Endemage Fall '13 collection: and some abayas from the Eid collection

The fall collection from Omani label Endemage. Shop here: Collections « Endemage

I apologize, dear readers, for neglecting their Eid '13 collection.

The embroidery and laser-cutting on an Endemamge piece is second to none were you to inspect it up close and personal and compare it with other brands. Besides, there is something about the mix-match appeals to me on a deeper level. There is definately something very modern-Omani about it. As a woman who lives in two worlds (maybe that is modern-day Omani woman afterall?-: Educated in Western fashion but daily life threaded with culture) I am drawn to it.

MOP (My Omani husband) is terrified that I always gravitate to the Endemage blouse and trousers first, but I do. Alas, his telling me for that price I should go for an abaya or dress discourages me from purchasing, but since I am STILL in love with an organza blouse I saw last Muscat fashion week, who knows....and it is only 40 bucks afterall [Omani rial]. I can buy a 4 rial pair of shorts from forvever21 to go with and he'd never be the wiser....

Back to this collection, not my schemes to hide what I buy that has nothing to do with my husband but goes back to my father who totally did NOT understand that fashion is art and tried to force me to buy stuff from Walmart and under 20$ USD whenever possible. {I am perfectly happy to spend 3 dollars on clothing from a used store if its fits like we were made for eachother...but 20 dollars is way too much money to spend even a minute with something so intimate that it hangs on your body but you loathe it so intimately that--were it a person---you should wish it dead}.

There is peplum in this collection.

And I am addicted to peplum. I swear. I have cut-outs from when 90s grunge was in to prove that I am not lying. I hope peplum never goes out of fashion but if it ever does, I don't care, it will remain in my closet and worn. Peplum is so feminine.

So what do Nadia and Lubna Al Zakwani [Endemage designers] do to peplum?

Angelic eye-lit lace is bit with a peplum print that has an almost Zanzibari spice...to kick it away from being too lady-like, too proper.

 I am SO there.

Then away from Zanzibar we sail with velvet, blue as the evening sky over a tropical sea at twilight. Chiffon panels (very-in right now, as seen also on the /14 Madiyah Al Sharqi show) remind of the sails of a dhow, or maybe I am over-imaginative?

I know personally, I probably couldn't pull off the look below.

But I know Omanis girls who could.

I'd love to sail away with them to the crazy gatherings they throw, as effortlessly as a shrug and a laugh, while I struggle with inlaws, and cutting fruit for qahwa {Arabic coffee}.

Then we land on the shore of Dhofar, where a velvet train guards our footsteps, so that it is only a woman's choice alone where she goes, and what she does, in said dress. "I will keep your secrets" it whispers" seductively to me, the beading at the neck so delicate, and almost distant, like stars.

"And my love handles," I wink conspiratorially back at it.

See, fashion is a story, it is moving art.

 The same lace and velvet trends were seen in the earlier Eid collections:

 See what I mean? Dress above? OPNO couldn't pull that one off. But see below, Omani girl Nadia? See how relaxed and cute she is, with those pink sunglasses and white manicure?

That's exactly what I mean.