Six months after Halima Aden made the shock announcement that she was quitting the fashion industry, could the trailblazing Somali-American model be set to make a return?
Aden, 23, uploaded a photo of herself smiling with US designer Tommy Hilfiger on Instagram on Tuesday, with the caption: “Shooting a super special project with one of my favourite designers.”
This would not be the first time Aden has worked with Tommy Hilfiger. In October, a month before she announced she was quitting the modelling industry, she also worked with the brand to create limited-edition T-shirts for charity.
While this is not a definitive proclamation of her return, the idea of a "special project" with a top designer in the US has gotten people excited that the Vogue cover star may be poised to re-enter the industry.
Her post received plenty of supportive comments.
"She working! Love this for you," wrote make-up artist Keita Moore, while Nigerian-American beauty vlogger Jackie Aina said she was "incredibly proud always" of Aden.
Hilfiger also commented, writing “exciting times ahead", but hasn't offered any other details on the project in this message or on his Instagram account.
Aden is widely credited as being the first hijab-wearing woman to appear in mainstream fashion shows.
She shot to fame in 2016 when she competed in the Miss Minnesota beauty pageant, becoming the first contestant to compete in a hijab. She was a semi-finalist and chose to wear a burkini for the swimwear sequence.
Afterwards, she signed with modelling agency IMG and made her foray into the fashion world in 2017.
She has since enjoyed a history-making modelling career in which she was the first person to wear a hijab and burkini (one created by Hilfiger) in Sports Illustrated and also became the first hijab-wearing model to grace a number of magazines covers, including Allure and British Vogue.
However, in an Instagram post in November, Aden announced she would be quitting runway modelling. She later said in an exclusive interview with The National that she could no longer align her career path with her faith.
"I don't regret my career, there were so many positive things I was able to accomplish, but I am so excited to take a step back and do things differently," Aden said.
"The first two years of my career, I was the stylist and came to set with hijabs, of all different types of fabrics, leggings, turtlenecks and I would be in charge of doing my own hijab," she said. "I let them style me and got comfortable.”
However, because of this, the lines grew increasingly blurred, she explained. “I had Gucci pants as a hijab once, and jeans put on my head. It was becoming questionable as to where the hijab is."
She said she "had to leave, because you either stand for something or you will fall for everything".
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
