The Dubai-based journalist and entrepreneur Jumana Khamis lived a globe-trotting childhood, taking her from one corner of the world to another. Born in Jordan, the Yemeni-Spanish Khamis is the daughter of a diplomat, and so she spent her adolescence in Yemen, the UK, and Austria. “I spent my whole life moving around. For me, I struggled with the idea of where home is,” Khamis told Vogue Arabia. Despite all the changes she went through, there was always one heartwarming constant in her life: Her grandparents’ house in Yemen.
Khamis spent some of her teenage years there, where she attended high school. In retrospect, she values the time she had there for it allowed her to immerse herself in Yemeni culture, from local heritage to food and fabrics. “I really got to connect with my culture and understand my roots and where I came from,” she recalled. “I understood the accent and language. Everything was so new but, now as a grown-up, I was happy that I got that time. But as a teenager back then, it didn’t go down that well. There’s so much there that no one knows about.”
One of the things that Khamis appreciates about her culture is its rich architectural landscape. “If you walk down the old Sana’a (capital) city, there’s so much to see. There are so many vibrant colours, fabrics, and jewellery – it’s just so beautiful,” she said. It was particularly the various fabrics of Yemen that inspired her to launch her new clothing brand, Kenza Boutique, an idea that had been on her mind for 10 years. “I think there are so many stories behind each of these fabrics that I don’t know anybody knows about,” continued Khamis.
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