Top designers from across the Middle East, Europe and Asia came together recently to captivate fashion lovers with a series of sparkly and sqeuined creations.
More than 70 designers attended Arab Fashion Week in Dubai to stage a wide calendar of fashion shows, pop-ups and presentations. The event was held at a designer acceleration hub called 1422, which stands for ‘1 Council for 22 Countries’,.
Jacob Abrian, Arab Fashion Council chief executive officer, said: “Arab Fashion Week was a powerful platform for local, regional and international fashion designers and design houses to show the rest of the world how fashion is evolving in the Middle East.
“This year’s event was expected to be disruptive. We expected to see new design and lifestyle trends being showcased throughout the event and we welcomed a premium group of buyers from around Europe, China and Russia.”
Thousands of guests attended the eighth edition of the Arab Fashion Week, themed See-Now; Buy-Now Spring Summer 2019 and Ready Couture Fall Winter 2019.
Lebanese American fashion designer, Rami Kadi, wowed the crowd with his 2020 Resort collection. His line looked like something straight out of a Barbie doll catalogue with giant ruffles, sequins galore and pops of vibrant colours.
While there were a number of extravagant gowns, he also carried a collection of modest designs that were equally glamorous.
Amato Couture was also on the line-up and did not disappoint. Amato, which means ‘beloved’ in Italian, was launched in the Gulf region in 2002. It was the brainchild of the much-awarded creative designer Furne One who partnered with textile expert Rashid Ali to build the Avant Garde label.
Amato’s resort 2020 collection was fierce with giant shades and belts, feathers, bows and puffy sleeves as well as touches of lace and sequins. Bold is beautiful and the brand went expressively big to thrill the crowd. The label also shared some looks for men too.
Other lines that made an impression on the audience included Mikhail Chamoun X DHL Resort 2020 collection, which featured DHL’s colours and logo in the designs, and the colourful creations from Austrain Juergen Christian Hoerl.
Following the event, 1422 opened up to the public as a ready-couture store.