Fatema Fardan talks about dressing Eva Longoria

Eva Longoria at the Global Gift Gala press conference during day five of the 11th Dubai International Film Festival. Andrew H Walker / Getty Images for Diff

The Emirati fashion designer Fatema Fardan created a dress for the actress Eva Longoria, which she wore to the Dubai International Film Festival. Fardan tells us how it all came about.

“Eva Longoria was in the UAE recently for the Global Gift Gala and wore a piece from my collection to the Diff press conference.

“Longoria’s stylist approached me and asked if I’d like to dress her. She had a look at my collection and that was her favourite outfit.

“Longoria was lovely, very down-to-earth and a pleasure to work with. When you look at her you see both strength and softness – she’s a philanthropist, actress and business woman as well and symbolises a lot of aspects of my brand.

“We did a fitting with her and it was very long on her petite frame, so we decided to shorten it to the knee. The top was originally worn a bit shorter with a longer skirt but she wanted the top tucked into the skirt so we altered the styling a little. It looked beautiful on her.”

Three other creations by Fatema Fardan

Twiggy jacket and trousers: I was inspired by the feminine working suit but I wanted to give a new life to the suit. That's why I used this very interesting jacquard fabric that's cool enough to suit UAE weather.

The face on the pocket was derived from Persian art, which traditionally is rich in pastel colours, with swirls and flower motifs. The paintings were from pre-Islamic times, so they included animal drawings, creatures that were half-animal, half-human as well as many faces. I saw this face within a painting, took it out, edited and redrew parts of it then placed it on the jacket.

Audrey blouse and skirt: When I was designing them, I was trying to replicate the organic shapes in nature, tone them down and edit them into something wearable and simplified. Shape-wise, the skirt looks like a flower, lily of the valley, with ruffles as the petals and the pleats as stems. The edited-down, refined version allows you to "wear nature" without literally looking like a big flower.

Jacqueline top and trouser: The trousers are a light stretch jacquard with pleats on the bottom – something that Jackie O would have worn in the 1950s. This trouser is going to be a signature of mine that I'm going to repeat in different ways in the future. I introduced the androgynous aspect by pairing a men's collar in a jacquard fabric with the loose chiffon top.

* As told to Nadia El Dasher