Dubai Fashion Week has announced the dates for its next season, which will run from September 1 to 6.
Returning to Dubai Design District – which is celebrating its 10th anniversary – the event will once again provide a platform to regional labels while introducing more international names to the savvy UAE audience.
Showcasing the spring/summer 2026 collections before the main women's wear schedules take place in New York, London, Milan and Paris, Dubai Fashion Week promises a strong line-up.
The provisional timetable is a blend of ready-to-wear and couture, taking in familiar names and new arrivals.
French brand Weinsanto is returning, supported by the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the governing body of France's fashion industry, as well as being on the DFW council. Also showing once more is Iraqi-British designer Tara Babylon, and the Turkish streetwear name Les Benjamins.
Other returners from the region include That Concept, FLTRD, Dima Ayad, Lili Blanc, Mrs Keepa, Lama Jouni, Heba Jasmi and BLSSD.
As the Middle Eastern market becomes increasingly significant for international brands, this season features the arrival of labels from Germany, Croatia and the Netherlands.
Croatian brand XD Xenia will make its DFW debut, as will Canada's Jozeph Diarbakerli. Other designers making their first appearance include Fioletowy (Poland), London School of Trends (India) and New York's Otte.
For couture, the Malaysian brand Maison Rizman Ruzaini will return, as will Dubai's Michael Cinco and Kresha Bajaj from India.
Dubai Fashion Week was co-founded in 2022 by the Dubai Design District, Arab Fashion Council and Tecom Group PJSC.
“This season represents a powerful evolution of our platform. We’re not just showcasing collections – we’re building a creative economy rooted in diversity, design diplomacy, and long-term commercial impact,” said Mohammed Aqra, chief strategy officer of Arab Fashion Council. “DFW spring-summer 2026 is a bold statement of where fashion is going, and the world is watching.”
The Threads Talks series, in conjunction with Meta, is also set to come back. Discussion panels and seminars will consider industry challenges such as AI integration and sustainability.
Khadija Al Bastaki, senior vice president of Dubai Design District, says the event has expanded immensely in three years.
“Dubai Fashion Week shows how we have grown together,” she said. “With a rich legacy of influencing the regional landscape, DFW is actively championing sustainability, innovation and diversity in the global design narrative, cementing Dubai’s position as the destination of choice for fashion and creative talent from around the world.”
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
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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.”
