This designer is giving the traditional artwork of henna a contemporary makeover

With a historical past spanning millennia throughout the Center East, North Africa, and South Asia, henna is steeped in custom and cultural rituals. The pure dye is often used to create short-term, intricate physique artwork for non secular festivals and celebrations, akin to weddings.

Now, Dubai-based designer Azra Khamissa is on a mission to present the traditional observe a contemporary makeover.

Her intention is to create henna designs that align with vogue developments, together with henna merchandise that may be offered by way of main cosmetics retailers. Khamissa want to see henna worn on a regular basis — not simply on particular events.

An historic artwork

Henna is constituted of plant leaves. Its origins as a beauty product are unknown, however it has “been used for 1000’s of years for beauty functions” together with coloring hair and nails, and adorning palms and toes, says Ade Solihat, a lecturer and researcher of Arab Research at Universitas Indonesia.

Throughout Khamissa’s childhood, henna was typically used for household celebrations like Eid, she says. However as she bought older and developed her sense of favor, she would “dread” events the place she needed to adorn herself with flowery designs.

Khamissa’s perspective to henna began to alter at a good friend’s marriage ceremony in 2017. Making ready for the ceremony, she experimented by adorning the middle of her palm with a disc (a design referred to as rubeya, in Arabic) and coloring her fingertips (rawayeb, in Arabic). Often “solely grandmothers” would put on this design, says Khamissa, however its easy, daring minimalism appealed to her.

Per week later, Khamissa attended a photoshoot for her eponymous purse model, the place the photographer captured her henna-covered palms. When Khamissa noticed the pictures, she started to see henna in “a special gentle.” Subseqently, she launched her profession as a henna artist.

Dubai-based Azra Khamissa desires to make henna a component of on a regular basis vogue. Credit score: Aqib Anwar

“I simply saved exploring totally different conventional designs, after which began including my very own contact to them,” she says.

Khamissa exams new designs on her personal palms first. When she runs out of area, her sister and grandmother volunteer their palms. Her grandmother is not at all times a fan of her trendy interpretations — however when she responds positively, Khamissa is aware of she’s onto a winner: “No matter she likes, I do know is a superb success, as a result of that is the true conventional eye assembly up with one thing new and totally different.”

Minimalist and trendy

In her work, Khamissa reinterprets conventional ornate floral patterns as pared-back line drawings of single flowers, and replaces complicated mandalas with easy geometric shapes. Some designs pay homage to conventional North African and Arabic motifs, whereas others — topographical outlines, summary desert landscapes, and politically impressed flags and phrases — are her personal distinctive creations.

Khamissa says the short-term nature of henna — which lasts round two weeks — permits for extra “loopy” and experimental patterns, like all-over leopard print. For many who do not wish to ink themselves completely, henna provides extra flexibility and “makes tattoo tradition a bit extra inclusive,” Khamissa says.

A few of Khamissa’s designs are impressed by nature, together with Dubai’s desert landscapes. Credit score: Azra Khamissa

Solihat, the Arab Research specialist, says henna is not tied to “symbolic and sacred meanings.” Fashionable approaches assist it to “cross borders, ethnicities, and identities,” she says, including that it’s now common amongst demographics with out a henna heritage, “particularly among the many city younger era.”

Magnificence retailer henna

It is not simply Khamissa’s designs which might be trendy — she desires to replace the best way henna is offered, too.

Sometimes, contemporary henna paste, or the uncooked components to make it, can be found solely at specialist shops.

“There’s an enormous hole out there,” says Khamissa. “You’ll be able to’t discover henna in a Sephora or Boots, main pharmacies or magnificence shops. I wish to make it extra accessible.”

Khamissa hopes her designs will encourage individuals to embrace henna and put on it in a extra informal, up to date method. Credit score: Azra Khamissa

An answer to the shelf-life drawback could be mini-freezers, which may hold henna paste contemporary for as much as six months, says Khamissa. She is contemplating designing her personal freezers to permit her to scale up and promote henna in cosmetics shops.

Khamissa hopes that by making high-quality henna extra accessible, extra girls shall be impressed to get artistic with physique artwork of their on a regular basis styling. “Henna needs to be like getting your nails carried out, your hair carried out, your make-up carried out for a glance. Including henna simply tops it off fantastically.”