Dubai Fashion Week closed with a high-octane show by the Italian house of Roberto Cavalli. The Middle Eastern market is known for its love of occasionwear and no-holds-barred glamour so, naturally, Cavalli brought its A-game for the audience.
The most dazzling looks are more than the sum of their parts and the best are those that have tapped into a fleeting mood or an ephemeral moment. Here, The National rounds up some of the shows that have caught the eye during this season of Dubai Fashion Week.
Roberto Cavalli
Friday's finale – by the brand led by Sicilian designer Fausto Puglisi since 2020 – was brimming with the Cavalli aesthetic of glamour, confidence and independence, as the house presented an edit of its most recent resort collection.
To a pounding soundtrack of Blondie and Donna Summer, this was signature Cavalli but with a Puglisi update. Familiar patterns of flowers and animalia swept past, as halter-neck dresses covered in oversized florals and loose shirts with zebra print worn with bleached denim. The twist arrived as cowboy hats, fluid kaftans and plenty of modern attitude.
Cavalli has always had a sensual aesthetic and while Puglisi lived up to that reputation with some boundary-pushing looks, he also offered a host of powerfully modest outfits.
Speaking backstage after the show, Puglisi told The National of his delight at the multicultural feel of Dubai. “What I admire in Dubai is youth and that it's an international city,” he said. “Honestly, here in the tents [backstage] during Dubai Fashion Week, it looked like being in New York [for its fashion week], with so many different cultures dialling together, which for me is the most important thing.”
Rizman Ruzaini
The Malaysian design duo Rizman Ruzaini opened the week with a show called Mustika, inspired by the 1999 film Perempuan Melayu Terakhir (The Last Malay Woman). Having made a runway announcement that the brand is poised to open a boutique in Dubai, the label offered a collection that started with simple daywear looks in beige and denim blue, before shifting to a blue and white print across midi-length skirts and matching waisted jackets.
This in turn gave way to shimmering evening looks, notably a peplum top over a floor-grazing kick-flare skirt in sparkly denim blue and a pleated full skirt with wrap collar jacket in pale gold. The collection moved on to a series of metallic, deep sea blue fabrics cut to flow around the body in a way that was beautiful to behold. This was best seen on a long skirt, paired with a stiff, moulded green strapless top so sculptural it looked like it was carved from malachite.
The bride, the traditional finale to every women's collection, mirrored this carved shape, now in off-white, with the top and skirt traced with compact silver work.
Ihab Jiryis
The Palestinian designer Ihab Jiryis showed off his eveningwear in a collection called The Virgin Gown. Ethereal dresses made from sheer gauze were traced with beading in pale ivory, champagne, light grey and a ghostly shade of blue. They were finished with nature-inspired touches, such as a giant, hand-painted butterfly across the torso, a spidery web of silver handwork or a rumpled, metallic cape that looked like a cloud lit by the setting sun.
Jiryis's bride was a vision, in a backless delicate strap bodice set over light-as-air skirts, traced with diagonal icy tone-on-tone beadwork, coupled with a long veil.
Adolfo Dominguez
Spain's Adolfo Dominguez was perhaps the standout outlier at the event, with its ethos of offhand dressing told via unconventional touches. Using the unsung heroes of fashion, the calico and cotton fabrics normally used to make the first prototype of every design, were seen here as a classic men’s coat with a hem left unfinished; a colour-blocked wrap-front dress with loose threads around the hem and armholes; and a shirt cut with the selvedge at the hem and cuffs.
A woman’s white shirt came fastened with buttons haphazardly placed down the front, while a man’s jacket was stretched on one side to form a wrapped scarf. In a palette of sand, almond, grey and faded black, this offering was highly refined in a Rei Kawakubo, of Comme des Garcons fame, sort of way, that speaks of the deeper role of clothing over the fickleness of trends.
Weinsanto
Parisian designer Weinsanto conveyed theatrical flair with an off-the-shoulder top fashioned from cushiony folds and worn with a pair of black jeans laced up on the sides. Perhaps cut from a sleeping bag or some other cosy substance, it spoke of a need to sink ourselves into fashion and set up how this collection was a delve into the enduring allure of Parisian cool.
Explored via shrunken shirts worn with micro-mini skirts, capri pants and a Bardot top, or a delicate crochet top mixed with wide-legged, masculine trousers, Weinsanto focused on how the unexpected elements of dressing provide the most spectacular moments.
Heba Jasmi
Emirati design house Heba Jasmi presented evening gowns brimming with colour and decorated surfaces for spring/summer 2025, handled with a light touch for a soft, almost poetic mood. One white dress felt like it was knitted from gossamer threads, with tiers of swaying fringing layered hip to ankle, while another dress felt dip-dyed, but now the effect was achieved using hand-applied beads.
Offering looks that were both breezily short and elegantly long, this collection felt assured and decidedly grown up.
Michael Cinco
Michael Cinco – a veteran of the Dubai fashion scene – showed us all why he has enjoyed such longevity. After introducing an offshoot line of T-shirts decorated with real diamonds, the main show adopted a Roman theme.
A woman’s coat and mini dress were constructed from a fabric version of a mosaic, while men swept past in embroidered billowing capes. A woman's sheer jacket was covered in hand-applied silk petals, an effect that was also used to embellish a man's cream wool coat to sublime effect.
Grand ballgowns were worn with gladiatorial masks and were followed by a series of delicate column dresses in white and silver. With menswear growing in popularity with every season, a perfume line, ready-to-wear and his widely successful bridal line, Cinco is truly a force for fashion.
