Living in a displacement tent in central Gaza, west of the town of Al-Zawaizah, 13-year-old Ruba Muhammad continues to pursue her passion for fashion design.
Shaded by some olive trees, Ruba says her interest in fashion began when she came across dress designs on Pinterest before the war, leading to her delving deeper into designs and stitches.
“I bought a sketchbook and used a charcoal pen and started to design a t-shirt, and then made simple designs for some of the clothes and I relied on myself completely to draw the designs on my own and from my imagination,” she says.
“After the beginning of the war and the series of displacements, I would sit in my tent and go through some designs from my imagination, and I began to release what was in my mind by sitting under a tree and taking in the surrounding environment. Some of the leaves and plants helped add some ideas.”
Ruba and her family were forced out of their home as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza, leaving her without the charcoal pen she used to draw, she substituted it with a pencil and used coffee and other items around her to add colour to her images.
“I have designed a number of different summer, autumn and winter fashions, modest clothes and dresses for different occasions,” she explains, “I have an ambition to take courses and be a name in the fashion industry and see my designs transformed into clothes in international exhibitions and stores.”
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