We were in Dubai, at the Royal Gala hosted by princess Sheikha Hend Al Qassemi: entrepreneur, artist, designer, photographer, and philanthropist.
Apart from being a great hostess, Sheikha is a powerful and daring woman who, from her role as editor-in-chief of Velvet magazine and with her brand, House of Hend, is leading Arab fashion to the highest places in the market and is showing to the world that the Middle East is a vibrant and creative region. Here, our talk with her.
The designers were selected by you?
Yes, I chose them. I met some of them abroad, some others have clients here and so I thought it was a good idea to bring them.
There are designers from Russia, Iran…from all over the World. Why did you choose each one of them?
Iranian designers surprised me because of the exquisite quality of their pieces of clothing. I chose to bring French designers because of their history, haute couture was born there and I wanted to have that legacy here. We also have Filipino designers, Russian…we have designers from all over the world because we wanted to show diversity.
Do you believe that Dubai is a meeting point for fashion?
I do believe so. Everything we wear is mixture and fusion. We wear French, Italian, Iranian, Russian, Spanish, Argentine, Mexican clothes… we wear pieces of clothing from different countries all the time.
We’ve heard that you want to spread the fashion scene in the region…
Yes, we’re working on it. We are looking for the possibility of having the support of the government in order to strengthen the fashion industry here and develop a Dubai Fashion Week.
What do you think a Dubai Fashion Week can give to Dubai?
It would help to show the diversity that is inherent of the place. Dubai is not just Arab, Dubai is a global city, and we want to make global the local and local the global: that is our identity and that is what we want to show.
Special Thanks to Sophie Bogarné