Dubai Fashion Week promises best event

Organisers of the seventh season of Dubai Fashion Week are promising "the biggest fashion event ever" when it begins on Saturday – despite some designers' carping about the high entry price.

With new elements being introduced, a record number of catwalk shows and the biggest number of designers participating, Saif Ali Khan, the Executive Vice-President of Dubai Fashion Week (DFW), said his company has pulled out all stops to make this the event of the year.

A B2B event held twice a year according to fashion seasons, the DFW was launched in March 2007 with 16 designers and will now feature more than 35 shows with 48 fashion designers showcasing their autumn/winter collections at Jumeirah Emirates Towers. Another fashion week will be held later in the year to showcase the spring/summer collections.

More than 40 sponsors have signed up for the event, said Khan, who is also the Executive Vice-President of Concept Group, the Dubai-based company that organises it. The DFW Fashion Awards have also been introduced this season to recognise achievements in eight fashion-related categories.

"Throughout Dubai Fashion Week, our main objective is to strengthen ties and to build business relationships between the fashion industries," said Khan. "In addition to showcasing the region's top talent, DFW will spotlight up-and-coming talent through the Emerging Talent Contest which provides young designers with the rare opportunity to showcase their work at the event."

Pakistani fashion designer Hassan Sheheryar Yasin, whose label HSY is a regular at the DFW, said the event "provides a platform for designers to show their collections to a global audience".

"The fashion industry in the region has developed its owns style and identity and the DFW celebrates and recognises this,"?he said.

There's been some displeasure from designers about the participation price Khan and his company are levying on designers.

"I think I paid about Dh25,000 when I first started and it's been going up by Dh4,000 to Dh5,000 every season. Now I pay more than Dh35,000," said Emirati designer Mariam Al Mazro. "How can upcoming designers afford that?"

Another Emirati designer, Amal Murad, said she paid Dh35,000 to participate. "There are many talented designers out there, but sometimes they just cannot afford to participate."

Responding to the charges, Khan said his company has done it's best to bring costs down. "The fashion week has been making tremendous losses because of the cost of putting together such a massive event. We are a private company with no grants or support from any government organisation." The biggest organisational challenge has been to make sure the company breaks even while making sure it hosts a quality event, he added.

"We want to showcase the DFW as an international event. The vision is to have an event such as in Milan, Paris or London." Designers from India, Pakistan, Lebanon, the Philippines, the UAE and the region will participant in the event.

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