Vogue fashion show in Dubai highlights emerging talents

This year Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience is bigger no doubt but it has also expanded its fundamentals in terms of nurturing emerging designers.

With a selection of fashion elites and inspiration from around the world, Vogue’s Fashion Dubai Experience kicked off a runway show earlier this week.

The two-day event at the Dubai Mall ushered a parade of international designers with their ready-to-wear brands and haute accessories to the public.

The third edition of the event – and largest fashion show in the Middle East in terms of designers and guest appearances – not only managed to attract fashionistas and connoisseurs but also ennobled Dubai as the fashion hub for promising talents in the region.

The collaboration between Dubai-based real estate developer Emaar and Vogue Italia inaugurated a talent scouting initiative for 25 emerging talents from the Middle East, Asia and Africa in the “Who is on Next? Dubai.” Eight designers from the 25 were shortlisted to display their repertoire.

The 8 international talents are:
• Krikor Jabotian
• Studio 189
• Xiao Li
• Arthur Arbesser
• The Kayys
• L72
• Reem Al Kanhal
• Melitta Baumeister

“This year, Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience is bigger no doubt but it has also expanded its fundamentals in terms of nurturing emerging designers,” Alia Al Mur, Senior Marketing and Events Manager for The Dubai Mall, told reporters.

Emaar’s chairman Mohammad al-Abbar and Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani were sat in the front row for the debut while models sauntered the runway showcasing new ranges of seasonal prints and textiles.

“I’m really quite excited to see the evolution of our collaboration to a point where not only is it a new, advancing and uplifting industry that we are in, but [one which] we do something that is also meaningful,” Abbar told reporters.

“The whole industry is going through change and that is the industry that we’re in, an industry of change and evolution all the time especially if you’re in this type of business,” Abbar added.

Sozzani said a commitment built with Dubai has become “stronger and stronger” and is happy that Christian Louboutin could join this new project as it entails a “prospering” shared collaboration.

“We don’t give money, we give support awareness and product distribution,” she added, in reference to the awards given to the winning designers.

One of the 25 designers, Yoyo Pan from Taiwan, has focused on shoe design. She said she struggled to find a brand that fit with her own panache.

“I started doing my own shoes and I found out that people liked it so I started my own brand,” she told Al Arabiya News. “Architectures and industrial designs are what inspired me, for example this looks like the Sydney Opera House,” she said pointing at a pair which resemble a cross between a pump shoe and a wedge heel.

Jody Paulsen, a South African designer, told Al Arabiya News how he found his inspiration.

“Last year, I went to Lisbon and there was an artist, Maria Keil, who makes this amazing mosaic on the metro so I basically took photographs and started making prints out of it.”

At the show, Aurora James, the creative director of New York-based brand Brother Vellies, showcased her unique line of footwear inspired by the traditional African designs – a collection of denim jeans, culottes and sandals.

The night ended with a musical performance by former model Carla Bruni and Algerian singer Cheb Khaled.

The UAE is the largest design market in the region, totaling $27.6bn in design revenues in 2014, according to the MENA Design Outlook report released last week.