Saudi Arabia’s first ever Arab Fashion Week opened Tuesday (April 10th) with designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Roberto Cavalli headlining the event, AFP reported.
The Saudi Arabian edition of Arab Fashion Week brings together designers from Europe and the Arab world -- including the kingdom's own Arwa Banawi -- over the course of four days.
Princess Noura Bint Faisal Al-Saud, honorary president of the Arab Fashion Council in Riyadh, joined designers, influencers, and industry insiders for the inaugural season of fashion week at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh.
"Our fashion council is trying to bring the fashion industry in Saudi Arabia to a whole new level, a whole new industry," Princess Noura told AFP at the event.
Listed as an international fashion week alongside Paris and Milan, Arab Fashion Week offers exclusively see-now-buy-now collections and pre-collections. Until this week, it had been hosted exclusively by Gulf fashion capital Dubai.
But unlike Dubai, the Riyadh shows are not open to cameras, and attendees remain women-only.
A second edition of Saudi Arab Fashion Week is already scheduled for October.
Dubai will continue to host its own Arab Fashion Week, with the sixth edition set for May 9th to 12th.
