About Us

We are a duo, a dreamer and a maker. We make costumes for dancers. Our focus is mostly on Tribal Fusion Belly Dancing; from those inspired by the finery of burlesque styling, all the way to those who love the beauty of eastern nomads and gypsy eclectic looks and the quirky funk of Steam Punk and of course everything and anything in-between.

We make costumes that defy categories but they make our heart sing and we hope they inspire you to bust those moves, with eyes a little more mesmerizing, with shimmies a little more electrifying and with heads held higher because you feel ever so fabulous.

As a side note, we fully endorse those souls who may wish to rock out one of our creations in their living rooms or at a party. You will be guaranteed one of the most fabulous and talked about attendees even if it is in your own mirror only.

What you will find here, is that every single item featured here is one of a kind. Unique.

There are two main reasons for that:

One, these pieces are created over time from found objects and treasures we have accumulated throughout our travels around the world, and also during discovery voyages into second hand shops and vintage clothing stores. Some items are gifts from dear friends and family members. Some are previously loved treasures from our own collections. Some are neglected sweeties who have been sitting on shelves waiting for someone like us to bring them to our studio and remind them of their destiny ... to allow them to shine and tantalize in whole new way.

Each creation takes a while to come alive. Sometimes a particularly beautiful woven scarf begins the process for us, or sometimes a small bit of precious stone becomes the centre piece of a fully detailed head piece.

What ever the case, even if we tried – not that we even TRY to attempt it – but even if we DID try very hard, we would not be able to re-create a piece of costume from our collection. You will be the only one on earth owning something like what we pass on to you and we are pretty sure people will notice and will remember you for it as well.

Second, our dreamer is herself a dancer so each garment will be detailed to the extreme with practical things that will make sure it will stay put, comfortably, where it is meant to be. We hand stitch almost everything. We think about practical ways a garment will move with you as you dance and twirl and shimmy and then we make sure that every belt, bra, head piece and every sequence, pearl, shell, feather, lace, chain, bead, coin and other goodies stay where they need to be. Unless of course you MEANT to take them off in your dance, but that’s another story all together ....

So in a nut shell, what we can guarantee are these:

- no one will have another piece like yours
- your garment will stay as is with all its lovely attachments and if something does come away, we will be happy to fix it right up for you – rare .. but can happen if say ...  an adoring fan really needs to have a bit of you in their hands to take home with them  ... but we digress.

- we can also guarantee that you will be noticed and asked again and again: “where did you get that from?!”

We would love to hear from you. Stories of adventures you had along with a "Scheherazade Banoo" creation. Or ideas, we always welcome ideas for things you may need. Drop us a line sharing a bit of your love and magic and karma will be kind to you.

And oh ... if you are wondering what these words mean (they are at the bottom of our site ... seen it?)

They roughly mean:

“oh music master, play on sweetly and slowly
 so life may come back to the body yet again.

Original is in Farsi, Nastaliq hand writing, excerpt from a poem from Rumi. Here is a beautiful performance from "Davoud Azad" and his band performing the same Poem (Ghazal). Enjoy. :)



OUR NAME:

What is in a name?

At heart, a dancer is truly a story teller.  A story that is told through the body, the eyes, the movements of measured hands and feet and how they are moved so they weave and create the yarns of a tale, layer by layer.

To us, Scheherazade of the legends was the ultimate story teller. She was the embodiment of finest of word weavers. Fiercely creative, and devastatingly beautiful.

She told stories. Her words wove magical threads of silk and gossamer that captivated the Sultan in their charm and held him entranced, eager for another night - one after another.

We aspire to recreate her boudoir, surrounded by found objects, well crafted pieces of art worn to entice and enduce imaginative play through dance and movement and of course .. words, spun like a weaver would spin her craft.

In Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights, Shahrazad was described in this way:

"[Shahrazad] had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred."

Famousely, she of course went on to survive 1000 and 1 nights and more, charming her way into the betrayal-hardened heart of the Sultan.

We like to imagine, each night when Scheherazade prepared to present herself to the Sultan, she would step into her Boudoir, contemplating, choosing and meticulously dressing herself for the night.

The ultimate embodiment of feminine charm and intelligence - this would have been her wardrobe.

The name Scheherazade in this arrangement of letters was coined in the cultures of the west by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888, in a symphonic suite, named Scheherazade.

In Persian or Farsi her name is written as Shahrzad so as it appears on this site as "Shahrzad Banoo" or Lady Shahrzad:

For those of you who may look for more technical information on her name here is a bit more information:

The earliest forms of Scheherazade's name include Šīrāzād (شیرازد) in Masudi and Šahrāzād (شهرازاد) in Ibn al-Nadim, the latter meaning "she whose realm or dominion (شهر šahr) is noble (ازاد āzād)". In explaining his spelling choice for the name Burton says, "Shahrázád (Persian) = City-freer; in the older version Scheherazade (probably both from Shirzád = lion-born). 'Dunyázá' = world-freer. The Bres[lau] Edit[ion] corrupts the former to Shárzád or Sháhrazád; and the Mac[naghten] and Calc[utta] to Shahrzád or Shehrzád

But the very best thing? Get a hold of one of us in one of our shows and just ask :) We will be happy to sing her name out loud for you.