Lyon-born Nawel Nedjari is the founder of Alger Fashion Week and Fashion Week Tour, a package trip devoted to fashion in Paris and the French Riviera, and Algerian fashion shows in Paris. Having studied fashion design, she also founded her own fashion brand BERRIN.
Nawel Nedjari
24Fashion TV: Did you always want to be in the Fashion Industry?
Nawel Nedjari: Since I was very young, I have always been crazy about fashion. My mom is a fashion designer, and she used to buy fashion magazine with pictures of DIOR, BALMAIN and GIVENCHY. I wish I would have kept these magazines now, its vintage!
How did you start Alger Fashion Week?
After creating Fashion Week Tour, and bringing American, Chinese and Middle East clients to Paris, my mom Rachida convinced me to launch something about the Algerian traditional clothes, and I did it by launching first the Facebook page in 2011, now followed by more than 30 000 fans all over the world. Then my first annual fashion week event was launched in 2016 in my hometown Lyon. And the first edition was very successful. Sadly, we even had to refuse some people because the event was sold out.
Why did you decide to start Alger Fashion Week?
I decided to start Alger Fashion Week because no one did it in Alger, and Im still fighting today to launch it in its capital, since we need more support from the Algerian government. There is not enough help from it. The Algerian culture needs to be promoted everywhere. Actually there is an Algerian traditional wedding dress protected at UNESCO, named Chedda of Tlemcen. And I am very proud of it!