42 December 2014 www.womanthismonth.com PEOPLE | cover story very Euro-centric clothes? “I have clients from all over the Middle East which is great because I want everyone in the region to be able to wear my clothes. I would say my orders mostly come from Kuwait, Qatar and Dubai,” she says. “I had a very Western outlook growing up. My family really exposed me to the arts and they always appreciated it and it gave me that open-minded mentality.” Amal is of both Bahraini and Filipino origin and has always been familiar with the ‘other side’ being the rest of the world. “As a family we have travelled a lot and it’s enhanced my experience as a designer.” The fact that her family cared for the arts made Amal want to pursue them in some form. “I fell for fashion during high school; I was obsessed with it and I knew what I wanted to do.” Having graduated from the Royal University for Women, where she studied fashion, Amal came out armed with a collection which was admittedly experimental. “Season after season I still love to experiment with every new collection and take it further than the rest.” And then Paris knocked on Amal’s door. “I took my s/s collection to a trade show in Paris and it was received really well. It was my first experience there, so I was worried about how things would turn out. I participated in an event called Zip Zone. During Paris
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