As it looks to carve its own niche on the global sartorial calendar, Dubai Fashion Week has raised its own stakes. This season, it has lured haute couturier Maison Sara Chraibi to join its schedule, alongside Dubai's own couture studio Michael Cinco and one of Malaysia's best known labels Rizman Ruzaini.
Alongside these big-name draws, all manner of smaller yet dynamic brands are also being showcased across the city. Here are the standout moments so far.
Rizman Ruzaini
How do you follow having Naomi Campbell walk the runway in your previous Dubai Fashion Week outing? That was the dilemma facing Malaysian designers Rizman Nordin and Ruzaini Jamil, who kicked off the autumn winter 2024 season. Their solution is instead to let the clothes do the talking, doubling down on a well-earned reputation for elegant glamour, such as this bombshell look of fishtail skirt and feathered jacket.
Maison Sara Chraibi
In something of a coup for the event, Moroccan haute couturier Maison Sara Chraibi brought its fresh-off-the-Paris-runway collection to Dubai. In a reshowing of its spring 2024 couture collection – with a handful of new pieces made especially for the event – the collection was inspired by the resilience shown after last year's earthquake in the country. Known for using traditional Moroccan handwork across its pieces, the designer is also the only Arab woman presently working in haute couture.
Mrs Keepa
Debuting its upscale new line Mrs Keepa Studio, the label let loose all its cutting skills. In a collection inspired by the ocean, what could have been a literal series of looks in shimmery blue, is instead an almost all-black parade of dresses reduced to sleek body-con lines and beautiful volume to represent forms such as nautilus shells, coral reefs and mermaids.
Selfmade
Leaning into its knack for denim, for autumn/winter 2024, Selfmade conjured some skilful looks from an assortment of upscaled jeans, trousers and jackets. Handled with restraint, the result is wearable, plausible and very self assured, with an effortless feel.
Emergency Room Beirut
Giving its ethos of upcycling old clothes into new, this edgy brand from Lebanon continues to extract treasure from ashes. This latest collection is notable for a button front jacket with furry sleeves – seemingly carved from a discarded child's blanket – and an intriguing parade of lace dresses reworked from old curtains and bedspreads. Charmingly rough around the edges, from the exuberant patchworking to the raw seams left on show, there seems to be no limit to the creativity within this label.
Michael Cinco
For the new season, Cinco pushed himself far out of his comfort zone and delivered a glorious collection that riffed on Japanese Samurai. Already well known for his sumptuous womenswear – Cinco was invited to join the celebrated ranks of Parisian haute couture for his red carpet dressing – he focused on his relatively new menswear line, in a gamble that paid off.
Amid the grand-yet-familiar ball gowns, Cinco delivered men's painted kimono, worn over crisp white shirts and a obi-style belt knotted at the waist; boxy, double breasted suits in blush; and cropped, square cut jackets and skirt-trouser hybrids in molten metal, for an entirely new narrative. With its dresses regularly snapped up by A-listers, this showing of menswear proved that Cinco has a lot more to say beyond big skirts and plunging necklines.
