In a First, Saudi Arabia Holds Fashion Show on Red Sea Shores

Saudi Arabia’s Ras al-Abyad island witnesses the first ever fashion show on the Red Sea coast.
Saudi Arabia’s Ras al-Abyad island witnesses the first ever fashion show on the Red Sea coast.
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In a First, Saudi Arabia Holds Fashion Show on Red Sea Shores

Saudi Arabia’s Ras al-Abyad island witnesses the first ever fashion show on the Red Sea coast.
Saudi Arabia’s Ras al-Abyad island witnesses the first ever fashion show on the Red Sea coast.

In April 2018, Riyadh held the first fashion week in Saudi Arabia. Needless to say, the event captured the world’s attention because it had broken the western perception of Saudi women as simple consumers of their products.

At the time, however, the event was a challenge for Saudi women to portray themselves in a different light and indeed they did. They achieved their dreams by showcasing their potential and talent on a global scale.

Even though the event was limited to women and photographs were barred from being posted on social media to preserve the privacy of attendees, it did garner the attention of international media.

Two years later, the Saudi appetite for fashion has not abated, but has grown even stronger and more confidence has been shown in local products. The coming generation believes that locally produced fashion is no less beautiful or elegant than global designs. All they need is a platform or an opportunity to prove it.

The opportunity presented itself just days ago on the shores of Ras al-Abyad island that witnessed the first ever fashion show on the Red Sea coast with 300 guests in attendance.

The event was even more remarkable for being held amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and as the global fashion industry grapples with many challenges.

Mariam Moussalli, founding partner of Niche Arabia, the organizer of the event, said the pandemic did not slow her down, but made her and others even more determined to prove themselves.

She said the crisis paved the way for the opportunity for holding a global event with the efforts of strictly Saudi team.

“All the models, designers, make up artists, photographers and directors come from Saudi Arabia,” she said proudly.

Everyone was excited to take part in the event, seeing it as a challenge to break the West’s stereotypical image of Saudi Arabia, she continued. “It was therefore important for me to have every detail of the event come to life with Saudi efforts, starting with 16 models and everyone working behind the scenes.”

The fashion was inspired from travel, said Moussalli, who described the designs as more of a “cruise” line.

Designer Samah Khashoggi, of Samah Abayas, presented 22 creations inspired by the shores of Jeddah and Yanbu. She said she sought to take traditional Hijaz techniques and merge them with modern motifs.

“It was important for the line to act as a love letter to the Red Sea with all of its mystery and charm,” she added, as reflected in her designs that boasted blue, turquoise and white and coral motifs.



Invited to the Met Gala, Nothing to Wear? Hint: Find Yourself a ‘Superfine’ Suit

 Designs by Jacques Agbobly, left, and Jeffrey Banks, intended for the upcoming Costume Institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," appear in the installation room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on March 20, 2025. (AP)
Designs by Jacques Agbobly, left, and Jeffrey Banks, intended for the upcoming Costume Institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," appear in the installation room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on March 20, 2025. (AP)
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Invited to the Met Gala, Nothing to Wear? Hint: Find Yourself a ‘Superfine’ Suit

 Designs by Jacques Agbobly, left, and Jeffrey Banks, intended for the upcoming Costume Institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," appear in the installation room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on March 20, 2025. (AP)
Designs by Jacques Agbobly, left, and Jeffrey Banks, intended for the upcoming Costume Institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," appear in the installation room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on March 20, 2025. (AP)

What’s in a suit?

According to curators busy prepping the newest Met Gala exhibit, a whole lot more than tailoring: history, culture, identity, power and, most of all, self-expression.

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” this year’s spring show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, will be launched as usual by the star-packed Met Gala a few nights earlier, on May 5. It’s the first Met show to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years to have a menswear theme.

As always, the exhibit inspires the gala dress code, and this year’s — “Tailored For You” — makes clear that guests are invited to be as creative as possible within the framework of classic tailoring.

In other words, expect a lot of great suits.

“Everything from Savile Row to a track suit,” quipped guest curator Monica L. Miller, a Barnard College professor of Africana studies, considering the versatility of a suit. She sat recently in a conference room at the Met with photos and notes plastered on the walls. She was in the middle of writing descriptive labels for the more than 200 items in the show — an exhaustive (and exhausting) task.

The suit, Miller said, “represents so many things.” And tailoring, she added, is a very intimate process.

“It’s not just about getting a suit that fits you physically,” Miller said, “but, what do you want to express that night?

It was Miller’s 2009 book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” that inspired the show and led Andrew Bolton, curator of all the blockbuster Costume Institute shows, to bring her in as guest curator. The show uses dandyism as a lens through which to explore the formation of Black style over the years.

“Dandyism was about pushing boundaries,” Miller said.

Behind her, a section of wall was devoted to each of the 12 themes that divide the exhibit: Ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, champion, respectability, jook, heritage, beauty, cool and cosmopolitanism.

The early sections will begin with the 18th century and focus more on historical artifacts, with later sections looking at the 20th century and beyond. In addition, each section will begin with historic garments, accessories or photographs, and end with contemporary fashion.

Getting the first look at all this, on the traditional first Monday in May, will be a high-powered crowd from the worlds of entertainment, fashion, sports and beyond. Gala co-chairs this year are musician-designer Pharrell Williams, Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton, actor Colman Domingo and rapper A$AP Rocky; NBA superstar LeBron James is honorary chair.

If that weren't enough star power, this year, there's an additional host committee with athletes like Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, Hollywood figures like Spike Lee and Ayo Edebiri, musicians like Janelle Monáe and André 3000, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other artists, playwrights and fashion figures.

They and other guests will be free to tour the exhibit before the lavish dinner begins. This year, exquisitely tailored celebrities will examine other examples of exquisite tailoring — as well as historical artifacts like a horse jockey uniform worn between 1830 and 1840.

In an installation room late last month, a museum staffer worked painstakingly on restoring those jockey trousers, a pin cushion at the ready. Near her, two items were already hanging on mannequins. One was a classic Jeffrey Banks suit from 1987, a double-breasted jacket and trousers paired with a dapper plaid wool coat, the ensemble finished off with a light pink tie.

“See how the coat and suit play off each other,” noted Miller.

Next to it was a very different kind of suit — a denim jacket and trousers embellished throughout with beads — by a far less widely known designer: Jacques Agbobly, whose Brooklyn-based label aims to promote Black, queer and immigrant narratives as well as his own Togolese heritage.

The show makes a point, Miller said, of highlighting designers who are well known and others who are not, including some from the past who are anonymous. It will veer across not only history but also class, showing garments worn by people in all economic categories.

Because there are not many existing garments worn or created by Black Americans before the latter part of the 19th century, Miller said, the early part of the show fills out the story with objects like paintings, prints, some decorative arts, film and photography.

Among the novelty items: The “respectability” section includes civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois’ receipts for laundry and tailoring. “He’d go to Paris and London, he would visit tailors and have suits made there,” she said.

And the “jook” section includes a film clip of the tap-dancing Nicholas Brothers — who in 1943's “Stormy Weather” produced one of the most astounding dance numbers ever to appear on film.

“We wanted to show people moving in the clothes,” Miller explained. “A fashion exhibit is frustrating because you don't see people in the clothes.”

Miller wondered aloud whether there might be a stretch material in the pair’s tuxedos (they perform multiple splits coming down a staircase). She also noted that the tuxedo, like the suit in general, is a garment that cuts across social categories. “If you are at a formal event the people serving are also in tuxedos, and sometimes the entertainment is in tuxedos, too,” she said.

“It's a conversation about class and gender.”

The exhibit opens to the public on May 10 and runs through Oct. 26.