THE BRAIN BEHIND THE TEES: Mubarak al-Thani, Managing Director and CEO of the brand.     Photos by Anand Holla

By Anand Holla


Fashion-forwardness in Qatar has been on a remarkable upswing in the past five years – any fashionista worth her Louboutins would agree. The Arab populace, chiefly Qataris, travel too much, shop too much, and often, the world is not enough. That’s when home remedy may cure the shopaholics.
In a nod to the growing trend of local talents breaking out with smart fashion lines fusing Arabic elements, Qatari graphic designer Mubarak al-Thani has now introduced to the country and the region, what he calls “a Qatari pop-culture brand.” Al-Thani said, “Blessed is Qatar’s brand new T-shirt brand for the youth.”
Tuesday night at Building 19 of Katara Art Studios saw a tastefully designed room full of Blessed tees draw throngs of curious Arab visitors. “Tonight, we are launching this brand,” al-Thani said, in the midst of dealing with potential customers and interested passers-by, “But my only purpose of using this space, which Katara kindly offered us to use, is to make my brand known to people. Sales can happen later.”
Coincidentally, al-Thani’s Blessed has reached public in the blessed month of Ramadan, as the exhibition featuring his tees is the first time his work is physically out there to see. “Around a year ago, I started posting my designs on my Instagram account and got a lot of great feedback. So six months back, I started working on my own T-shirt line featuring Islamic art, motifs and patterns, Arabic heritage, calligraphy, local flavours, and pop cultural elements that the region and the community can relate with.”
Ever since, Blessed has been enjoying terrific word of mouth, also courtesy his account Blessed_story on Instagram. “As a graphic designer, I wanted to put my Arabesque designs on T-shirts,” explains al-Thani, Managing Director and CEO of the brand, “You go to a mall and you find all the clothing brands are from the West. As we need the West, the West also needs us. But more importantly, our people want to see our designs, wear clothes that represent us and our sensibilities. So I have tried to draw the good from Western brands and have given it the Arabic look for our people.”
The launch certainly appears successful as visitors pour in to check out the funky designs and art work adorning the tees on display, alongside canvas boards of the bare design. Like the halo that hovers on top of the B of the Blessed logo, little halos sit atop each tee on display.
The feel of the clothes is rich and so is the look. One tee is inscribed in striking Arabic typography ‘Al Umar Wahid’ which means “you live only once”; a cool spin on the same, now-overused acronym by the young, YOLO or You Only Live Once. While that one’s priced at QR250, the prices of the tees can be anything between QR150 to QR500.
A funky blue V-neck tee, priced at QR150, featuring Popeye – his face wrapped in an Arabic guthra and wearing a sailor’s cap on top of that – simply says: Going down to the beach. “A lot of people are now wearing this when they go to the beach,” says al-Thani’s cousin Abdulaziz al-Thani, “The Blessed website – blessed.qa – is up and running.”
On display are tees that feature everything from a lyric of a popular Arabic song written like musical notations resonating from an Oud to pithy one-liners accompanying stellar graphic design work like an emperor’s crown perched on words that translate to The Presence of King or the women’s tee emblazoned with a lit bukhoor seeming to give out a burst of aromatic fumes with text that translate to The Master of the Oud (Oud, here, being the perfume, not the musical instrument).
Al-Thani says, “I make all the designs but I keep in touch with my friends group in the Arab region, who are also designers. Their sincere feedback helps me fine-tune my designs or get new ideas. I appreciate this process because I don’t want my design to be a one-man decision. I need ideas from everywhere to become better and keep growing.”
On the Blessed website, there are “Featured Collections” from other spunky local collections that, too, liberally reference pop culture while blending it with Arabic elements – the Game of Kout tee refers to Game of Thrones and Kout, the Arabic card game, featuring art work of an Arab sitting in a Majlis cushion among playing cards, while the Arab Heisenberg wearing a guthra channels Breaking Bad’s iconic character.
“We get orders from Dubai, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,” al-Thani says, “I get the T-shirts manufactured in Turkey, Bangladesh and China.”
For Blessed, the closest competitor, al-Thani feels, would be Qatar-based label Fanilla Couture, which is a big hit for its playful line of tees featuring famous fashion and Arabic pop culture iconography.
Two years ago, Qatar’s home-grown high-end brand QELA, by the Qatar Luxury Group (QLG), made its debut by opening a boutique store at the Pearl. QELA had then said that a lot of its products, including purses, jewellery and clothes are designed and made by craftsman in Doha, while the shoes are made in Italy. It had described its then autumn collection thus: “Flowing, almost minimalist line, subtle yet rich colour, and details recalling local landscapes and culture such as garments referencing the local man’s cloak or bisht or evoking fluid, organic shapes inspired by the desert dunes.”
Al-Thani says he is confident of making his mark on the scene. “What sets Blessed apart, I guess, is that my T-shirts are a product of multiple points of view. I feel most fashion lines are results of a one-person decision; they don’t seek creative inputs from other people. I like to ask my friends, family, people on social media, just to get a sense of what would work best, modify the design accordingly and only then I send the T-shirts for printing.”
Although his online store is taking off, al-Thani is also looking at opening a physical store soon. “I don’t believe in selling on Instagram because people ask for my Whatsapp number and then contact me, asking me to have it delivered to their home. It’s complicated to handle so many calls.”
“While my line of clothing is now streetwear, I plan to take Blessed into the high-end brand territory, eventually,” says al-Thani.
And why the name Blessed?
“Because Mubarak is my name.”