by PATRICK LEJTENYI

The fashion world is always looking for something new. But Rawan Alami, a 25-year-old Montrealer, is hoping an ancient technique will help her make it in the industry.

Alami, a Palestinian who grew up in Jerusalem, came to Canada in 2002 by way of Great Britain. She enrolled in the Academy of Design and studied fashion marketing for a year before she founded Soi Disant, her company that she hopes will bring Palestinian cross-stitching to North American markets.

“I want to open Western eyes to Eastern culture,” she says over the phone from Jerusalem. “Westerners have a different idea of what Palestine is. It’s not a desert or a typical third world country. We’re on our way to modernizing.”

What makes Soi Disant even more unusual is its labour force. The clothes are made by 20 women at a factory in Bethlehem, working through a Palestinian women’s co-op. She purposely chose to work there, she says, because “I wanted to help people. So many women there are unemployed, and they are very good at cross-stitching.”

All the designing is done at her office here and she goes over to Jerusalem to supervise production. Her clothes, mostly tops, are “trendy, but with a touch of Palestinian culture.”

Of course, nothing in the Middle East is really easy. The political situation there means travelling to and from Bethlehem is “difficult,” she says. But fortunately she partnered with the Laval-based and fellow Palestinian Makdah family, who make baby apparel and have industry experience.

Alami says designers from the U.K. have already visited her factory, and she expects that the look will have its European coming-out celebrated soon. She wants to be one of the first to bring it to North America. The spring/summer collection will be out in February, available at Fly on Ste-Catherine W., Milk on MacKay and Suteki in the Cours Mont-Royal.