During the pandemic, when gyms and sports facilities were closed, it became quite challenging for women who wear abaya to do sport activities outdoors. At that time, Muneera Al Doseri, a Qatari fashion designer came up with a viable solution to make outdoor sports more accessible to women wearing abaya.
In 2020, she launched the first collection of her brand ‘Vibe by Muneera’, and it included yoga pants, sports abaya, jumpsuit abayas, casual abayas and travel abayas. The second collection was launched by end of 2021.
Vibe by Muneera, her second brand after Soie De Luxe, has made a big impact on current styles in abayas by becoming arguably the first-of-its-kind sports abayas which can be comfortably worn by women doing outdoor sports activities.
“During 2020, gyms and other sport facilities were closed due to the pandemic. And it was not convenient for women in abaya to exercise in an open area and in a way that aligned with religious practices. So I designed some sports abayas and asked women to wear while doing sport activities and checked if it addresses the need. And by end of 2020, we launched our first collection,” said Muneera.
“We checked our sports abayas with women who practice some key sports such as hiking, biking, boxing, tennis, yoga and others. We started to understand the challenges that women are facing. Women were worried with exposure. They were looking to be freer while doing sport activities. Moreover, they are looking for light fabric, number of clothing pieces to be less, but at the same time to be aligned with religious practices,” she said.
As a result jumpsuit abayas were produced by Vibe as more convenient sport wear, and they delivered an abaya and the active wear as one piece.
“The jumpsuit is the workhorse of fashion. And the bottom part of our abayas is designed in a flexible way, which will help women in moving without exposing themselves and will support them in performing different types of sports in a comfortable way,” said Muneera.
All production of Vibe is made in Qatar and fabric is brought from European sport tech agencies to provide with high quality of sport fabrics such as Spandex, mesh, polyesters and jersey. The fabrics are breathable, able to transfer moisture having comfort, light weight, flexibility and durability.
“In the new collection we introduced recently, all the sports abayas and jumpsuits were designed with hoodies. All of them were made from sport fabric. We also introduced jumpsuits for children in addition to the hoodies that could be worn separately and the design were inspired from the Ninja styles. And all the collection launched recently was free size, ready to were and to be delivered within 48 hours once an order is placed.
“We are currently working on a collaboration with different sport entities and celebrities to add value to the sport ecosystem. Vibe is the first enterprise in the region which mainly produces sports abayas and the sport abayas were inspired by yoga pants. I see Vibe to be the one-stop shop where active-wear went beyond just the time spent at the gym for men, women and children,” she said.
Muneera, who has earned a Master’s degree in computer science is working in the area of strategy development and execution. But her passion for art and designs was born during her young age. She was always seeking out for an inspiration in everything more in an artistic way. She has different interests varying from drawing, designing creative cakes and chocolates, but ended in fashion designing.
“I did study different aspects and followed courses in fashion designing. Moreover, I have a personal consultant and adviser who has experience in fashion design and a director of the New York Fashion Week to support and advice me in each single step,” said Muneera.
“I started my fashion career in 2019 with my first brand Soie De Luxe which means ‘The Luxury Silk’, as all the collections were made from 100% Italian and Spanish silk and all the designs were inspired by the Victorian era,” she added.
At present her second brand ‘Vibe by Muneera’ is available online. Live customer service is available at the website, social media channels and business Whatsapp.
