West Bank, High Fashion

A suave electric violin player takes his place on the runway around the edge of the swimming pool at a glitzy hotel. Dance music begins, and glamorous women mingle and pose for photographs, wearing platform heels, designer jackets and patterned silk. Their hair, professionally styled, would not be out of place on the red carpet at the Oscars. Only this isn't Hollywood, this is second annual Palestine Fashion Week, held in Ramallah, West Bank.

Palestine Fashion Week is the brainchild of a 28-year-old Palestinian entrepreneur from Jerusalem, Tamer Halabi. He's no stranger to pushing the boundaries, having also founded Palestine's first modeling agency, Modelicious. 'Every country has a fashion week,' Halabi said ahead of the inaugural event last year, 'and we thought that we can have a fashion week of our own, instead of smaller fashion shows here or there.'

This year the runway at Ramallah's Mövenpick Hotel features Palestinian designs, and while the Palestinian territories are mostly conservative Muslim, the styles on show aren't dominated by full cover-ups. The young Palestinians taking part aim to combine tradition with edgier styles. Alongside ensembles that incorporate traditional headscarves, there are strapless wedding gowns with ornate bodices and figure-hugging, Western-style dresses.

Hanin, a 22-year-old interior design student from East Jerusalem, struts around in skinny jeans and a lace-trimmed tank top as she waits to be fitted. 'Today I'm going to be wearing traditional clothes from Morocco,' she explains, smiling. 'And then tomorrow I'll be going for mini dresses, and the day after it will be more elegant.'

As the sun sets, a giant video screen behind the stage lights up. The models begin to glide across the runway, the colors of their outfits reflecting in the water below. Later the Palestinian flag is shown on the big screen, as models wearing traditional Palestinian outfits with modern flourishes take center stage.

Palestine Fashion Week has stirred a mixture of praise and criticism in Palestine and the wider Arab world. Facebook commenter Tito Boskani called the event 'a disgrace' and said, 'It's not the time for things like that, and it doesn't help the current status of Palestinians.'

But many others disagree. 'To be a Muslim is not a contrast to being fashionable,' says 23-year-old Sondos, an electrical engineering graduate from Nablus who came to Ramallah to shop with her mother. 'You can do whatever you want, but within the limits of Islam.' Many of the models in the show are Christian, however, and do not typically wear headscarves.

Regardless of some cultural clashes, organizers and participants also see the fashion event as a way to promote Palestinian culture and heritage. Palestinian embroidery, in particular, is a traditional art form that translates well to the runway, explains Sherin Allan from the Anata Cultural Center in East Jerusalem. 'We need to save the embroidery in our clothes,' she says. 'It has been a prominent part of Palestinian dresses for more than 100 years.'

'We want to do anything we can to try and make our country look better,' says Hanin. She adds that the event is not about politics or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but rather about showing the 'Arab way of living.'

'I feel that I am a free person,' she says, adding that while she prays every day for the conflict to come to an end, living a normal life is very important. 'We want to laugh,' she says, 'enjoy our time, celebrate with our friends, say cheers to something!'