Massey Magazine November 2001

Desert Chic

Fashion designer Mandi Kingsbury. Qualification: Diploma in Textile Design

Though the Middle East may no longer conjure the tales of Sheharezade, it is still a place where fairy tale stories can happen. Mandi Kingsbury’s is one.

Kingsbury departed Wellington in 1994 – with both Diploma in Textile Design and Supreme Wearable Arts award in hand. Headhunted by couture house Arushi, she found herself living in Dubai, designing haute couture wedding dresses for the royal families of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. And not just any dresses. These extravagant creations often took months to make, occasionally costing $100,000 or more.

“Opulence was still the thing when I arrived,” says Kingsbury. “At this time in Dubai it wasn’t unknown for a dress to weigh as much as 35kg, they were just full of Austrian crystal – all so the bride could look shiny on stage. The more shiny you are, the more royal you are.”

As the embroidery designer, Kingsbury would come up with the initial designs for the detailing. These would later be refined for the 30 Indian technicians doing the bead work. “I would do a small sample, and usually sit with the clients every day. I was the only woman designer, so it worked out well.

Usually an esteemed client would appreciate sitting with a woman designer, because of their Islamic religion.” Often she would go to palaces by herself. Kingsbury had to quickly expand her textile design skills into fashion, so she could interpret everything the client wanted.

“Often you would sit with a party of ten, including the Bedouin grandmother who can hardly speak English. She wants crystals the size of rocks, that’s her tradition. Then you have the modern young women in the wedding party who want the elegant European look. So you’ve got to bridge all these levels with your design, which was quite difficult at times…”

Part of Kingsbury’s success in Dubai was due to Peter Loughlan, a partner at Arushi, being a Kiwi. “Peter went through the textiles course a decade in advance of me. He has always had a strong a allegiance with New Zealand designers; he always takes New Zealand girls, he finds they are open to the society over there. We’re used to working with materials we know little about, we are open to design…

“Graduates from the Royal College of Art, for example, come wanting to change everything to their styling, whereas New Zealanders are happy to work with the local women. They could walk in and say they want to look like Pocahontas, or a starry night, or the bottom of the ocean, and you’ve got to run with that.”

Kingsbury says Westerners often misunderstand this sample of Muslim society. Many imagine that because the women appear constrained in their traditional robes in public, that also applies to their private lives.

“The ladies love parties, particularly tea parties, and that’s something that’s often misrepresented here. Western people see the Emirates’ Muslim women covered up as part of the Islamic tradition, but they don’t realise that under those covers they are often wearing the most beautiful, sometimes provocative garments, and they’re dressing for each other. So when they come into a room, at the tea party, they take off their Abaya Shela (traditional robes) and it’s all about looking glamorous for their peers. It’s a rather beautiful cultural interaction, but of course, we’re so used to seeing the black we don’t understand it. But really, the dresses they used to wear were so amazing…”

From about 1997 onward, however, young women in Dubai have been more inclined to walk into a shopping mall and walk out in the latest French or Italian fashions. Even with wedding dresses, brides-to-be now head for a Parisian couturier.

Kingbury realised the writing was on the wall. It was time to go freelance, and move into something else. Jewellery was the obvious choice. After a time living in Rome, Kingsbury was back in the Middle East, designing uniforms, headgear and accessories for the exclusive Pyramids Club in Wafi City, Dubai.

“The Pyramids complex was setting out to rival Cairo — or Los Vegas — and they asked me to do all the uniform designs. Each was very ornate... “Each restaurant had a different theme, each uniform was very opulent. I designed the whole uniform, from the basics through to the accessories. I chose to use materials like knives, forks, spoons, and found objects, which included Pepsi tabs. It was all very contemporary and exciting. “That’s been their image now for a number of years, but I did have to draw the line when it was rumoured to be the work of Jean Paul Gaultier.”

Since then Kingsbury has moved on to co-ordinating stylistic uniform themes for companies such as hotel chain Sun International’s Royal Mirage in Dubai. (Sun International are known for themed complexes such as Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas and Sun City in South Africa.) She has also collaborated with the winner of this year’s Professional Designer of the Year Award, June Milan of Ghanti, and designed and produced ethnic and contemporary Arabic jewellery for the winning collection.

Kingsbury returned to New Zealand last year to start a Master’s of Design at Massey, and meantime has found time to be the event co-ordinator at Dubai Fashion Week. She has also recently been the guest international judge at this year’s World of Wearable Art at Nelson. “It’s quite spooky for an ex-supreme winner – I don’t think I could have beaten anyone this year, the standards have become so high.”

After the awards, Kingsbury collected a trophy for second place in the Asian Facet Award in Hong Kong. The win entitles her to enter the World Facet Awards 2002, known as the Oscars of the jewellery industry. Using paua, gemstones and rhodium-plated silver, she created a $15,000 “Water From Heaven” (Maa’ as-samaa) piece that draws on Arabic and New Zealand influences.

“It was the first time that I bridged costume jewellery into fine couture jewellery. The paua worked in perfectly.” Again, her love affair with the Middle East has been central to her success.

“The Arab ladies have a love for colour, for Swarovski crystal. They like the elegant, but they have this twist of going somewhere a European would never go. And the way they dress for each other, there is always that shock appeal. I find that risk to be very evocative, and my pieces are big and reflective of that culture.”

Designer © Mandi Kingsbury, Dubai, UAE 06/2001
• Jewellery Manufacturer: Himat Jewellers LLC - Dubai
• Photograph © Claude Avézard, Dubai, UAE. 6/2001