Elie Saab and Rabih Kayrouz are in the vanguard of Middle Eastern design, with gilded reputations on the global fashion stage. However, high fashion is supremely competitive and if designers want to gain international recognition and develop their businesses, there is no question – they have to present their collections during Paris Fashion Week.
So Fashion Forward Dubai, the progressive Middle Eastern fashion platform, felt the timing was right to take a group of talented young designers to the latest edition of the event, which ended on Wednesday, to promote their spring-summer 2017 collections.
Support was given to the designers to open the showroom through the EPIC empowerment program that tackles business development challenges faced by regional designers. It was staged in collaboration with Samsung Electronics MENA, endorsed by the Dubai Design and Fashion Council and supported by Dubai Design District.
One of the designers was Orchid Ganji, who showcased her Orkalia fashion collection in the French capital for the first time.
“We have established a good business in the Middle East and felt it was time for us to go abroad and make people more aware of our brand, our message and what we want to achieve,” she said.
Orkalia is one of 12 brands – eight ready-to-wear labels and four accessory designers – that have been showing this week in the famous old Marais district of Paris, introducing international buyers to Middle Eastern creativity and challenging any preconceptions of what Middle Eastern fashion is like.
Ganji originally focused on couture for Dubai’s vibrant party scene, but four seasons ago she launched Orkalia as a ready-to-wear collection, having developed a signature style of lovely hand-embroidery.
Also part of the collective was Bedouin, produced by designer Andraya Farrag, who graduated from the acclaimed London fashion college Central St Martin’s, and has a strong line in easy-to-wear, contemporary, travel-friendly fashion. The other brands included Kage and Hashé and accessory labels Madiso, with its supersized crystal embellished neck pieces, Noof’s metal-framed geometric clutch bags, and Bil Arabi’s fine calligraphic jewellery.
“I have done a trade show in Europe before, but this presentation is more focused, and earns us international credibility,” says Ava Hashemi, designer of the three-year-old label Hashé.
“Paris is targeted at the European market, but showing abroad also adds cachet to our brand at home. It puts another stamp of approval on what we are doing.”
Her artsy designs and bold graphic shapes are inspired by modern architecture. It is a cool and refreshing look that fits in with the modernist vibe in Europe, with quick flashes of colourful embroidered detail.
The showcase was organised by Muriel Piaser, the French consultant who has been advising Fashion Forward Dubai since its inception three years ago.
“Our strategy from the beginning was to introduce Middle Eastern designers to Paris, “ says Muriel Piaser. “It was our major objective and their dream.”
She created the concept and curated the labels she took to France to introduce to her large network of buyers and fashion opinion leaders.
She specifically chose young designers with a contemporary aesthetic, mixed with a bit of Middle Eastern tradition.
“We didn’t want to create a caricature of Middle Eastern design,” she says, “and the feedback we have had from the industry is how surprised they are, in a good way, to see so much contemporary design.”
The initiative was a public-relations exercise to give these young designers some international exposure, as success doesn’t happen overnight. It will be many years before they can hope to get to the level of Maison Rabih Kayrouz, who shuttered his haute couture to focus on a very successful ready-to-wear line that was presented on Sunday in an enchanting presentation featuring dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet. Their choreographed movements demonstrated the freedom of his naively printed cotton poplin caftans, oversized shirting and dresses.
Dance of a different kind dominated fellow Beirut-born designer Elie Saab, whose new spring collection, shown on Saturday, recalled his youth and what he describes as the last days of disco. So it had star-spangled dresses, taut jackets with leg “mutton sleeves” (a very 1980s look) and skinny pants or frilly ra-ra skirts worn by the likes of Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss.
The focus was on black and gold although there were a few Op Art prints, and while this was a very different vision for Saab, it didn’t lack in excitement or glamour.
With their names in lights, Saab and Kayrouz are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the enthusiastic young designers at Fashion Forward, but the new generation is not short of ambition.
Fashion Forward runs from October 20 to 23 at Dubai Design District.
artslife@thenational.ae
