The Fashion Trust Arabia, a non-profit fund supporting emerging design talent from the Middle East and North Africa, returned to Doha, Qatar for its seventh edition on Saturday. Six of the region’s up-and-coming designers, and one guest country winner, were awarded cash prizes and mentorships at the annual awards ceremony.
Moroccan designer Youssef Drisi took the ready-to-wear prize for his brand Late for Work, with Saudi-based Ziyad Albuainain winning the evening wear category. Meanwhile Morocco’s Leila Roukni was recognised for her label Talel in accessories; and Paris-based Egyptian Farah Radwan received the jewellery prize for her brand Fyr.
The winning designers in these four categories will each receive a financial grant of between $100,000 and $200,000 based on the size of their business and other factors, as well as having their collections carried by the FTA’s retail partners, Harrods and Ounass for one season, and receiving a year-long mentorship with The Bicester Collection.
Among other winners this year were Bahrain-born, Switzerland-raised designer Alaa Alaradi, who was the Franca Sozzani Debut Talent category winner, and will receive a grant of $50,000, and Bahrain’s sister duo Dalal and Fatema Alkhaja who won the Fashion Tech Award for their brand Touchless. Indian designer Kartik Kumra, founder of Kartik Research, was presented with this year’s guest country award, in partnership with the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre.
The winners were selected by a judging panel that included designers Christian Louboutin, Stefano Pilati, Giambattista Valli, Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Roseberry, Russian supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen as well as Lebanese couturier Zuhair Murad, accessories designer Amina Muaddi and BoF’s Imran Amed.
Miuccia Prada won the lifetime achievement award at this year’s ceremony. “I’m very happy to take this award mainly because it’s a symbol of cultural exchange and collaboration, and that’s very important,” said Prada upon accepting the honour.
FTA co-founder Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani co-hosted the inaugural Franca Fund Gala on Sunday to raise funds for preventative genomics. The event was held at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha in honour of the late Franca Sozzani, former Vogue Italia editor-in-chief, with Anna Wintour and Sozzani’s son, Francesco Carrozzini in attendance.
“Culture has always been important,” Al Thani told BoF. “When my father came to power, he wanted to revolutionise what culture meant, what art was…and invest in people through arts education, cultural institutions, museums — and you cannot really separate fashion from the art world.”
To demonstrate the interrelated nature of the two, Al Thani pointed to the career of London-based designer Erdem Moralioglu, whose namesake brand will be the focus of an exhibition in Qatar next year, and her own experiences. “We’re doing an exhibition here [as Erdem] is celebrating 20 years of his brand… He’s so inspired by art, and always shows his collections at the British Museum. [For my part] I entered fashion through the art world; it’s very much connected, it’s two sides of the same coin.”
Al Thani noted the “fundamental” role that fashion exhibitions play in Qatar’s museum programmes. “Not as a statement of glamour but as incubators for talent, craftsmanship and ancestral learning.” This year, for example, the FTA launched ‘Threads of Impact’, an exhibition curated by Lagos Fashion Week founder Omoyemi Akerele, at Doha’s M7 arts hub, showcasing work of more than 80 designers who were past award winners, finalists or collaborators.
The ultimate goal for initiatives like Fashion Trust Arabia, Al Thani says, is about “investing in people, empowering them with the sophistication of culture, of arts education,” rather than seeing people only as consumers “and having money to buy things.”
The FTA was founded in 2018 by Qatar’s Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, mother of the Emir of Qatar and Sheikha Al Mayassa, and Lebanon-born Tania Fares who serves as co-chair. “Designers from the MENA region are inventive, daring, creative and visionary,” said Fares. The FTA exists “to give them visibility and support to travel globally.”
“The MENA region has gone through one of its hardest chapters in decades. So many of our countries, our people and our creatives have been tested in ways words can’t describe, and yet what continues to move me is the strength of our community, the way our designers keep creating, keep telling our stories and keep reminding the world of who we are,” Fares added.
The Qataris have bet big on the luxury fashion sector, making multiple investments in global brands and retailers from Valentino to Printemps through various vehicles. These and other investments sit alongside the FTA as a part of Qatar’s broader ambition to become a regional cultural hub, an increasingly important strand of the country’s plans to diversify its economy away from energy.
Additional reporting by Vikram Alexei Kansara.
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