‘I have religious beliefs and I didn’t want to compromise them,’ begins Faika-Rudaba Chowdbury, an FAD finalist and designer working on a jacket inspired by modestwear. ‘I want to make modestwear something that’s more common,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t have to be boring, it can be exciting. That’s the message I want to portray.’
With an educational background in science, Faika is still on the fence on whether she’s going to go on to pursue fashion or psychology, but feels she’s gained a lot more confidence since starting with FAD, both in terms of technical ability and personal confidence. ‘People interested in the fashion field that are my age should consider coming here,’ she says. ‘You really do learn a lot and even I didn’t think it would be this intense, or that I would learn so much.’
While she might still be thinking about whether to take the leap to a career in fashion, she knows what challenges to expect, and what she’d want to change. ‘Wearing my face veil I’ve been rejected by a lot of part-time jobs. Even in retail shops they don’t want to let me wear it. I’d love to see a reinterpretation of the face veil which people would be more open towards.
‘I think the fashion industry is extremely competitive, and since I want to go into modest fashion it’s harder to shine,’ she continues. ‘Not only is your market limited but there are already so many brands around, which people tend to stray towards. It’s hard to build a company in that field but I’m sure with hard work that I can get there.’
