Arab Fashion Week Dubai Highlights 2021
The Arab Fashion Week took place in Dubai at the Dubai Design District, a space where the world of art, design and fashion co-exist. The AFW inaugurated the fashion event by introducing the first in-person Fashion Icon Awards and Arab Fashion Council names Barbie, the most diverse fashion doll in the world, as the Fashion Icon 2021. The gala dinner hosted celebrities as well as some important figures in the fashion industry to celebrate the Spring Summer 2022 collection.
The awards ceremony ended with the Maya Diab Performance that presented the Trophy to Kim Culmone, Mattel’s Senior Vice President of Global Barbie Design and Moschino’s fashion show inspired by Barbie and Jeremy Scott received the Council’s Medal of Honor.
The brands that walked the runway on the second day are: Amato, Euphoria, Ihab Jirys and Gosia Baczynska. The season was opened by Amato Couture, its creative director Furne One decided to show off an incredible collection dominated by the colors of red and black. Evening dresses and body suits were the main characters of the runway both characterized by embroideries that clearly recall the renaissance style of the brand. The spotlight moved then to the local label Euphoria, which has showed a ready couture collection of classy evening dresses dominated by pastel colors and sequins. The third brand that walked the runway was the palestinian label Ihab Jirys, showing off an elegant and feminine collection of both evening and bridal dresses, which are mostly embroidered by crystals and dominated by pastel colors. The central elements of the evening dresses are the sequins, the main color is black.
The polish label, Gosia Baczynka, closed the runway on the second day of the show, exposing a collection of both evening wear and daily wear, dominated by soft and pastel colors, sequins, maxi lengths dresses characterized by modern cuts.
The brands that showed their collection on the third day of the event are: Yara bin Shakar, Dorota Goldpoint, Autonomie, Weinsanto and Christian Cowan. The runway was opened by the Emirati designer Yara bin Shakar, showing a collection of pastel light colors, light fabric, prints and sleeveless cuts. The second brand to walk on the runway is the polish brand Dorota Goldpoint, showing a collection mostly made of simple and classic evening dresses, dominated by floral prints of warm colors. The main color used for this collection is red for both dresses and accessories. The next brand founded by the Egyptian creative director Maha Ahmend, Autonomie, showed the Aramex capsule collection where all the looks are up cycled, which consists in transforming wasted materials or unwanted materials in great quality products. Most of the looks have asymmetrical silhouettes and are dominated by custom prints.
The fourth brand to walk the runway was Victor Weinsanto, a French designer who launched an extravagant collection made of very bright colors and took some elements of traditional Alsace dress, recalling the culture of his hometown. Having worked beside Jean Paul Gaultier before launching his brand last year, Weinsanto loves runway razzle-dazzle, therefore everything is extremely creative from the pretzel-shaped braids propped on headbands to very original handbags. The designer Christian Cowan closed the day by exhibiting a very playful collection made of party cloth-theme with feathers, crystals and very creative and original prints. The looks are all dominated by warm colors and have the ability to stand out thanks to the feathers, crystals and sequins that light up the dresses in the best way.
The protagonists of the fourth day of the AFW are: BLSSD, Poca & Poca, Glory Ang and Emergency Room. The brand to open the show was Blssd, a lebanese-dubai based label showed a ready to wear collection of fashionable urban street luxe dominated by oversize looked and maxi skirts. The colors of the collection are mainly black, metallic silver and white.
The polish label Poca & Poca walked next, presenting a very feminine and classy collection dominated by pastel colors of mainly pink tones. The distinctive feature of the dresses are bows, pleats and ruffles which recall the elegant style of the brand, some of the looks were then completed by the use of very fashionable sun glasses with a pearl chain.
The third brand to walk the runway was the Colombian label Glory Ang. The collection reflected at the best the South American culture, by presenting printed looks using both bright and pastel colors. The protagonist of the collection was no doubt the dress but the brand decided to show its bikinis as well dominated by prints and pastel colors just like the main dresses.
The brand that closed the show in the fourth day was Emergency room, presenting its “Neverland” collection by casting clients, fans and supporters to walk the runway on the voice of the creative director, French-Beirut based Eric Bitter, telling the story of the hard situation that the Lebanese community is going through. The collection reflected the sustainable approach of the brand.
The last day of the AFW saw walking the Spring-Summer 22 collections of: Zeena Zaki, Michael Leyva, RC Caylan and Michael Cinco. The brand that opened the last day of the AFW is Zeena Zaki, thought a recorded video where the designer greets the audience from Costa Rica the place she is currently at on a peace mission. The collection filled the runway with glamorous evening dresses personalized with simple cuts, sequins, ruffles silhouettes and pastel colors. The second brand to walk the runway was Micheal Levya, the Manila base Pilipino designer has showcase his collection of glamorous couture growns, dominated by bright colors and embroidery. The third brand to present its collection is RC Caylan. Its Spring-Summer collection is an explosion of most dark colors dominated by floral prints that recall the culture of the Philippines and smart cuts.
The brand that closed the AFW was the Dubai base label Michael Cinco that showcased his collection dominated by art, in fact the prints of the pieces of clothing were inspired by Gustav Klimt. The designer expressed his vision of beauty through the models that walked the show.
A model with a prosthetic leg walked the runway in a black dress short at the front and long in the back, a second model walked out with a prosthetic arm and after a curvy model walked out with an amazing tight sparkling black dress.
Photos credit by Arab Fashion Council