DOHA: Some economically productive Qatari families, especially those into fashion designing and selling traditional Qatari attire for women, are taking advantage of social media to promote their products.
Amal Al Suwaidi, a fashion designer, said that she earlier used to depend on her friends’ circle to promote her products, but now she was using Instagram to promote her products and doing very well.
She said that like many other economically productive Qatari families, she took part in exhibitions organised from time to time by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
There is a department at the ministry devoted to helping productive Qatari families promote their products.
Al Suwaidi told local Arabic daily Al Watan in remarks published yesterday that she didn’t prefer privately organised exhibitions frequently held in hotels.
“They are held too frequently, so exhibitors do not have enough time to come out with innovative products,” Al Suwaidi said. “There should be a gap of at last three months between exhibitions.”
She has a workshop at home and two employees. “I bring clothes from India and the prices of my products range from QR600 to QR1,300 apiece,” she said.
Another fashion designer, Umm Hamad, said that hotel exhibitions were posing tough competition to economically productive Qatari families and hindering their progress.
The only grievance these families have against the labour ministry’s expositions is that they have a long waiting list of exhibitors, so it takes time for one’s turn to come.
And then they provide limited space, so one can’t display enough items, said another critic. Also, there is no fixed venue for the ministry’s exhibitions.
Productive Qatari families are not only into fashion designing and promoting abayas and other traditional dresses for women; they also prepare traditional Qatari food like cheese and pickles.
However, hotel exhibitions don’t feature food producers, said Umm Khalid, who specialises in traditional Qatari cuisine.
The families say hotel exhibitions are expensive for them to attend. They must pay a high fee while their profit margins are low.
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