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Saudi Fashion Commission Launches ‘The Lab’ Fashion Industry Studio in Riyadh 

Officials are seen at the launch event in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)
Officials are seen at the launch event in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)
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Saudi Fashion Commission Launches ‘The Lab’ Fashion Industry Studio in Riyadh 

Officials are seen at the launch event in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)
Officials are seen at the launch event in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)

The Saudi Fashion Commission launched on Tuesday “The Lab,” Saudi Arabia’s first-of-its-kind studio for fashion product development.

The launch event was attended by officials, industry specialists, media representatives, and government entities at The Lab's headquarters in the Mohammed bin Salman Nonprofit City, “Misk City,” in Riyadh.

Fashion Commission CEO Burak Cakmak said The Lab sheds light on the progress and prosperity of the fashion industry in the Kingdom, serving as the first studio of its kind in the region, situated in the heart of Riyadh.

He noted that the studio facilitates the fashion manufacturing process, enabling local designers and brands to easily achieve their creative visions.

The Lab enhances innovation and provides essential support throughout the fashion cycle, Cakmak added.

Cakmak said The Lab not only focuses on promoting creativity, but also supports sustainable practices within the industry, embodying a deep commitment to developing a thriving fashion ecosystem in Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, the Lab represents a qualitative leap and an unprecedented initiative in the fashion industry in the Kingdom, he stated.

It provides advanced infrastructure equipped with cutting-edge technologies to boost manufacturing capabilities and foster innovation within the Kingdom.

The studio also offers local designers and businesses the opportunity to showcase their creativity under the “Made in Riyadh” label, Cakmak said.

Misk City CEO David Henry said The Lab aims to develop fashion products in the city, serving as a distinctive mark that will elevate the fashion industry in the Kingdom.

The studio will also allow local designers and businesses to showcase their creations at both the local and global levels, Henry added.

He highlighted Misk City’s contribution to promoting national retail brands in the fashion sector and supporting and developing small and medium-sized local companies.

The Lab highlights the broad support for the development of the fashion sector and aims to enhance the partnership between the Fashion Commission and Misk City.

Additionally, the studio seeks to support cooperation in the development of education and training programs for young Saudi designers and open new avenues for investment in the fashion sector in Saudi Arabia.

This positions The Lab as the starting point for hosting fashion events and festivals in Misk City.

The launch event was attended by Misk Foundation CEO Badr Al-Badr and the foundation’s deputy CEO Omar Najjar.

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Fashion

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fendi Homecoming Feted in Milan

Fendi's Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri is pictured at the end of the Fendi collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 in Milan on February 25, 2026. (AFP)
Fendi's Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri is pictured at the end of the Fendi collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 in Milan on February 25, 2026. (AFP)
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Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fendi Homecoming Feted in Milan

Fendi's Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri is pictured at the end of the Fendi collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 in Milan on February 25, 2026. (AFP)
Fendi's Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri is pictured at the end of the Fendi collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2026/2027 in Milan on February 25, 2026. (AFP)

Designer Maria Grazia Chiuri marked her return to Fendi at Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday, presenting a sensual and lightweight collection featuring "remodelled" furs and leathers crafted like lace.

The homecoming of the respected designer -- the first ever woman at the creative helm of Dior and a veteran of Valentino -- was one of the city's most anticipated events on day two of fashion week, with actors Monica Bellucci and Jude Law in the front row along with Fendi ambassador Bang Chan of the Korean boy band Stray Kids.

An experienced designer who has worked for Dior and Valentino, Chiuri received a standing ovation after Wednesday's runway show, some 35 years after her debut at the Roman fashion house.

Chiuri began her career in accessories at the luxury label, where fashion great Karl Lagerfeld presided for over 50 years and which is now owned by French fashion conglomerate LVMH.

"I am here to give back what they have given me," the designer told Vogue magazine this week of the Fendi sisters behind the business.

The designer's first Autumn-Winter collection, for both men and women, featured black, white and green furs, all restyled, and a minimalist color palette of mostly black, white and pale blue.

With delicately flowing slip dresses -- including a scarlet one that could have been in homage to the late Valentino -- and peekaboo lace, Chiuri explained that she wanted to present a "personal geography" of fashion, highlighting Fendi's history and collaboration with other designers, a method she had already successfully championed at Dior.

With stiff shirt collars worn as necklaces by women -- paired with plunging necklines -- and oversized furs for men, Chiuri also hoped to "go beyond the distinction between women's and men's wardrobes".

The designer collaborated with young artist SAGG Napoli for football T-shirts and scarves with slogans in Italian such as "Rooted but not stuck" or "Loyal but not obedient".

A dozen anti-fur activists demonstrated outside Fendi's Milan headquarters where the show was held, calling on Milan Fashion Week to ban fur, as London and New York have done.

Chiuri, a Rome native, began at Fendi in 1989 as an accessories designer, working side by side with Pierpaolo Piccioli to mark the beginning a long collaboration.

Coming to Valentino in 1999, Chiuri spent the next 17 years at the Roman design house, serving as co-creative director with Piccioli upon the retirement of Valentino Garavani in 2008.

Named to head Dior in 2016 after Raf Simons, Chiuri became the first woman creative director of the storied French couture house, bringing an unapologetic feminist and global eye in reworking Christian Dior's celebrated hourglass silhouette.

How the designer would envision her task at Fendi -- whose roots are in fur and leather goods -- following the departure of artistic director Kim Jones in 2024 had been much discussed in fashion circles.

Fashion

Frenzy of Fashion Week to Add to Milan’s Olympic Party 

The company's logo is seen at a Prada store in Zurich, Switzerland January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
The company's logo is seen at a Prada store in Zurich, Switzerland January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
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Frenzy of Fashion Week to Add to Milan’s Olympic Party 

The company's logo is seen at a Prada store in Zurich, Switzerland January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
The company's logo is seen at a Prada store in Zurich, Switzerland January 25, 2021. (Reuters)

The fashion set return to Milan this week, bringing back glamor and runway revelry to Italy's northern city that has been wrapped up in Olympics fever.

Hundreds of buyers and media from around the world will descend on the fashion capital beginning Tuesday for Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2026-2027 and its more than 50 catwalk shows from top Italian luxury names like Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Giorgio Armani.

The upcoming shows, which run through March 2, come during a "moment of extraordinary visibility for Milan", sandwiched between the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Games, Mayor Giuseppe Sala told journalists earlier this month.

Fashion watchers are eagerly awaiting the first collection of veteran Dior and Valentino designer Maria Grazia Chiuri for Fendi, the Rome-based luxury label where she began her career 35 years ago, now owned by French fashion conglomerate LVMH.

And eyes will be on the Gucci runway to see if the debut looks presented by new artistic director Demna Gvasalia, formerly of Balenciaga, are compelling enough to help reverse a protracted sales slump at Kering's flagship brand.

The week's festivities will be a welcome distraction from a myriad of challenges facing the luxury fashion industry, which has struggled against a two-year global slowdown in demand, fueled by high inflation, economic turbulence and geopolitical uncertainty.

A warning from LVMH Chief Executive Bernard Arnault last month that "2026 won't be simple either" points to the difficulty of a sector recovery.

The president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, Carla Capasa, told journalists this month that revenue in Italy's fashion industry was estimated to rise in 2026 by a mere 1 percent.

The industry has also seen the recent passing of two designer giants, who enjoyed outsized influence on the world of fashion and exemplified the art of Italian tailoring.

Giorgio Armani, 91, died in September and Valentino Garavani, known just as Valentino, died in January aged 93.

- Green, white, red -

The Olympics opening ceremony paid tribute to Armani, whose Emporio Armani brand has dressed Italy's Olympic athletes since 2012. Willowy models dressed in satin suits of green, white and red paraded across the stage in three lines, mirroring the Italian tricolor flag.

Top Italian model Vittoria Ceretti was flag bearer, wearing a high-collared white Armani gown that recalled that worn by Carla Bruni for Italy's last Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006.

Official marketing for Milan Fashion Week has also tapped Olympics fever, with billboards featuring brooding models in an Alpine landscape, carrying vintage iceskates, skis and other sports equipment hailing from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Milan is expected to get a financial boost of 320 million euros ($380 million) from the Winter Games, while the February fashion week typically brings in about 200 million euros, according to Milan city council member Alessia Cappello.

"The two things influence each other. Some people come for fashion and stay for the Olympics, or vice versa."

Fashion

Demna in the Spotlight at Milan Fashion Week as Industry Seeks Creative Reset

The logo of fashion house Gucci is seen outside a store in Cannes, France, May 16, 2024. (Reuters)
The logo of fashion house Gucci is seen outside a store in Cannes, France, May 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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Demna in the Spotlight at Milan Fashion Week as Industry Seeks Creative Reset

The logo of fashion house Gucci is seen outside a store in Cannes, France, May 16, 2024. (Reuters)
The logo of fashion house Gucci is seen outside a store in Cannes, France, May 16, 2024. (Reuters)

Milan ‌Fashion Week opens on Tuesday, setting the stage for a slate of creative director debuts from Demna's first runway show for Gucci to Maria Grazia Chiuri's initial collection at Fendi.

The Milan womenswear collections, which follow fashion weeks in New York and London, and ahead of Paris, come as the sector is showing some timid signs of recovery.

While practical wool coats and cashmere sweater dresses featured in New York, industry watchers expect some bold creations in the Milan autumn/winter collections as new designers seek to stamp their mark.

One of the most closely watched will be Georgian designer Demna, hired in July to reinvigorate Gucci after sales at the Italian fashion house fell 22% last ‌year.

Demna, who spent ‌a decade at Balenciaga, sketched out a collection for Kering-owned ‌Gucci, ⁠called "La Famiglia", in a ⁠lookbook on Instagram last September. He stages his first full-scale runway show for the brand on Friday.

Designers across luxury fashion face mounting pressure to deliver fresh visions while keeping a tight focus on sales as the industry is still trying to pull out of a prolonged downturn.

"This season we are expecting bold creative resets. The anticipation around new creative directions makes this edition particularly charged, with houses redefining their codes under intense ⁠global scrutiny," said Tiffany Hsu, chief buying and group fashion ‌venture officer at luxury e-commerce platform Mytheresa.

"We are ‌looking for collections that feel culturally sharp, emotionally resonant, and commercially intelligent in equal measure", she ‌added.

BALANCING HERITAGE AND CREATIVITY

Chiuri's first collection for LVMH’s Fendi on Wednesday, following her ‌departure from Dior last year, is expected to draw close scrutiny.

On Thursday, Belgian designer Meryll Rogge will present her first show for Marni, owned by Italian fashion group OTB.

A sharp increase in prices of luxury goods post-pandemic, which was not matched by an equal effort ‌in creativity, has alienated some customers, whom brands are now struggling to win back.

"All of them (brands) are thinking more commercially - they're ⁠all trying to ⁠get revenue to grow. But ultimately what is defining for all of these businesses is the brand and the heritage, which has to be supported by creativity in the product. So it needs to be a careful balance between the two," said Emily Cooledge, head of luxury research at Rothschild & Co Redburn in London.

Francesco Fiorese, partner at consultancy firm Simon Kucher, said consumers want more understated quality.

"Consumers' fatigue with omnipresent logos and purely aesthetic 'status symbols' (sold at very high prices) is leading to a search for authenticity and craftsmanship," he said.

Milan Fashion Week will also feature shows by Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Ferragamo and Tod's.

It follows the Milan Cortina Winter Games, which have put Italy’s fashion capital in the global spotlight and offered brands a chance to appeal to affluent visitors arriving for the competitions.