Dubai Fashion Week A/W 2010

The 7th installment of the Dubai Fashion week found me attending the Iconic show which was very well attended. The recently opened megastore sits in old Dubai in Deira City cnetre and offers every type of Fashion with over 200 brands spanning from the affordable high street fashion to more niche, cult brands and the premium brands that get Dubai shoppers excited.

I enjoyed the show and will be interested in what the in-store experience is like. In the next few months, I'll be trawling through the myriad of fashion outlets in Dubai to experience the brand offering.I want to see what's out there, for whom and how is it offered to them.

The TIA by Soraya and Ajay show was good to see because of the strong local influence. The colours were vibrant, almost to the point of shocking. The Sari's were less traditional and were probably designed for opulent occasions of which Dubai does not have a shortage of!

This show was less well attended which was a surprise, perhaps because it was late at night (close to 11pm) on a Saturday. Maybe it was because they didn't have goodie bags!

Although its been running for 7 years now, the Fashion week here still has a long way to go. There is no real buzz generated around it which is something worth exploring since the city is so label and fashion crazed. Its almost as though this event is only targeted at people in the fashion industry. I personally didn't come across any sort of messaging around it.

There are some positive aspects about the fashion week in Dubai, the main one being that it is totally supportive of local talent. If they were to bring in the more established brands from Europe, it would not allow for these local brands to flourish as we would witness the flea market effect of everyone flocking to the European brand shows and ignoring the local brands.

I look forward to the next Dubai Fashion Week!