In fashion, all that glitters isn’t gold

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Dubai Fashion Week attracts designers and buyers from all over the Gulf. But is the fashion fraternity really ready to splash the cash on Middle East couture?

From Kingston to Kiev, every city worth its salt has got itself a fashion week in the last ten years or so. Dubai is no exception, and Dubai Fashion Week (DFW) is in the enviable position of sitting in a region where there is little competition: its catchment area stretches across the GCC and beyond.

“The objective is to give an opportunity to the young and the local designers from the region, and when I say the region I mean the GCC as well as south Asia, to an extent,” says Rohit C Sabikhi, director of fashion at Concept Events, the organiser.

Sabikhi was previously involved in the creation of India’s Lakme fashion week and spent four years at IMG, the company behind the New York, Berlin and Sydney fashion weeks.

“Dubai is young, it will definitely take time for it to reach those levels. It depends on when the participation from designers from the industry starts to grow,” he says.

In capital cities around the world, fashion weeks have become major deal-making events. Buyers at London Fashion Week placed some $19m in orders following the event in September last year, according to data from the London Development Agency. Faced by a sputtering global economy, London Mayor Boris Johnson decided to spend $57,000 on flying in key buyers from Dubai and other parts of the Middle East for the February edition of the semiannual event.

The same buyers seem reluctant to spend quite as much money at DFW, however. Sabikhi says he doesn’t know how much money was spent at last year’s event, but several industry players in Dubai downplay the week’s importance.

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