Fashion week is the perfect venue to proclaim yourself as a designer to be a part of the fashion industry!
Based on this, Saudi Arabia is set to host its first ever Arab Fashion Week, the Arab Fashion Council announced.
The Dubai-based Arab Fashion Council said on its website that fashion week would be held in Riyadh from March 26 to March 31, with a second edition already scheduled for October. In December, the Arab Fashion Council announced the opening of a regional office in Riyadh and named Saudi Princess Noura Bint Faisal Al Saud as its honorary president. Arab Fashion Week will take place at APEX Center in Riyadh, a white honeycomb-like venue designed by the late celebrated Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.
Caroline Rush, CEO of British Fashion Council; Princess Noura bint Faisal, honorary president of the Arab Fashion Council;
Layla Issa Abuzaid, KSA country director at the Arab Fashion Council; and Jacob Abrian,
founder and CEO of the Arab Fashion Council.
Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud revealed the news at a London Fashion Week event celebrating the Arab Fashion Council's new strategic partnership with the British Fashion Council - something she said "reflects the global interest in our vision to transform the fashion retail industry in Saudi Arabia into a global and regional market". The princess added that the global support shown for the inaugural Arab Fashion Week in Riyadh shows that Saudi Arabia is seen increasingly not just as an economic force, but as a "cultural and creative hub".
"This is only the first big step," she said. “Our doors will be open to welcome everyone, the whole world, to be part of this change, and I am looking forward to receiving everyone in Riyadh to witness together the kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030."
Listed as an international fashion week alongside Paris and Milan, the twice-yearly Arab Fashion Week offers exclusively see-now-buy-now collections and pre-collections. The line-up for the Riyadh event has not been revealed yet and it remains unclear whether it will be limited to modest designs in accordance with the strict dress code observed in Saudi Arabia.