As fashion designers, we are usually the ones standing behind the curtain.
Our role is to dress others, to prepare the pieces, adjust the last details, and then watch from a distance as someone else walks the red carpet wearing our work. The spotlight is rarely meant for us.
So when I found myself walking the red carpet at the Red Sea Film Festival for the premiere of Palestine 36, directed by the legendary Anne-Marie Jacir, it felt surreal.
It was my first red carpet.
And I can honestly say, it was not glamorous in the way people imagine.
It was terrifying.
Awkward.
I probably said all the wrong things when the press asked questions. I had no idea how I looked, where to stand, or what to do with my hands. I was simply trying to breathe and remind myself why I was there in the first place.
Because that night was never really about the red carpet.
I was there to present a creation that is very close to my heart, a dress I called From the River to the Sea.
The piece was born from a deeply personal place. It speaks about our relationship with the land, the landscapes that shape memory, the roots that live inside us even when we are far away. Palestine, for me, has always been a story carried through geography, hills, olive trees, rivers, and valleys that have shaped generations and identities.
The dress was my way of translating that connection.
But as with everything I create, it had to live within the language of our house. Craft, embroidery, and symbolism woven into something that feels timeless. It carried the narrative of land and belonging, but interpreted in the Reema Dahbour way.
Walking the red carpet wearing that dress felt emotional in ways I did not expect. In the middle of the cameras and flashes, I kept thinking about the meaning behind the piece and the story that the film itself was bringing to the screen.
In that moment, the nerves almost disappeared.
Because the dress was never meant to be perfect on the carpet. It was meant to carry a story.
And even though I may have been awkward, nervous, and completely inexperienced, I will always be grateful for that night.
It was my first red carpet.
And it was a dress I will never forget.
With love,
Reema Dahbour
