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UAE: How the local fashion scene represents South Asian trends
What’s happening on the runway isn’t only closely watched by up and coming designers, it is also an opportunity for retailers in the region to take note of current fashion trends
The runway was dark and humming with anticipation. The only glow in the room came from the sea of phone screens in the crowd. Every seat was taken, either by a guest who arrived early enough to slip past the long line outside the hall or by VIPs whose spots were reserved like prime real estate.
Some unlucky fashion week guests ended up standing wedged between the rows, while others stayed pressed against the doors outside, waiting for a seat that was never going to open. When the show finally opened, a bass dropped and electronic beats echoed through the room as a lone spotlight cut through the darkness, catching each model as he or
she emerged.
The silhouettes were loud. Shoulders were blown out, necklines strangled high, some pants carved open with cutouts to the ankle, and silk dresses dragged behind like smoke. Each model strutted a new concept representing a creative at FAD Institute of Luxury Fashion & Style Dubai, Dubai’s leading fashion school. This was the closing show for day five at Dubai Fashion Week (DFW) SS26 that took place this month.
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When it comes to fashion week rulebooks, Paris and Milan have long reigned as power brokers. But in Dubai, things are a bit different. The UAE’s fashion space echoes themes showcased by FAD talent: chaotic, diverse, experimental.
The headliners at DFW weren’t European houses but designers from Mumbai, Malaysia, Beirut, and beyond. Rizman Ruzaini, a designer from Malaysia, opened the calendar alongside Mumbai’s Krésha Bajaj, a pairing that immediately signaled Southeast Asia and India were driving the conversation.
Ruzaini’s label, which made headlines when Naomi Campbell walked its DFW show two years ago, has become synonymous with red-carpet glamour across Asia. Bajaj, meanwhile, is best known for her intricately embroidered “Love Story” lehengas, which bring Indian bridal couture into the global spotlight.
On day two, Bengaluru’s Fioletowy, co-founded by Samatha Chandrashekar, brought a global-fusion take that blurred fashion and performance art. Meanwhile, Nicaragua’s Erick Bendaña, recently named by Forbes as one of Latin America’s most influential designers, added a rare Central American voice to the week. Closing the loop, Tara Babylon, the British-Iraqi designer making noise in New York, showed midweek with a performance-driven collection that pulled from streetwear, club culture, and her own heritage.
DFW is still young compared to Paris, Milan, or New York, but it is quickly becoming a platform for Global South designers. This season’s lineup drew labels from South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, giving them exposure to buyers and press who rarely encounter them in the European circuit. The geographic position of Dubai, a hub that connects Asia, the Gulf and Europe, is part of its advantage, allowing the event to attract a broader mix of talent and audiences than older fashion capitals.
This year’s SS26 calendar pulls in 30-plus designers from 13 countries. The Global South dominates the lineup, with names from India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Lebanon, and Nicaragua taking top slots alongside Dubai’s homegrown talent. Compared to last season’s 35 designers from 17 countries, the mix is narrower, but sharper, positioning Dubai squarely as the stage where Southern voices get seen first.
Few people in Dubai know the rhythms of fashion weeks like Phillippa Kennedy, a senior PR director at Brazen MENA, a public relations and social agency that handles clients in the luxury and lifestyle sector. She’s worked around 40 fashion weeks in Europe as a PR liaison, stylist assistant, or in other backstage roles supporting major luxury houses over the course of her career prior to settling in her role in the UAE.
“Geographically, where Dubai is located, smack bang in the middle of the world, you should have designers from surrounding areas,” she said. “What you want to see is a lot of Arabic talent, a lot of South Asian talent, anyone east of the Western markets… I do think it is a very deliberate decision from the Arab Fashion Council to include those names.”
Phillippa argued that Dubai’s appeal isn’t only about geography but also about money. “This part of Arabia, but also Southeast Asia and the subcontinent, has so much spending power, and someone has to cater to that,” she said.
The numbers bear it out. Fashion was the largest luxury category in the GCC last year at $5.2 billion (Dh19 billion), just ahead of watches at $5.1 billion (Dh1.8 billion), according to a Chalhoub Group case study. And in the UAE alone, the luxury goods market is forecast to reach $4.4 billion (Dh16.1 billion) in 2025 and climb to $5.7 billion (Dh20.9 billion) by 2030, according to a Research and Markets report.
Kennedy notes that in places like India or Kuala Lumpur, where fashion weeks aren’t established or consistent, designers are looking for a stage to be part of something bigger. For now, she said, Dubai is offering them that platform and showcase space.
At the same time, she acknowledged that Dubai still lacks the history and heritage that keep Parisian maisons rooted at home. “If you’re a Parisian brand with an atelier in France, why would you come to Dubai to show? You’d stay where your house is,” she said. For Kennedy, the challenge is that Dubai hasn’t yet built the legacy to consistently pull in the biggest names. “There’s still a lot of trial and error, both culturally and in the fashion space.”
Aaiza Z., projects and partnerships lead for UAE Country Management at Chalhoub Group, said there’s no better place for fashion experimentation than Dubai. “[The city] is the hub of everything — innovation and pioneering sit at the heart of it,” she said. For Aaiza, fashion week is a conversation that luxury retail cannot afford to ignore. “It’s an iconic moment for the city.”
“Wherever luxury meets innovation, you will find Chalhoub Group championing possibilities,” she added.
Aaiza also noted that Chalhoub Group’s senior vice-president Grace Khourey launched a partnership this year with FAD, the UAE-based fashion institute that closed the week with its student showcase. The initiative included Benedict Blanc, GM for Aspirational Luxury, as part of the jury. This, she explained, is a sign of Chalhoub’s investment in nurturing the next generation of regional talent.
Aaiza also pointed to the Italian Trade Agency, a key sponsor of DFW and a long-standing partner of Chalhoub Group through its homegrown brand Level Shoes, headed by Elisa Bruno. She called Level Shoes “a success story in its own right”, one that reflects how Dubai is becoming a breeding ground for established fashion economies and new designers alike to test the waters and forge partnerships with emerging markets.
On day three, the Italian Trade Agency staged The Italian Day in Dubai, bringing a lineup of Italian designers to the runway. It wasn’t about Milan exporting its DNA so much as Milan showing up where the conversation is moving.
It’s not just a stage for star designers like Ruzaini or Bendaña to debut their seasons. What makes DFW distinct from Paris or Milan is that it lowers its barriers to entry. Smaller labels that might struggle to break through in Europe can find an easier way in here, giving them visibility in front of buyers, press, and consumers who might never have seen their work otherwise.
One designer watching closely from the sidelines is Nadina Buturovic, a Bosnian creative based in the UAE who once worked in Paris. Her label, BNS, operates mostly online and through pop-ups across the Emirates, including a collaboration with THAT Concept Store. For her, DFW represents the kind of stage that could give visibility to independent designers who don’t yet have the scale of established houses but are building loyal followings in the region. BNS, she hopes, will resonate with buyers looking for timeless, elegant, and feminine pieces that are primarily made from natural fabrics. “You can see it in the shows,” Buturovic said about the diversity at DFW. “At the last DFW I attended, you can see designers from the Philippines, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.” This openness to brands from all over lead Buturovic to believe there is more opportunity for spotlighting smaller brands like hers.
Competitive space
However, it goes without saying that the UAE fashion market is very competitive and it is challenging to be in, Buturovic explained. “I do believe it is more open compared to Europe.” After a year or two of building her brand and network, she hopes to debut a summer collection on the DFW catwalk.
Similarly, Fatima AlRemeithi, a creative and cultural professional working in the fashion space in Abu Dhabi has attended three DFWs so far. As a professional in public relations, design, and the modelling space, she has worn many hats, as both an attendee and employee working in and around fashion week. She primarily works for a production studio in Abu Dhabi called TribeWNos. She also helped co-launch an Emirati-led streetwear brand called free minds universe. “I really want to appreciate and express the fact that Dubai fashion Week is, I think, a very accessible event space to be in,” AlRemeithi said.
“If you are in the fashion community and you’ve kind of done even just a little modicum of work to put yourself out there — whether you’re a designer, a model, an influencer, a content creator — I’ve seen creatives across the board, be able to come and enjoy the shows,” she explained. She adds that she cherishes the opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals in the UAE’s fashion community.
But for AlRemeithi, a huge part of the conversation is giving way to diverse professionals in the space. “I love that we’re celebrating our Indian designers because the South Asian community is such a big part of this cosmopolitan city and this country,” she said.
AlRemeithi points out that it’s not just the designers that come from all over, the celebration of differences can also be seen on the runways. “Colourism isn’t much of an issue here,” she said. “I also saw a lot of plus-sized models and mid-sized models on the runway.”
As someone who worked behind the scenes for both Dubai and New York fashion weeks, she found her experience in the UAE to be a lot more cosmopolitan. “You have a mix of both Western and Eastern values here,” AlRemeithi said. Being in the epicentre of the world, the conversations expressed through the fashion and designers at DFW are a lot more reflective of the global community present regionally, she explained. “In New York, there’s still — in terms of designers — a commitment to big labels and big names.” In Dubai, there’s less of that, AlRemeithi explained.
What’s happening on the runway isn’t only closely watched by up and coming designers, it is also an opportunity for retailers in the region to take note of current fashion trends. Emily Abraham, founder of Knightsbridge and Dubai-based pre-loved designer boutique Love Luxury, shared that she attends DFW each season. “It’s important to keep up to date with what’s going on in the industry, both on and off the catwalks, and I like to support local designers, too,” Abraham said. “Trends do have an influence on what consumers are looking for when they come to us, the demand for colours and shapes do change from season to season,” she added, explaining the influence of the fashion scene on her boutique’s purchasing and consumer buyer behaviour.
Everyone benefits
Kennedy agrees. Fashion week, and events in the tight knit UAE fashion market in general, creates opportunities not just for retailers to track trends and change what’s on their racks, but it also creates room for smaller and more local designers to land business deals. A designer showcasing for the first time might get the attention of a local luxury boutique or a bigger retailer like Bloomingdale’s or THAT Concept Store to get shelf space. At the end of the day, fashion is business, Kennedy said.
“As DFW gains more credibility, it would be interesting to see if some of the big fashion houses started to think, ‘okay, we could take a leap of faith and kind of show our Arab collection there,” Kennedy said about luxury houses like Prada that sell unique collections to its Gulf buyers. Looking ahead, Dubai really needs to cement itself as an influential voice and sort of create an “invented heritage”, she explained. That, in turn, will move the “global fashion world towards it.” However, it needs to, at the same time, celebrate its geographic space, Kennedy said.
All things considered, the Arab Fashion Council only started formally running events in 2023, although it was founded in 2015. “It’s like a baby,” Kennedy said. A baby, that is, born with a silver spoon in its mouth.
“When you have the crème de la creme coming to the city more and more, then diversity is just a given,” Aaiza said, alluding to the wealth coming to the UAE from all over the world. As DFW establishes itself more and more in the global fashion world, it will — without a doubt, become a regional hub for the business of fashion.
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