TEHRAN — “Iranians have never considered clothing as a mere covering. We always care about what we wear,” Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini said during the opening ceremony of 7th Fajr International Fashion and Clothing Festival in Tehran on Sunday.

“Our history is a great treasure that we can use for our clothing in future. Since not only in our national history but also in our religion that is important that what we wear,” he explained.

He called the festival as a great opportunity to conduct negotiation and interaction between designers, producers and people who use clothing as their ‘visual identity card’.

Several officials and fashion designers and activists in apparel industry attended the ceremony.

“Cultural officials should support national apparel industry and Iranian brands as a national honor,” the secretary of ministry of culture’s Fashion and Clothes Management Workgroup Hamid Qobadi said.

He said that a reformation is needed in the field of design and fashion.

“We plan to hold ‘Tehran Mode’, as a fashion event, is planned two held twice a year at Tehran’s Golestan historic palace, which would be a great help for Iranian fashion industry,” he added.

He said that textile industry and fashion design in Iran still can compete with similar foreign products.

“The festival aims to introduce innovations and novel concepts proposed by the young generation to the society,” he said.

It provides an opportunity to reconnect designers, people and officials to each other, he added.

At the ceremony, MP Famtemeh Zolqadr, who is member of the Majlis culture committee, talked about the importance of the festival.

“In fact, the Islamic Revolution made changes in clothing and fashion in Iran and it is great that a festival focuses on these issue on the anniversary of the revolution,” she said.

The Fajr festivals, which are held in the different fields of cinema, theater and visual arts, held annually on the occasion of the Islamic Revolution in February.

“Iran is proud of a rich culture and civilization and cities like Yazd, Kerman and Kashan are pioneers in production of beautiful textiles,” she explained.

She said that Iran parliament, Majlis, supports the culture ministry’s Fashion and Clothes Management Working group in their activities to promote Iranian textile and fashion.

For the first time, the festival plans to take up an impressive collection of clothes with the concept of a historical monument, Golestan Palace, in the competition section.

The fashion and textile designers submit their works revolving around the Golestan Palace during the festival, which runs from February 25 to March 4 in Tehran.

All fashion designers, clothing industry managers and those who are interested in the clothing and fashion industry can attend the event free of charge.