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On 6 February, Vogue Business brought Fashion Futures, its thought-provoking industry summit, to Dubai for the first time. The event, which was hosted in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3), took place on the closing day of Dubai Fashion Week and welcomed over 200 guests, including fashion leaders, dignitaries, entrepreneurs and sustainability champions for an arousing agenda packed with exclusive keynotes and panel discussions. Taking place in the heart of Dubai’s iconic design district, a global creative hub by TECOM Group PJSC, Fashion Futures Dubai marked the inaugural event of a three-year partnership between Vogue Business and d3.
The day kicked off with a conversation between Vogue Business contributing editor Sujata Assomull and Manish Malhotra, one of India’s most celebrated designers, just six hours before his runway show closing out Dubai Fashion Week. The designer, famed for his celebrity styling and Bollywood roots, spoke with sincerity about his early days as a designer and the support he had from his family: “I was born in love with clothes and movies. I’m very grateful to my parents for not objecting to their son being so into clothes.”
Over the 35 years since starting out in the costume departments of Bollywood, Malhotra founded his eponymous brand, which is celebrating 20 years this July, and was the first South Asian designer to open a flagship store in Dubai’s luxury avenue last year. He was also a pioneer in the now ubiquitous marketing move of filling your front row with stars, dressing Bollywood figures in his collections long before it was an expectation. The designer concluded by asserting the need for investment in emerging designers, while expressing his desire to steward the next generation of talent.
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In the next session, Assomull hosted a panel discussion, titled ‘Innovating the Business Model’. The discussion featured several industry experts, including Nadine Kanso, founder of jewellery label Bil Arabi; Jasmina Banda, president of Joint Ventures at Chalhoub Group; Fahed Ghanim, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Lifestyle; and Maria Yehia, co-founder and creative director of cult fashion label Mrs Keepa.
Yehia started by debunking some of the myths and misconceptions that international brands have about shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “There is a stereotyping here in two forms: either that the Dubai consumer is an extravagant clientele who needs ‘bling bling’, or is a modest cultural clientele — when in fact, Dubai is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world,” she said. “Individualism is at its highest here. So this perception is what’s really frustrating for both retailers and designers.”
Banda built on this, pointing to the sophistication of shoppers in Dubai, who expect to see brands both online and offline, and appreciate when brands value their localised tastes. “Our consumer travels a lot, so you cannot fool them with a sub-optimal experience in store. They know what to expect, they know what they see in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, and they expect that here too,” she explained, adding that localising the brand experience is key.
Ghanim also spoke about the complexity of the Middle East as an “extremely multi-layered” market. He explained how, in the last few years, MAF Lifestyle has experimented with new formats, such as That concept store, which offers a unique brand mix, product assortment and services alongside new digital experiences. “We found that old retail is dead. Doing retail in the right way is what customers wanted and that experimentation worked for us,” he said. Ghanim highlighted the importance of using digital elements to provide a “direct benefit” to shoppers, rather than relying on the popular jargon of artificial intelligence. He gave the example of skin visualisation tools that evaluate the texture of shoppers’ skin to provide instant product recommendations based on their needs.
Kanso, founder of Bil Arabi, shared her honest experience of being a creative entrepreneur in the UAE: “When you start your own business, you think it’s going to fly and you’re going to become this entrepreneur who enjoys life, which doesn’t reflect reality. Now, people are all after experience. They want to engage with the designer, they want to have the story, the narrative. It’s no longer about a piece of clothing or jewellery. It’s the creative process behind it. It’s changed how we grow the business. Business-to-business is still very important, however this direct, VIC service and exclusivity gives the brand more authenticity.”
Kanso also spoke about her collaboration with Guerlain and the value of these partnerships, as well as platforms like Dubai Fashion Week, in not only providing a global stage for emerging brands, but also exposing them to a variety of customers.
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In the third session, Vogue Business head of advisory and custom insights Anusha Couttigane chaired a conversation about sustainability with Kunal Kapoor, CEO of resale platform The Luxury Closet; Seneca Cottom, head of sustainability at Alshaya Group; Faiza Bouguessa, founder of the eponymous Bouguessa brand; and Bobby Simms, founder of investment firm Spheres Ventures. Together, they discussed the reality of championing sustainability in a market that still largely prioritises choice and newness.
Bouguessa began by describing the journey her brand went on during Covid as it reassessed its values. She started recognising that Bouguessa products had an inherently sustainable quality to them by virtue of being high quality and durable, such that many customers still wear the designs 10 years after purchasing them. “We now use deadstock material as often as possible. We create details with cutouts of leather, and last year we started to upcycle designs,” she said. “We’re constantly trying to find innovative ways to upcycle and recycle and to be more sustainable.”
Kapoor built on the idea that durability — an essential in luxury — is inherently sustainable. “Imagine that a Rolex, after you bought it, was worthless. That you couldn’t resell it, there was no value in it. Imagine what would happen to Rolex as a brand. Do you think it would be where it is today? Probably not,” he said. Kapoor cited luxury cars, such as Porsche, as a strong example for demonstrating durability, stating that 60 per cent of cars are still on the road.He added that this type of messaging is something that luxury brands should adopt, as similar statistics may apply across fashion.
“One area that a lot of businesses forget about is people. So how we take care of the people in our business is one of our primary pillars of sustainability strategy,” said Cottom. She added that Alshaya Group had been recognised as one of the best places to work in 17 out of the 18 markets where it operates. Small changes like turning off lights during quiet hours and signs outside of business hours have a cumulative effect. Another large impact initiative is waste reduction. While Alshaya opens several retail destinations a year, it also closes many. “Last year, we recycled 1,600 tonnes of construction material… We also generated income from that. So there are lots of things you can do that not only generate income for your business, but are also sustainable.”
The panel moved on to discuss the opportunity that Dubai has as an expanding market to benefit from the learnings and mistakes of its more mature counterparts. The region offers the ability for brands to implement best practices from the inception of a business model, skipping many of the failures or challenges that those in Western markets have encountered in their journeys towards implementing sustainability measures.
Simms of Spheres Ventures, which focuses on investing in sustainable businesses, highlighted the delicate balance that businesses face. “We always forget we love the world of brands, we love the world of retail. And behind it, there’s an infrastructure that needs to be built and serviced so that it can scale and be competitive,” he said. “With the expansion of manufacturing in the region, there’s an opportunity here for circularity to be implemented within the model rather than on top of it.”
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The event closed with a keynote featuring Ingie Chalhoub, founder and president of Etoile Group. Considered the Middle East’s “first lady of fashion”, Chalhoub became Chanel’s first franchisee in the region during the 1980s, leading to her rapid rise as a luxury retail pioneer. Having grown up in both the Middle East and Paris, she was able to be an ambassador for the luxury industry, channelling the attitudes and tastes of Parisian fashion enthusiasts while recognising the nuances required in the Gulf region. Within Etoile Group, there is also the multi-brand concept store, which started in Kuwait before setting up shop in Dubai. “The ambition was not to only have the monobrand, but I perceived there was an opportunity to have many brands because the mature customer is very avant-garde and will mix it up,” Chalhoub said. The Etoile store has recently doubled its space in Galeries Lafayette in the Dubai Mall.
Chalhoub ended by highlighting the openness of Dubai, both culturally and professionally. She referenced the high number of women holding leadership positions in the region’s luxury retail sector, compared with more established markets. “I believe that a woman has a strong power. On the one hand, she can be president or CEO or creative director — but she can also be multitasking, taking care of her children, while dreaming about something else. Women have the will to succeed and to shine,” she said. “In this region, we can embrace change much more easily than in Europe or America, because we are more open. In Europe, there are traditions, institutions. The mindset is you don’t change things. But we are very open to change in this region. We are very proud to live in a multicultural environment that is inclusive of all nationalities and genders.”
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