Social networks have made it easy for talented, up-and-coming fashion designers to promote their designs. Mostafa Sharey, 37, an Egyptian designer, has generated more customers by publishing his designs, including wedding dresses and soiree wear, on his own page on the popular social networking site Facebook. According to Sharey, there isn't an institute for patenting new designs. "I publish my designs on page on Facebook, so that people will know they belong to me," he says. "Public relations also play a key role for the fashion designer, which is another expense." Creativity comes at a price and fashion designers have to take the rough with the smooth. Their first priority is to meet their clients' demands, nothing else. Sharey says that fashion designers must be patient, kind and be prepared to make many sacrifices. He has spent much of his life in becoming a unique designer; he began in Egypt and stayed in some Gulf countries for a number of years. "Of course, each Arab country's clients have different tastes. In Kuwait, for example, women are fascinated by Lebanese designers, although some of them are quite ordinary; they simply have a good reputation," he told the Egyptain Mail. "But what distinguishes Lebanon is that they are more open to the world market and they import different kinds of cloth." It costs fashion designers a lot of time and money to make a name for themselves and satisfy their customers' tastes, but are these designers the winners at the end of the day? "I've been a fashion designer for a long time, but I have very little money to spend on my personal life," says Mostafa Sharey, 37, an Egyptian designer. "I loved drawing at primary school, but I moved away from that at secondary school and then worked an assistant for the owner of an haute couture design company. He inspired me to become an owner too, later on." Many famous Egyptian designers choose celebrities to do designs for them in order to make a big name. But ordinary, unknown designers cannot afford this, even if they're talented. Although few people have private projects in this North African country, such a project has been a dream come true for Sharey. Apart from the lack of a private project culture, what also hinder Egyptian designers are the high tariffs on imported cloth that may be cheaper in other countries, as well as the high labour costs, Sharey says. Another fashion designer, Hala Khorei, agrees that one of her biggest problems is that the workers always demand high salaries, although the whole design and final touches are exclusively her work. "Also, the client doesn't always know that a design doesn't suit her and she insists on it; of course this really annoys me, because she won't be happy and I'll have to do the design again without getting any extra money. Cloth is very expensive," Hala complains.
