Mazraawi’s meteoric rise stands as a testament to learning new skills and putting them to the test. During Jordan’s COVID-19 lockdown, she found an online fashion sketching course, which showed her how to design intricate clothing items for women.
From this point, Mazraawi found a local artisan who could teach her about block printing techniques. This method avoids many wasteful pitfalls of the mass-produced fashion industry — block printing relies on handmade artisanship, and relies on neither artificial dyes nor water.
Having learned these skills, Mazraawi established a production model for her new sustainable fashion label. When sourcing fabric, she would only use all-natural or leftover material, slashing her business’ carbon footprint. At the next stage — cutting — Mazraawi diligently holds onto any extra fabric to avoid waste.
“All fabric scraps are kept and turned into something else,” Mazraawi enthused. “For instance, in my first collection, I converted the excess fabric into scrunchies.”
By this point, Mazraawi can turn her materials over to tailors, all of whom come from her local community in Amman. For now, Mazraawi engages the tailors on a freelance basis and offers decent wages; in future, she hopes to provide them with more stable work.
Mazraawi laid this essential groundwork before becoming legally established in 2021. Shortly after, she held her first in-person pop-up exhibition, which attracted plenty of glowing customer feedback. A momentous year culminated in the Goethe Institute selecting Mazraawi to participate in the Creative Forward Fund.
