When you search for an abaya online, you face an immediate choice: a £25 machine-made piece from a mass-production facility, or a handcrafted creation at £100–140, made by a woman who knows what she is doing with thread and needle. Both are abayas. The difference between them is everything.
The fabric: the first thing you feel
In an industrial abaya, fabric is chosen for cost. Synthetic fibres give synthetic reflections — a particular kind of sheen that reads immediately as cheap. They trap heat, pill quickly, and lose their shape. In a handmade KIMAIAN abaya, fabric is selected by touch and by eye: flowing crepe, light georgette, embroidered silk. The drape is different. The opacity is considered. The weight feels right for a garment you will wear for an entire day.
Embroidery: hand-placed or heat-pressed?
This is where the difference becomes unmistakable. Industrial “embroidery” is often a printed appliqué or a heat-bonded layer. It begins to separate at the first friction, fades within months, and carries none of the irregularity that makes handwork beautiful. At KIMAIAN, every embellishment — each bead, each crystal, each thread — is placed by hand. The embroidery is part of the fabric. It does not go anywhere.
The cut and the silhouette
Mass production means mass patterns. An industrial abaya is made for an average, which means it fits no one particularly well. A handmade abaya can be constructed with a real understanding of how different bodies move — how a flowing cut behaves at different heights, how a sleeve falls when the fabric is properly weighted.
Limited edition: the promise of rarity
At KIMAIAN, every model is produced in strictly limited quantities. When the Camélia sells out, it does not come back. You will not see your piece on ten other women at the same occasion. Rarity is not a marketing phrase for us — it is a structural commitment to the value of craft.
Is the price difference worth it?
A £25 abaya that pills after five washes and loses its embellishments after three months, replaced twice a year, costs more than a well-made piece that lasts for years. But the calculation is only partly financial. Wearing something made with intention feels different. It sits differently. It moves differently. That is harder to quantify and easier to feel.
Our collections: Handmade Abayas · Handmade Kimonos. Made in Dubai. Delivered worldwide.