Mentioning the word “Jasmine Box” definitely draws a smile onto ones face, visiting their site (www.JasmineBox.com) will give you a sense of the intimate environment it offers visitors of the boutique. Sophisticated, refreshing, and chic, that’s what Jasmine Box delivers.

What’s Up: What is Jasmine Box offering this year at “Besat Al-Rieh” bazaar?

Sara McKinnon: Well we had our first collection showcased last year at the bazaar, we had a good response, so we decided to come back with a new collection for this year.

Faye Behbehani: We enjoyed last year’s bazaar, so we wanted to go back, have fun, and meet lighthearted friendly faces.

WU: What’s special about this year’s Jasmine Box collection?

Faye: We wanted to produce our own collection thoubs for women, so we created few different styles with simple light cotton fabrics, since this year Ramadan will be a bit hot and humid.

Sara: This collection has been inspired by our own mothers, with all the 70s style of patterns you would see around here. Call it vintage, bohemian, and colorful, so you get a mixture of fabrics like Hijazi patters, Middle-Eastern, or even Uzebezistani. We are fusing different styles together.

WU:These really remind me of the olden days. Where do you get these fabrics from?

Faye: We get some fabrics from local markets here, and in most cases we travel around the world and source different pieces.

Sara: As we travel we see fascinating materials, we buy and collect them, after coming back, we start to take a closer look and see what we can create out of them. that’s why if you look at our store’s inventory, usually you will find one piece of every size of any given style.

Faye: (Laughing) Think of it this way, a fashion designer would make the sketches and drawings then go lookup or collect the fabric, we do that in reverse since we are not fashion designers.

Sara: And another way of looking at it, is the fact that what if we made a design, yet couldn’t get the right fabric or pattern for it, since we don’t have a factory.

WU: To me it sounds like you’re making limited numbers of your designs?

Faye: Yes, up to a certain extent.

Sara: We acknowledge that in Jeddah almost everyone knows everyone else, one way or the other, and many people socialize together, so it is never nice to see the same design on a friend or a relative.

Faye: That’s why from this Ramadan collection we have a limited number of pieces from each design, just a couple in each size.

WU: That’s a lovely way of putting it, what other accessories are you offering to go with this collection?

Sara: Since it is going to be Ramadan, we have some ethnic clutches which match the Ramadan thoubs, in case going out wearing them.

Faye: Yet if they would like to stay at home, we have a few trays to serve dates, coffee, sweets, tea, give away as a gift, which have a beautiful Arabic calligraphy designs on them.

Sara: We also offer some jewelry, necklaces, candles to match the whole Ramadanic theme.

WU: What makes Jasmine Box different?

Faye: It’s a lifestyle store, it is not just a fashion store, or is it just a home-ware store, and it is definitely not an accessory store, we combined everything together, think of it as a one-stop-shop. You can come in, buy items for yourself, or a gift, you can do a registry, we even have newborn gifts. So we tend to promote the “gift” aspect of the store.

Sara: That’s why we have custom-made signature Jasmine Boxes, so instead of running around town from one store to the other, buying a thing here, then wrapping it up there.

We have it all under one roof. Since our signature Jasmine Boxes gift wrapping is a complementary service. We don’t look for mass market products, we have small collections of gifts, that are unique and special. We don’t do bulk buying. It’s alway one item in each size, and if you find your size then that makes it special to you.

WU: How much would a Jasmine Box Ramadan thoub cost?

Sara: We wanted the price to be realistic so that people can enjoy them, that’s why no thoub will cost over 700 Riyals.

Faye: That makes them affordable, fashionable, and practically cute.