Sotra: Trendsetters from tunics to thobes

Sotra is a Saudi fashion brand that started at the home of fashion designer Nouf Hakeem. She was eager to build a well-known brand made entirely in Saudi Arabia. In 2005, Hakeem’s partner Mariam bint Mahfooz developed the identity of the brand, which helped the project expand from a living room to a showroom.
The name Sotra means modest clothing. To the designers it means a balance between the skin and clothing. “When you go back in time and see every single culture in the world, you will see the clothing is conservative and modest in one way or another,” said Mariam. “We wanted to highlight our Arab women, I like to think they still have the shyness that defines real women,” said Hakeem.
Sotra initially was a brand of tunics, India’s long blouse, redesigned in a modern way. “After we moved to the showroom we only had around 30 designs of tunics. That is when I proposed to expand to an evening line,” said Mariam. “We started experimenting in this field and many of our costumers asked us to design thobes but we were resistant because almost all Saudi designers at that time were producing thobes.”
The evening line by Sotra was developed in 2007. “There was a desperate demand for evening wear that would suit people of our age and style. There was a gap in the market for simple evening wear,” said Hakeem. “We took part in a fashion show to showcase our line and that is when Mariam decided to design headbands to go with our clothing,” she added.
The headbands are what made Sotra popular, as they came out at the perfect time. Headbands started to make a fashion move inspired by the TV series Gossip Girl. “I wanted something that was prominent to make our brand pop, so I designed and hand-stitched 11 headbands,” said Bin Mahfooz. “People were going crazy. Even though we didn’t want to focus on them, we had to because people were asking to take orders and that is how we started designing headbands,” she added.
One year later, Hakeem and Mariam acknowledged the gap in the market for stylish young Saudis in the thobe fashion. “We developed a modern taftan thobe that looks like a dress and can be worn any time of the year,” said Hakeem. “We call them dress-thobes because the fit and cut of those thobes are in the style of a dress and you can add a belt to it and you got a beautiful dress and you can also wear it as a thobe in Ramadan,” she added.
The designers initiated the dress-thobe concept in the Kingdom to change the mentality of people that thobes are only worn in Ramadan. “Thobe do not have to be traditional. You can add simple touches to a thobe and make it look stylish and updated,” said Mariam. “The thobe line was very successful and the younger generation were approaching it. That boosted our confidence and made us produce and develop more concepts,” she added.
The Sotra team designers were only displaying their thobes in one of the biggest Ramadan Bazaars in Jeddah. “It was just positioning, we chose an elite bazaar to show our thobe line in its peek season for people to see the modern thobes,” said Mariam. “We managed to show them our identity by designing our own booth to look like a boutique. This by itself attracted many costumers out of curiosity and we made our name grow more,” she added.
Hakeem and Mariam decided to open a boutique as a next step for their accomplished brand. “It was very difficult to find the best location that would match our style, budget and costumers. We fell head over heels for Ana Ghair Mall because it is quiet and feminine,” said Hakeem. “We love the space and our costumers were very comfortable with it and so we stayed here and made it look like the home of Sotra.”
The designer started focusing on dress-thobes and headbands and stepped away from tunics. “We find it ironic that we wanted the brand to be all about tunics but we drifted away from it and we were very successful at it,” said Bin Mahfooz. “We did it to meet our customers’ demand. In the three years of Sotra’s existence, we have always sought their feedback and aimed to give customers what they want. From Sotra they want headbands and thobes,” she added.
Sotra pieces are a mix between modern and traditional in every single piece. “We love using geometric shapes, we also play with volume and fabrics to make every piece comfortable and stylish,” said Hakeem. “We try to change the kind of fabrics that were traditionally used for thobes and use more practical ones like cotton and mix it with other fabrics depending on the feel and the weight of it,” said Mariam.
Retails shops from outside the country are now buying from Sotra to display. “We designed exclusively for them and within a week our products were sold out.
Sotra can be found in their store in Ana Ghair Mall in Jeddah and in Vibe Store in Centria Mall. The brand is distributed in Qatar, Kuwait and Dubai is to follow soon.

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