Sara Secrets Tailoring Workshop

A Legacy Before Its Time

Sara Secrets Tailoring Workshop (formerly Sara’s Secret) is more than a boutique—it is a historical landmark in Qatar’s cultural and fashion evolution. Founded in 2009 by Sara Abdulghani Nasser, the family-run atelier was co-led with another Qatari woman and emerged at a time when few women were claiming public space, let alone commercializing fashion in a society still hesitant about the visibility of such work.

Sara’s journey began even earlier, in 2006, when she designed for the Asian Games in Doha as a completely unpaid volunteer. This was her first foray into national design work, driven purely by passion. In 2008, she took over a tailoring shop from Caroline, and just one year later, launched her own brand, Sara’s Secret, making her one of the first Qatari fashion designers to establish a clothing line.

And she didn’t stop at modestwear. While others played it safe, Sara introduced lingerie and revealing dresses—sold openly in her boutique when such items were considered too private for public commerce. At a time when most women still sewed their undergarments at home with one or two shops for lingerie in the country, Sara sold lace, sheer fabrics, and shoulder-baring gowns, corsets, silk slips—defiant, long before the public was ready.

But perhaps most radical of all was how she marketed her work when she started out.

In an era when marketing literacy was nearly nonexistent in Qatar’s creative sectors, and when visibility for female designers was minimal, Sara made a move that was unprecedented: she bought ad space in City Center Mall, one of Doha’s most visited locations before the wave of mega-malls we see today. But she didn’t just advertise inside the mall. She claimed the car park, a male-dominated space, and installed photographs of unveiled women wearing her daring designs—lingerie-inspired dresses, gowns that showed skin in celebration of the female figure, styling that defied conventional Qatari fashion standards.

It wasn’t just about fashion—it was about taking space. In an overwhelmingly patriarchal setting, she made women visible, powerful, and glamorous, in a format that was rarely afforded to local designers at the time. It was unapologetic, subversive, and deeply courageous.

Sara’s vision was grounded by her technical foundation as a Fashion Dean’s List graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQ), where she specialized in tailoring—one of the most challenging and optical disciplines in fashion. Her love of structure, form, and storytelling came through every piece. Over the years, her workshop expanded to include haute couture, jewellery, bridalwear, and custom abayas, each crafted with personal intention and cultural nuance.

She did all of this before Qatar’s now-thriving arts ecosystem existed. Before the creative industries were funded. Before local designers were being mentored. Before grants. Before incubators. Before exhibitions and fashion panels.

Today, fashion in Qatar is fully integrated into a state-supported creative economy with emerging designers, fashion schools, and arts institutions benefiting from robust public investment. But back when Sara was taking photographs in mall car parks, fashion was not considered a career, and selling lingerie was a rebellion.

Sara didn’t wait for consumer demand—she created it. She didn’t wait for cultural permissio; she challenged it. She didn’t step into space, she took it.

Her tailoring workshop, still active and still Qatari-led, continues to uphold that legacy, not just dressing women, but reminding them of their right to be seen, to choose, and to exist boldly.