The sixth edition of Arab Fashion Week (AFW) kicked off Wednesday night in Dubai with several prominent names from the fashion world in attendance. AFW is billed as an official fashion week alongside the famed Paris, Milan and London shows, with the Arab edition being the sole event dedicated entirely to ready-couture and pre-collections.
For the first five seasons, AFW took place only in Dubai but of late, it has extended to Saudi Arabia with one taking place in Riyadh.
Read More:Â Arab Fashion Week commences for the first time in Saudi Arabia
This fashion week — hosted at the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship — is dedicated to ready couture collections by 18 international designers from Russia, Portugal, Philippines, Lebanon and more. The aim of the Arab Fashion Council is to make ready-couture available across the region as well as to provide a platform to high profile designers to showcase their ready couture collections.
It is a groundbreaking idea for the fashion industry; while being modern it incorporates the traditional fashion, culture and creativity of the Arab world.
“With the change of the market and the economy and the business of fashion, we have noticed that even in Paris, in the last fashion week, there were many designers trying to shift from haute couture to ready-couture,” head of the Arab Fashion Council Jacob Abrian, said.
“It is because of the economy, because of the financial status, because of social media, because of your social life. You tend to go to more events than before and you tend to spend less… but you will keep a certain level of luxury,” Abrian told AFP.
“I believe this is a very important tool in our hands, that we can push Arab Fashion Week to become one of the first, most important fashion weeks in the next 10 years.” He added.
The models walked the runway in different forms of angelic attire where they wore white dresses with fishnet stockings, mermaid gowns and were covered with lace, voile and crystals top to bottom. Another collection featured pink heart-print pantsuits paired with blue fur stoles, teal velvet gowns with brooches, glitter knee boots, corsets and cupcake headbands.
Last month Saudi Arabia hosted its first fashion week in the history of the Kingdom and was able to gather a lot of media coverage for the show. We look forward to see what’s next in line in terms of fashion from the Kingdom!
