The fashionistas in the heart of every young girl found creative expression at a workshop on “3D Fashion” during the 42nd Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) taking place at Expo Centre Sharjah under the theme ‘We Speak Books’.
Schoolgirls from Grade 5 to Grade 10 from various Sharjah schools were seen trying their hand at creating dresses – from ball gowns to pretty frocks to everyday wear they found on Pinterest and elsewhere online. The girls were given a simple sketch of a human body, pencils, sketchpens, scissors, glue and clothing material in different hues – blue, red, black and white – and texture.
They drew the outline of the envisioned dress and cut out cloth into bits to fit the model before them. Some even gave expression to the blank face on the sketch, and filled in eyes, hair, shoes. Denim, linen and polyester material transformed into pretty dresses in half an hour, and the designers merrily left with their works of art.
The session is conducted by filmmaker Sarah Mezhar from Beirut, Lebanon, who takes freelance art classes. “Basically, the session is to bring out the creativity of children. They are self inspired to make the dress on the sketch given,” pointed out Sarah.
SIBF 2023 has around 1000 workshops for children, which receives good patronage from school going children in the kindergarten to Grade 12 age group. SIBF is hosting over 460 cultural activities this year, including daily writing workshops, poetry readings and book signings by renowned authors and artists from across the globe. The fair will come to a close on Saturday, November 12.
