Baume & Mercier teams up with regional designers for Fashion Forward Dubai

As part of FFWD's 10th season, the notable Swiss watchmaker is turning to emerging designers to reimagine its timepieces

Zayan Ghandour teams up with Baume & Mercier for FFWD Season 10. Courtesy Baume & Mercier

With Paris Fashion Week now under way, we will soon be looking to Dubai’s own shows at Fashion Forward's 10th season in October.

Baume & Mercier has announced that it will be collaborating with FFWD for a second time.

Last year the Swiss watch company teamed up with bloggers, while this season it is going one better. Baume & Mercier’s design director, Alexandre Peraldi, is calling on regional designers to imbue its timepieces with a new flavour .

Hussein Bazaza, Zayan Ghandour and Rula Galayini have all been selected to create straps for the watches. Utilising the expertise of the watch craftsmen themselves, each designer will create three designs, one of which will then be selected and unveiled at FFWD, which runs from October 26 to 28 at Dubai Design District (d3).

The three designers have been chosen for their own unique approach.

Hussein Bazaza started designing womenswear under Elie Saab, before earning the Elle Style Best Upcoming Middle East Designer award  in 2013. In 2016, he was the first winner of the Style.com/Arabia-DDFC fashion prize, that saw his capsule collection offered on Farfetch.com.

Rula Galayini’s range of bags and clutches, meanwhile are known for mixing materials. Hard-sided clutches are covered in sleek leathers and skins, and finished with metal handles that are aggressively intriguing.

Zayan Ghandour is the co-founder of S*uce, as well as head of Zayan The Label, a womenswear brand launched in 2011 to great fanfare. With a trademark use of embroidery and prints, the brand is known for its playfulness.

Of the collaboration, Ghandour said: “I’ve always been a fan of Baume & Mercier, and so it was very exciting for myself and the team to reimagine a classic Baume & Mercier piece - and give it a Zayan the Label twist.”

Baume & Mercier has been making timepieces for 187 years under the motto “Accept only perfection”.

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