Working at her small, crowded desk with sheets of paper, pencils and thread, Aziza Msabeh first sketches a dress on white paper, then goes over her work in black. Then she starts the second stage of her work, taking the design from a drawing to a unique dress that her client will wear to her brother’s wedding.
Msabeh, who lives in the central Gaza Strip neighborhood of Deir al-Balah, is one of the four founders of a fashion house and boutique called “Dar Organza Fashion,” a pioneering fashion design house in downtown Gaza City. Its first boutique was opened in February 2017, followed in September by a second branch in the Rimal neighborhood. The fashion house provides employment for 30 women who had never worked professionally before.