The third version of Riyadh Style Week marked a step change for the fledgling showcase, attracting worldwide labels, retailers and editors to transporting, open-air runway venues and showcasing the enchantment of its homegrown modest fashions — and spectacular special-occasion put on.
“Actually, I didn’t count on that a lot, and it’s been unbelievable,” stated Manel Aboudaoud, proprietor and designer of Manel, a Dubai-based eveningwear-focused model and one among 5 worldwide names collaborating in style week for the primary time. “Eight shops wish to work with me.…I will likely be everywhere in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council countries].”
Aboudaoud staged an intimate salon present on Oct. 19 and in addition displayed her designs in a industrial showroom arrange throughout the golden sphere atop the Norman Foster-designed Al-Faisaliah Tower, the primary skyscraper to be in-built Saudi Arabia in 2000, kicking off its urbanization drive. The providing ranged from enjoyable slogan T-shirts and unfastened linen separates to lavish night robes and jewellery.
The schedule stretched over six days, with 45 manufacturers staging runway reveals or shows. There have been as much as six back-to-back reveals at distant venues that always ran as a lot as 90 minutes late, testing the endurance and stamina of editors from numerous worldwide Vogues, NSS Journal, Les Echos and Dazed Korea — along with a large swathe of regional press.
One runway venue, set in a dramatically lit canyon, was anointed Bedrock.
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Individuals ranged from native couture stalwarts Ashwaq Almarshad, Tima Abid and Adnan Akbar to widespread mall-based manufacturers like Leema and Femi9, which gifted straw hats with lace chin straps to front-row friends, dovetailing with its Victorian-inspired assortment.
There have been two days dedicated to informal and streetwear manufacturers in Riyadh’s warehouse district, with a number of fashions within the RBA present on Sunday accessorized with hooded falcons, which didn’t appear to thoughts the pounding dance music.
The up-for-it crowd at these reveals clamored for seats and photograph ops on the step-and-repeat partitions, sporting an array of seems stretching from abayas to board shorts and sneakers.
Demure fit-and-flare silhouettes predominated on the runways and shows, with fringe and crystal among the many widespread gildings.
A gown by Ashwaq Almarshad on the runway at Riyadh Style Week.
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Whereas the dominion has relaxed gown codes in recent times — naked arms, shoulders and backs had been seen on front-row friends and on runways — style week organizers should nonetheless clear all offered photos from the reveals with the Ministry of Tradition, which funds the Saudi Style Fee, organizer of the Riyadh showcase.
Organizers are hip to the burgeoning curiosity in Asian stars, therefore, there have been paparazzi frenzies over Thai actors Faye Peraya and Win Metawin, together with worldwide notables like Georgina Rodríguez, Cristiano Ronaldo’s fiancée, who turned up at Mona Alshebil’s present in a trenchcoat with broderie anglaise detailing.
On the sidelines of the runway reveals had been launch occasions together with a late-night dinner at Carbone that eyewear retailer Eyewa hosted to launch its collaboration with eL Seed, a French Tunisian calligraphy artist and muralist.
The style week provided a possibility to exalt Saudi hospitality — espresso, dates, canapés and juices had been proffered at each flip — and town’s myriad aspects, from its luscious groves of date palms to imposing skyscrapers just like the Kingdom Centre Tower, which lights up with promoting at night time.
Demand for Saudi manufacturers within the kingdom is surging, as sporting a Saudi label is more and more turning into a degree of delight.
“I’ll be sporting a gown from a Saudi designer in Paris, and folks ask me about it. I really feel so proud,” stated Nouf Alnamlah, Farfetch’s first senior stylist in Saudi Arabia, who now works with high-profile shoppers. “Individuals actually love a great Saudi model — one thing from our personal that represents us in a manner that understands our wants.”
Based on designer Reem Alkanhal, “Saudi girls have all the time been naturally trendy. I witnessed this rising up with my grandmother, mom and their pals. That’s the place I largely draw my inspiration.”
That stated, type has developed organically amongst youthful generations.
Mirai on the runway throughout Riyadh Style Week.
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“What is exclusive is how they’re residing the now, however nonetheless loving our conventional abaya,” Alkanhal stated. “They mix and embrace the fashionable with the standard, mess around extra and experiment with types and colours. It’s vibrant, joyous and enjoyable. It’s not one thing new to Saudi girls, it’s simply new to the world.”
Alkanhal’s final assortment featured cropped jackets with removable sleeves, giving girls the choice to make use of items with versatility.
“You possibly can have a sleeveless look or a peekaboo have an effect on in the event you desire to cowl your arms.” This, she famous, isn’t only for Saudi girls, however resonates all over the place. “Many ladies everywhere in the world don’t desire to point out arms, so that they have the choice to [offer a peekaboo of] some pores and skin with out feeling insecure.”
A number of showgoers had been seen sporting T-shirts declaring “Saudi Arabia Is the Future,” a design that went viral after showing on the catwalk in Hindamme’s present final yr.
Many streetwear manufacturers emblazoned their designs with optimistic slogans like “12 new chapters, 365 new possibilities” writ throughout an anorak by Cargo, or “Mercy,” spelled out in English and Arabic on a T-shirt from Home of Cenmar.
Saudi heritage and nationwide delight figured throughout many collections, with geometric rooflines a graphic element on the unfastened males’s alterna-suiting from Noble & Recent, and odes to varied areas spelled out in spirals of Arabic characters on Hindamme’s second-skin attire.
The Femi9 present occurred on the foot of the Kingdom Centre Tower.
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Most contributors confirmed fall 2025 collections on the runway as a see now, purchase now effort, whereas taking orders for spring 2026 collections within the industrial showroom, operated by White Milano.
Italian streetwear model Ih Nom Uh Nit, collaborating in Riyadh for the primary time, stated it expanded its wholesale shopper roster within the area and observed an instantaneous surge in gross sales fanned by social media posts within the wake of its runway present. “Our e-commerce went loopy,” gross sales supervisor Carlotta Tassi stated.
The Saudi style business is predicted to succeed in $42 billion by 2028, with style contributing 2.5 % to the dominion’s gross home product.
And the Saudi Style Fee was working extra time to offer native manufacturers a leg up, internet hosting 70 consumers, most of them worldwide.
Rebirth on the runway throughout Riyadh Style Week.
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Amongst main retailers in attendance was Judd Crane, govt director of shopping for and model at Selfridges, which hosted a clutch of Saudi manufacturers at its London flagship over the summer time for what he stated was a “very profitable” pop-up.
Mona Alshebil was “the top-performing model” on the occasion and will likely be again within the division retailer’s womenswear edit in 2026. Additionally becoming a member of will likely be Abadia, whose “robust present this week reaffirmed our curiosity within the designer from final yr’s quick checklist,” Crane stated.
There have been some new finds as effectively for the retail govt. “Mirai was a prime new discovery of the week,” Crane shared. “The humorous Not Boring ‘bodega-inspired’ merch store was one other spotlight, with T-shirts cleverly boxed with video games and stickers alongside baskets of baseball caps.” Crane stated Selfridges is “eager” to plan activations with each designers in 2026.
“We felt energized after a number of days at Riyadh Style Week. We proceed to be considering sharing a world perspective by means of our style provide, in a manner that’s significant each for a world and native Selfridges buyer,” he stated.
A males’s look from Eleven.
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“What’s taking place right here is unbelievable — the vitality, the engagement of the designers,” agreed Brenda Bellei, chief govt officer of White Milano as she escorted Uberta Zambeletti, founding father of Milanese retailer Wait and See, across the three-level showroom.
Bellei trumpeted a robust rapport between worth and high quality among the many Saudi collections on show. “Consumers are not in search of one thing costly,” she harassed.
For instance, Manel’s Aboudaoud stated her common promoting worth for a night robe is about $750 regardless of her use of prime materials, a tactic to assist her six-year-old label develop.
The showcase had a notable Italian accent, with Italian model Amen parading its newest assortment on the runway, and Italian jewelers L’Eight Studio and Coppola e Toppo showcasing their wares within the showroom, the latter securing a large order from an Italian retailer attending the week.
For first-time guests to Riyadh, it was an introduction to its vigorous native style scene, the place dressing-to-the-nines is the norm, and female-led and designed manufacturers rule, particularly within the couture house.
“It’s been one thing that many ladies on this nation aspired to, it was an open house,” stated Burak Cakmak, CEO of the Saudi Style Fee. “They had been capable of construct their companies and straight promote to their audiences right here — different girls within the nation. It made it much more intimate and simpler in non-public settings, as a result of they didn’t even have retail areas.”
A night look by Waad Aloqaili, designed by sisters Waad and Ahlam Aloqaili.
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Cakmak sees that as a “huge alternative” on condition that Saudi feminine designers perceive consolation, the physique and “what girls wish to appear to be.” As well as, they perceive the life-style of Saudi girls when at house and touring.
“Because of this, they’re capable of introduce merchandise on the proper time for the precise events, which any worldwide designer, man or lady, would possibly wrestle to know,” he stated.
In the meantime, a brand new crop of ready-to-wear manufacturers is rising like Abadia, which “understands the mindset round how girls from this area wish to gown, which may be very a lot translatable to the remainder of the world,” based on Cakmak. “Anybody, wherever on this planet, at any age can really feel snug in it.”
When Abadia did a pop-up at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, it attracted consideration and purchases from American and European girls “simply because it’s a brand new model they’re discovering, with out figuring out that it was even Saudi model,” Cakmak stated.
Not Regular’s pop-up bodega at Riyadh style week.
In the meantime, younger males dominate the burgeoning streetwear scene as historically, few Saudi girls designed garments for males.
“However even then, within the streetwear house, we’ve got a number of manufacturers which can be female-owned, and they’re aligned with world traits, designing for each women and men, as many manufacturers are actually transferring into each gender in all their merchandise,” Cakmak stated.
Fahad Al Jomiah, CEO of a streetwear model 1886, known as its participation a milestone second.
“We needed to showcase how far Saudi style has come and the way it can proudly stand on a world stage,” he stated. “The response was past expectations, each regionally and internationally. For us, it wasn’t nearly presenting garments; it was about presenting confidence proving that Saudi design right now is formidable, related, and able to compete globally.”
