Ginan Tabboush is a well-established bi-poc fashion designer based in Western Sydney, whose inspiration for her streetwear brand GTAB, comes from the social issues she witnessed growing up while incorporating her Arab-Brazilian background. “Through storytelling, healing can happen especially for the voiceless”. She wants to highlight crucial topics seen through her upbringing in her designs which spark conversation. These include domestic violence, racial profiling, immigration, homelessness, drug abuse and violence in the hopes of healing. “I choose to use fashion to convey these heavy messages for audiences to understand the gravity of these issues without being too intense”.
The inspiration behind her streetwear brand stems from her childhood which wasn’t always positive. She wanted to showcase social justice creatively without having to physically fight. “I wanted to heal my inner child and hope for other creatives and people in general to heal”. The ability to be creative provides an avenue for complex messages to be portrayed to a broader audience that is often not shown. Her hope is for other people to be able to express their hardships not solely to follow trends but to find true healing.
Ginan’s Fabric Selections
The fashion industry in Australia is measured to be at $ 23.2 billion as of 2023, signifying how impactful and popular clothing is to the public. Ginan has taken this into account where many of her fabrics are sustainably sourced from her mother’s hometown in Syria and thrift stores. She buys fabrics from refugee merchants, many of whom are deprived financially and local thrift stores where recycled materials are plentiful. “It’s a huge responsibility for fashion designers to be sustainable and get ethically sourced materials to create collections that focus on the environment”. She mentions her past collection ‘The Devil Wears Fast Fashion’ which focuses on humans having to be conscious about the clothes that are bought and worn 24 hours a day.
Self-Care Routine
The heavy nature of the topics Ginan shares with the public means there needs to be room for her to heal and express her emotions in the right mindset. She makes sure she takes care of herself first before delving into creating her designs. She speaks to coaches who allow her to be in the right headspace to be able to continue bringing her ideas to life. “I can’t help others if I’m not okay mentally, physically and emotionally”. She also mentions participating in semantic body healing, healing frequencies in her work and a ritual centred around fragrances she created called the Ju Ju Juices. Apart from her healing frequencies, she finds the use of different smells helpful to shift her mindset to get the creativity flowing. “I immerse myself in this world, create a ‘G Universe’ where I allow my body to express itself through the fabrics and designs”.
Fragrance endeavours
Ginan’s thirst for creativity is nothing short of inspiring, from her clothing pieces to her fragrance line made for herself and other artists. Her love for fragrances is evident as it helps her get into a creative headspace which further allows her to create other scents. The first is ‘The Hood Essence’ which is inspired by her background with ingredients such as tobacco, vanilla and rose. She then launched ‘G Alchemy’ which centres around healing and reaching your potential. Her most recent fragrance is ‘The Ghetto Garden’ with frankincense, myrrh, sage, and lavender with its intent to help artists tap into the creative side of their brain. “A lot of artists tend to abuse substances to get creative which is why I am presenting this safe alternative”.
GTAB’s core message
GTAB is more than just a clothing brand but rather symbolises the artist’s past. Ginan hopes her followers gain awareness of what her clothing stands for beyond just fabrics. She wants people to know her clothes represent her ancestors and the tragedies faced, but to take the steps to make the world a better place. “I want whoever is wearing my items to understand that there is a deeper meaning than what you physically see”.
Welcome Merchant Collaboration
Welcome Merchant is holding a fashion show with an array of fashion designers from different backgrounds. Each of them has their unique style and message to convey to raise awareness about a particular issue. Ginan from GTAB will be one of the fashion designers presenting her collection to attendees at the ‘Fashion for Good’ event.
This collaboration came about through a mutual friend Ginan has been working with for years now. She was given an introduction about Welcome Merchants’ work and found her brand’s message aligned with ours. “Everything I represent is a voice for the voiceless”. The work done at Welcome Merchant struck Ginan to be a wonderful and meaningful cause to help those who need it most. She hopes this collaboration can be inspiring and bring light to situations that are going on in the world. “A platform where we can have good conversations and tell these stories which spread awareness is important”. Often hard-hitting topics have a stigma and aren’t discussed openly in public as people aren’t comfortable expressing their thoughts.
Insight into Ginan’s GTAB looks
Ginan gave us an insight into what to expect on the runway at the Fashion for Good event. She mentioned lots of patterns, colours, storytelling through the prints and more wearable streetwear as a pose to her couture collections. It will be loud and tenacious with the GTAB signature look which is more customer friendly. Her couture collections are often sent to performers to wear in music videos which she finds inspiring. “These artists are telling their own stories and when they are wearing my stories an incredible story fusion occurs”. The powerful imagery and messages that can be viewed through conscious fashion can be compelling and inspiring.
You can view Ginan’s new collection along with other designers at the Fashion for Good event presented by Welcome Merchant on Saturday 30th of September. Tickets are on sale now.
Visit Ginan’s Instagram G__TAB to get a glimpse of what she’s up to!