TEHRAN -- The first Fajr Fashion Festival, offering a variety of Islamic-Iranian new designs, will be opening in March in Tehran’s Hejab Hall.

 

The festival has been arranged to organize fashion in the country and maximize the use of the artistic potentials of the designers, Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Hamid Shahabadi said at the press conference held here at Vahdat Hall on Saturday.

 

Encouraging the ladies to put on nicer Islamic outfits and promoting hijab are among the goals of the festival, he said.

 

The festival also aims to increase the national pride, promote innovations in Islamic-Iranian designs, and to raise standards in the designs.

 

Several workshops are also arranged on the side section offering costume designs, textile designs, and Iranian traditional designs, he said.

 

Shahabadi, who is also the director of the committee for organizing costume and fashion, continued that the best designs will be selected and awarded at the end of the festival, adding that the top researcher and the top article submitted to the secretariat will also be presented with awards.

 

“We have a young society and the youth are very fashion conscious, so we aim to provide the means for them to gain access to new designs more easily,” he said.

 

Asked about the unreasonably high prices on some of the costumes offered at the ongoing exhibit for Islamic Iranian fashion and costume designs, which opened last week, Shahabadi replied, “When the fashion designers are encouraged and their new designs are warmly received, producers will surely produce in high numbers causing the prices to drop.”

 

About the source of the designs to go on show at the festival, he said that he has had about seven meetings with top designers over the past year, and the current permanent exhibit is showing good progress.

 

The costumes on show will not be for sale but there is also an exhibition offering a variety of costumes for sale on the side section, he remarked.

 

He stressed that the committee has plans to offer male attire in the future, but the priority of the committee is organizing costumes and fashion for the females.

 

Iran still lacks an official fashion magazine of Iranian and Islamic designs, he said, adding that the designs offered at the festival need to be supported by Iran’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

 

The Fajr Fashion Festival will be running from March 1 to 8 at the Hejab Hall located on Hejab St., off Keshavarz Blvd.

 

RM/YAW

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