Wafa Saifi selected by Miami International Fashion Week

An emerging name in the fashion industry, the young Wafa Saifi has been selected by Miami International Fashion Week (MIFW) in the Emerging East Showcase category.

Wafa says that she was ecstatic when MIFW accepted her application she had sent last summer when she was in New York.

MIFW has always been a great platform for new designers as quite a few Indians like Anamika Khanna and Manish Arora began their careers at MIFW. “I am hoping I am on the right track,” says Wafa.

Wafa studied fashion designing at Parsons in New York. After working in New York for a year, she moved back to Mumbai with dreams of starting her own label.

A chance meeting with the director of Dubai Fashion Week got her the opportunity to showcase her work in the Middle East. “Dubai Fashion Week happened on the spur of the moment. I pulled the collection together in two weeks,” she says. Since Dubai Fashion Week in October 2008, the emerging designer has participated in many exhibitions and done a resort wear collection too.

At the MIFW, Wafa will be putting forth an evening wear collection but she adds a unique touch. “I am doing it not just in the way of gowns. The collection has a contemporary twist that includes short cocktail dresses, jumpsuits and shorts.” Additionally, hard embroidery is combined with softer fabrics such as chiffon and georgette. “My aesthetics have always been to juxtapose the hard with the soft,” she says.

Her collection is inspired by Greek mythology specifically Zeus, God of Sky and Thunder. Wafa says that the colour palette was inspired by thunderous skies. “The most dominant colour of the collection is grey but there are also deep purples and fuschia. Astonishingly, there are no black clothes in the collection.”