Well-versed designs by a Franco-Iraqi fashion designer in Jordan - in pictures

Hana Sadiq uses verses from love poems and flowing calligraphy to illustrate the beauty of Arab women

Franco-Iraqi fashion designer Hana Sadiq uses verses from love poems and flowing calligraphy to illustrate the beauty of Arab women. All photos : AFP

The artistic handwriting of Arabic script dominates her embroidered modern designs, with poetry or letters scattered in bright colours.

Pieces of a jewellery collection by Sadiq at her store in the capital Amman.

She argues that Western clothes are not the best fit for the bodies of Arab women but have spread to the region anyway. "Unfortunately this is the result of globalisation," she says.

Unlike more revealing Western fashion, her designs envelope the woman's body, but show "high femininity," says Sadiq.

Sadiq traces her interest in fashion to her childhood, when she would visit her grandfather's textile shop in Baghdad.

"Arabic calligraphy is the most beautiful," says Sadiq, 72, showing off her love of jewellery with strings of beads around her neck, dangling earrings, and unusual stone rings.

Sadiq has split her time between Amman and Paris since 1982, having both French and Jordanian nationality as well as Iraqi citizenship.

Her kaftans, traditional robes, feature bright and stunning colours, reflecting the influence of her grandmother who wore a traditional Iraqi Hashemite dress and walked "elegantly like a peacock".

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