanese origin.
Some of the designs displayed in Abdurahman's shop Source: SBS Tigrinya
Now, people who are from West and Central African origins are his customers too. He also hopes to grow more, as he has received a request from an Australian filmmaking company to prepare African outfits for actors.
“The experience I gained from working with the West African design helped me to design and sell outfits to a film maker who wants to use it for a film production,” he says.
Anwar’s ambition is large, and he is currently trying to produce his own unique designs that would win him contracts with companies like Target and Kmart.
“I have already a special jacket design, and I am trying to connect with the big companies through the help of some Australians,” Abdurahman says. “The plan is, if they like the design they would produce it on mass and sell it in their giant markets around the country and I would get lamp sum of money for my creativity.”
He is also collecting some designs for an exhibition of his work.
Abdurahman showing another one of his designs Source: SBS Tigrinya
“I have already more than 10 different collections of designs that are ready for a fashion show,” he says Abdurahman gesturing to the different styles of clothing hanging in the shop.
In the middle of the conversation, two women enter the shop and seek Abdurahman’s services for a fitting. They are his existing customers and are comfortable, laughing with and teasing the designer. Apart from his skill of designing, it is easy to see that Anwar’s welcoming charm has also contributed to his growing success.
“My customers are very happy to see this shop opened here at Footscray,” he says. “Imagine the distance from Australia to Africa - they are happy to easily get these designs here, it gives them the opportunity to choose any size and type of their traditional clothes.”
Coming to Australia and seeking to set up the business was no simple task, though, for Abdurahman. A lack of formal education in designing, language and money for a start-up business are some of the challenges he mentions.
“I came only with the skills that I acquired through family business in Africa and everything is new when you come to a new country,” he says. “This is why it took me years to establish my own designing business and now I consider myself as a new starter in designing business.”
