Rima and Dina Zaharan
Rima and Dina Zaharan have one objective in mind: to uplift other women by making them feel confident, beautiful and special. Knowing the power of social media, the designers make sure to flood their Instagram account (@dinzsisters) with encouraging and motivating quotes alongside their outstanding pieces, and it’s all done in their unique light hearted way. The passionate sisters, who aren’t afraid to give their 76,500 followers personal perspectives, also want people to love the clothes they love making.
The pair, who have been taking the fashion world by storm for over 10 years through their different styles and outlooks, get the inspiration for their signature Arab meets west style from their background. Born to Palestinian parents, they were born and raised in Marbella, Spain and have now been living in Dubai for about 20 years. "We feel very mixed and that shows in our work. Most people in Dubai can relate to our pieces. They know a bit about Arab culture and a bit about the West,” Rima, who studied graphic design at university, said to “Gulf News.”
Having the courage to start the Dinz brand at a young age back in 2008 is a testament to their strong and independent, yet easy going, personalities. Rima and Dina, who are inspired by their mother, rapidly became famous for their trendy interpretations of traditional Arabic ghutra scarves, which could be found in green, maroon and blue, as well as the traditional Gulf red and Palestinian black. The siblings, who love to shop and travel, also found their way into fashionistas’ hearts with their accessories and T-shirts, designing the latter with charming touches like decorated lips, the hand of Fatima or butterflies. In fact, it’s hand-painting T-shirts for friends that inspired them to start their own label.
Known in the past to be a very girly, energetic, colourful and playful label (think flamingos, lots of pink, fluorescent touches and very large bows), it has matured into something more sophisticated. As part of a rebranding, the label was renamed Dinz Sisters, and they base the modest line on capsule collections instead of the large ones with 30 to 40 pieces they used to offer.
“We’re a small independent label, so what we wanted to do was focus on being more specific and more frequent,” Rima told “Harper’s Bazaar Arabia.”
Rima and Dina Zaharan
In addition to offering new pieces more regularly (10 every 10 weeks), the facelift means they have a more flexible schedule to enjoy family life, as they are both married with children. The first capsule collection was made up of 10 capes in 10 different materials and shows how their brand has evolved to become more refined despite keeping pieces feminine, fun and edgy. The work dynamic has also changed. While Dina, who ironically studied business at university, used to be behind most of the designs, they are sharing the business and design aspects more equally. “We’ve figured out what we want the brand to be. We’re just very focused, we’re not looking around us at what other brands are doing, we’re doing what we want to do,” Dina explained to “Harper’s Bazaar Arabia.”
all images are via Harper's Bazaar Arabia
