Amman - (AFP) - Arabic calligraphy dominates Hana Sadiq's embroidered designs, either through verses of love poems or simply colorful letters scattered in bright colors, adding a modern oriental touch that highlights the attractiveness of Arab women.

And in her studio inside her home in central Amman, the Iraqi-born fashion designer, who has presented shows for her fashion in about 37 countries, sits amidst a huge amount of traditional Arab costumes and ancient silver ornaments that show her adherence to the culture and traditions of her homeland.

Arabic calligraphy stands out in her designs, from the "Kufic" or "Diwani" or "Raqqa" or "Thuluth" fonts.

Her costumes are also adorned with verses from the love poems of the most famous Arab poets, Kenzar Qabbani, Mahmoud Darwish, Badr Shaker al-Sayyab, Muzaffar al-Nawab, and Fadwa Touqan.
Hana (72 years old) holds a degree in French literature from the University of Baghdad and studied plastic art there, textile design and painting on silk and porcelain in Paris, and the introduction of Arabic crafts to modern fashion 25 years ago.

"The Arabic calligraphy is the most beautiful," Hana told AFP.

The long-haired septuagenarian, who wore ornaments around her neck and rings bearing precious stones, explains that she "used it in about thirty ways." And she adds, "Every once in a while I turn to a specific type of writing on the clothes that I design, once by printing, once by embroidery, and once by beads."

She adds that she wanted to celebrate the writing that was born in the late fourth millennium BC in her country, Iraq, or what was previously known as Mesopotamia, without which "all these civilizations would not have existed."
During her life, Hana designed many outfits for celebrities, including Queens Rania and Nour, Queen Sofia of Spain, actresses such as Claudia Cardinale, Arab princesses and Gulf sheikhs.
On her extensive travels throughout the Arab world, she has about a ton of ancient silver ornaments, about five thousand pieces of textile, traditional Arab costumes and caftans that embody the hidden charm of Arab women. It is a combination of bright and amazing colours.
Details and letters are scattered in the fashion of Hana, who has loved this art since she was ten years old when she used to frequent the shop of her grandfather, the Baghdadi textile merchant, who used to speak with the merchants in Turkish, Persian and Hindi.

She was also affected by the beauty of her grandmother's clothes, "when she wore the Hashemite dress and walked among the women with elegance, as if she were a peacock."
The Hashemite dress is an Iraqi folk dress made of very thin and transparent fabric with wide sleeves and edges. It is decorated with beautiful floral motifs in gold or silver on a black base. It was popular with Iraqi women in the fifties and sixties of the last century, especially in central and southern Iraq.
Hanaa, who has lived between Paris and Amman since 1982, added, "I noticed that the Arab man likes his wife to wear earrings, put something on her head, and put necklaces, anklets, belts, bracelets, and rings that look beautiful and give her femininity."
"It is true that Arab fashion covers a woman's body, but it has a high femininity," she added.

Hanaa, who wrote in three languages, Arabic, English and French, a book entitled "Arab Fashion and Jewelry: A Legacy without Borders" that deals with Arab fashion from Yemen to the Maghreb, believes that "Western clothes do not fit the body of Arab women."
"Unfortunately, this is the result of globalization that came to us in the twentieth century, and we imitated the West in all fields, in architecture, furniture, clothing and food," she added.
And she concluded by saying, "What I care about in all my work is that the woman remains a female and that the man is attracted to her as a female, in the sense that she does not pass in front of him without paying attention to her and seeing that she is beautiful."