If any proof were needed of the importance of the Middle East for luxury brands, it can be found in this month’s issue, where we round up exclusive Ramadan collections from some of the world’s biggest fashion houses.

From languid menswear by Dior, mashrabiya-inspired motifs by Christian Louboutin, demure dresses from Miu Miu, sequin-covered bags by Louis Vuitton and fluid separates by Loro Piana, every luxury brand worth its salt has created a capsule to mark the holy month, in a sign of the ever-growing significance of this market.

Notably, fashion labels are no longer just rolling out the requisite, slightly tokenistic abayas and sparkly sandals, and leaving it at that. Instead, they are coming up with thoughtful, diverse offerings that truly meld their brand DNA with the needs of their Middle Eastern clients.

We also speak to couturier Sara Chraibi, who is doing some melding of her own. The Moroccan designer made her debut as a guest on the Paris haute couture calendar in January, presenting a collection that fuses her love of structure with the ornate artistry of her Moroccan heritage.

Long fluid dresses, tunics, crop tops and trouser ensembles showcase the craftsmanship of her homeland – from sfifa, a kind of ribbon braid, to passementerie, a type of ornamental edging – but reshaped in fresh and imaginative ways.

We also had the pleasure of speaking to one of the most imaginative designers of the moment, Tomo Koizumi. The affable Japanese creative presented a collection at Milan Fashion Week for the first time this season, in a show supported by Dolce & Gabbana. His frothy, multi-hued creations, consisting of inordinate amounts of tightly packed ruffles, are a joy to behold – and that’s the whole point.

“I really want to bring something more. I mean, if someone sees my designs, I want them to smile, to be laughing,” he tells us.

He’s clearly having fun himself – working with some of the best in the business, quietly perfecting his craft, while not taking himself too seriously.

Male model and entrepreneur David Gandy was in the UAE last month to promote his latest venture – a line of practical, accessible clothing called David Gandy Wellwear. The last time he was in town, Gandy was racing his classic car in the Mille Miglia, the famed endurance time trial that started in Italy a century ago.

He used that opportunity to test his new clothing in the most demanding of circumstances – sitting in his car for days on end under the desert sun. “The UAE proved the point of our brand,” he tells us.

Much like the luxury labels that have upped the ante with their Ramadan collections this year, Gandy recognises the true value of this land. “Like our brand, the UAE is open to new ideas.”
Selina Denman, editor

Francesca Fearon finds out why couturier Sara Chraibi is happy to take liberties with the traditional designs of her homeland

“Our lives are about what we can give, what we can share, and how we can make people feel beautiful and happy in themselves,” says Moroccan couturier Sara Chraibi.

The designer takes pleasure in gathering people around her, whether to create a fashion collection, stage a catwalk show or simply share food and music. All these actions contribute to a sense of love, community and common purpose.

That belief in sharing, of team effort, came to fruition on the catwalk at the historic Théatre du Châtelet in Paris in January, when Chraibi made her debut as a guest on the Paris haute couture calendar. She describes it as a milestone, having founded Maison Sara Chraibi in Paris in 2011, relocating it to her home city of Rabat in 2014.

“An haute couture show is something I’ve wanted to do since I began my journey in fashion,” says Chraibi a few weeks later over a video call from Rabat, where she is preparing for a trip to New York. “I had been expecting it to be a big rush [backstage], but I was very calm and very focused, and I don’t know why.

“It was very emotional and I am grateful to the 100 people who helped make it happen. It was a huge team, with hair, make-up, models, production all working towards the same goal.”

Drawing on her early training as an architect and a childhood love of embroidery learnt from the women in her family, Chraibi, now 40, wove strands of her personal history into the collection, called L’Étoffe des Songes, or The Fabric of Dreams. Her long fluid dresses, tunics, crop tops and trouser ensembles fused her love of structure with the ornate artistry of her Moroccan heritage. However, while drawing on the traditional artisanal craftsmanship of her country, the results were modern and sophisticated, and radiated a mystical allure.

“The structure of the garment is very important to me as an architect and I always think of the garment as a creative gesture,” she says. “I don’t want ornamentation to be the main subject.”

Her dresses have fluidity, but are overlaid with an architecture-inspired framework of interwoven black cord and gilded ribbon cages using traditional weaving techniques such as sfifa (a type of ribbon braid) for their construction.

It’s a decidedly untraditional way of using sfifa, she points out, emphasising that while it employs artisanal skills, her vision is very modern. This is seen in cleanly tailored navy and white coats that dissolve into beaded skirts with fringes. Or a cage top of gold ribbon and black corded strands of sabra, a form of silk made from the aloe vera plant traditionally used in Moroccan passementerie, which unravel into long tassels that brush the floor. Meanwhile, gold embroidered stars shimmer on gowns and tuxedos.

Chraibi is authentic to her roots but suffuses it with a cool contemporary glamour. She says she was delighted with the feedback to her show. “We often see craftsmanship as something old and not fashionable and what they [press and clients] saw in my vision was a new concept, a fresh way to work with ancient techniques.

“A vision of Morocco, but seen as something both very contemporary and very rooted. It’s infused with Moroccan craftsmanship, but really I take a lot of liberties with that,” she admits unapologetically.

The couturier, who has clients in Morocco, the UAE, Qatar and, more recently, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and includes Moroccan singers Manal and Asma Lmnawar and French-Moroccan actress Ouidad Elma among her fans, was thrilled to be back in Paris, where she spent 10 years of her life.

Raised in a cultural and artistic environment, she studied architecture in Rabat and then in Paris, where she graduated in philosophy and architectural theory. However, it was here that she realised her love of fashion and her journey as a couturier began.

Kaftans are deeply ingrained in her culture, and Chraibi remembers her grandmother wearing embroidered ones every day, not solely for ceremonies and special occasions. Nevertheless, there were only a couple of dresses in Chraibi’s collection seemingly inspired by this traditional dress.

“I don’t consider myself as solely a kaftan designer, I consider myself a designer who also does kaftans for the local market. I do not want to be pigeonholed. The kaftan is part of my path as a designer and important in my culture, and so when I returned to Rabat, I realised I had to find my own way with it,” she says, admitting she takes liberties with reinventing the design as an act of reconciliation with her culture. “I need to offer a new vision with contemporary craftsmanship and not leave it as it is.”

Her team in Rabat are all female, bar one man who is a cutter. “This feminine energy is very important to me,” she says. “I want to empower people with my work. Yes, it’s about creating and fashion, but it’s also about being together and team success, and I am very grateful to them.”

She describes them as “a sorority of brave women I’m happy to call my family”. Many are gifted embroiderers who are not using their skills in a traditional way, but instead modernising them. As an example, a rich red velvet dress with a bodice of draped rows of pearls is inspired by Moroccan brides, who wear lots of pearls. But the designer wanted to give it a fresh interpretation and, at the same time, make it an heirloom piece. The idea of transmission between generations and sharing of legacy is something very important in her work.

Chraibi talks about celebrating women, matriarchy and the beauty of unity in her creations. The feeling of family and togetherness is at the heart of her philosophy. She describes it as the art of living. Her family are musical, and gatherings invariably end up with her mother singing and her father playing the oud, with everyone else joining in. She loves cooking not so much for making dishes, but for bringing family and friends together.

“It means a lot to me to be with people singing and eating,” she says. “I believe food, to a certain point, is a love language.” She visualises couture in the same way – as an act of giving and “sharing in a special moment with a client and making them happy”.

Japanese designer Tomo Koizumi speaks to Sarah Maisey about joyful designs, working with a free mind and collaborating with Dolce & Gabbana

“I really don’t care about coolness. I think coolness is boring,” says Tomo Koizumi.

The Japanese fashion designer is at the Dolce & Gabbana headquarters in Milan, on a floor cleared out specifically for him. Around the room, women in white atelier coats are running strips of colourful fabric through sewing machines, while tables are covered in Dolce & Gabbana shoes, now sporting huge, colourful bows. To one side, an enormous multicoloured blanket lies draped over multiple clothes rails.

Running down the side of the room are more rails, bursting with frothy gowns in blasts of hot pink, neon yellow, orange and acid green. Oversized, amorphous and made of densely packed ruffles, they are joyous and playful.

As he waves a hand at the bulging rails, he explains why he isn’t bothered about being one of the it-crowd. “I really want to bring something more. I mean, if someone sees my designs, I want them to smile, to be laughing. This is what I want to bring to people.”

The irony, of course, is that Koizumi is currently one of the hottest names in fashion and, when we speak, is only days from his Milan Fashion Week debut, which is being funded and supported by Dolce & Gabbana. In addition to providing a show space, the atelier we are standing in, the Italian fashion house shipped in all of the looks from Tokyo, where Koizumi lives, and allowed him to use its signature Caretto fabric from Sicily and handmade flowers from its Alta Moda collection. That a brand the size of Dolce & Gabbana is so publicly backing him, proves he has something special to offer.

Koizumi seems unfazed. “The [Dolce & Gabbana] office asked me what I wanted, and I told them everything. I couldn’t choose between it all,” he laughs. Even the seamstresses finishing the collection are on loan.

By anyone’s standards, this is an extraordinary opportunity, particularly for a designer who was virtually unheard of in the West until about four years ago. Having founded his eponymous brand in Tokyo in 2012, fresh from college, he worked as a costume designer before he started his line.

In 2016, Lady Gaga wore one of his pieces in Japan, but his big break came when British designer Giles Deacon found him on Instagram in 2019. Impressed by the larger-than-life dresses on the feed, Deacon showed them to British stylist Katie Grand, who in turn persuaded Marc Jacobs to loan Koizumi his show space.

Only weeks later, Koizumi debuted his autumn/winter 2019 collection at New York Fashion Week, with Joan Smalls, Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid and actress Gwendoline Christie as models in a show engineered and styled by Grand, who called in industry stalwarts Guido Palau for hair and Pat McGrath for make-up.

Filled with colourful, cocoon-shaped pieces, Koizumi’s show was unlike anything else. Footage of Christie descending a staircase in a bulbous mermaid dress, made from thousands of ruffles in yellow, teal and pink, quickly went viral, making the designer a breakout star. Since then, he has collaborated with Pucci on a range of ruffle-covered T-shirts and had two of his gowns exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which also purchased one of his pieces for its permanent collection. In 2020, he was a finalist for the LVMH Prize.

Koizumi’s presence in Milan can also be traced back to Grand. “I only do custom-made clothes, so I had thought about maybe doing something in Paris, because everyone goes to Paris. I called Katie, asking, can we work together again, and she replied with the idea of working with Dolce & Gabbana. So, I said yes, quickly,” he says.

Having worked with Dolce & Gabbana when it supported two previous new-name talents last year – Sohee Park in February and Matty Bovan in September – it was Grand who recommended Koizumi to the Italian design duo. “She suggested me and luckily I was chosen. Now this is happening,” he smiles, gesturing around the room.

As well as displaying his latest collection in Milan, Koizumi also presented some of his archive pieces, dating back to 2016, including the outfit worn by Lady Gaga and dresses from his New York debut and July 2021 show in Kyoto, Japan. “That was actually suggested by Domenico [Dolce],” Koizumi explains.

“He said to me: ‘Designers are copying your style, so you have to show that you are the original.’”

With no formal training in fashion – he studied art at college – Koizumi admits that he has learnt dressmaking the hard way. “This is all self-taught, so my technique was really limited at first. I have learned from my friends and as I have tried new designs, and that’s how I have developed my technique. Now it’s become my signature. I don’t want to make anything boring. I want it to be fun, funny, unique.”

That quest for uniqueness means fulsome, rounded shapes, inspired, he says, by the “beauty of nature, organic shapes and organic lines”. His work is bulbous, outlandish even, with no straight lines or hard edges and where waists are, at best, a suggestion.

Working more by instinct than design, Koizumi admits that he doesn’t sketch out a collection ahead of time, but instead lets the process of making inspire the results. However, even this approach is open ended. “I want to work with a free mind,” he says.

Case in point, he holds up a length of brilliant yellow froth. “I don’t know how to use this. I will think about the styling with Katie, but it can be a cape or a train for a skirt.”

One of Koizumi’s other recent projects was dressing singer Sam Smith, who memorably stepped out of a helicopter in the music video for I’m Not Here to Make Friends in a floor-length, bubblegum-pink gown by Koizumi. “[Smith’s] stylist emailed me,” he recalls. “It was the middle of November, so I didn’t have much time – just about two weeks to make and ship it.”

The singer is taller than Koizumi, but is about the same size, the designer says. “So I was able to do the fittings on myself before shipping it.”

The piece, aptly named The Biggest Dress, is theatrically oversized and made from more than 200 metres of bright pink organza, packed into tight folds. “It’s quite heavy. When you wear it it’s fine, but when you hold it, it’s heavy.”

For the show in Milan, Koizumi used metres of fabric featuring Dolce & Gabbana’s signature Caretto print, sculpted into extravagant sleeves and a circle skirt, and adorned with copious amounts of handmade flowers. He also crafted corsets from colourful ribbons, an homage, he says, to the “sexy, glamorous vibe” of Dolce & Gabbana, but also a nod to his earliest days as a designer.

“At the beginning, I made body-con dresses, because I didn’t have the technique to make a bigger dress, so this is back to my start,” he admits.

His use of colour – something of a trademark now – is reflective of his world view. “I want to use every colour in the swatch book, because for me this is expressing inclusivity. It’s representing everyone.”
While the fashion world is falling at Koizumi’s feet, he admits he also misses art.

“I majored in art at university, so I am going back to the beginning. I started painting again last year, and I am going to have a solo show in Tokyo at the end of this year. I already have a gallery to help me in Japan.”

Will this be a parallel career, accelerating as quickly as his fashion credentials? Only time will tell, but Koizumi’s cheerful demeanour is clearly instrumental in shaping his destiny. Everywhere he goes, people seem to want to work with him and help him out. Designers Dolce and Gabbana have spoken about how much they love Koizumi’s work, because it is shaped by “joy, this love for life”.

Three days after we speak, the audience is grinning ear to ear as Koizumi’s show unfolds and, as the final look arrives, the crowd bursts into cheers and applause. The big, rainbow “blanket” I had seen in the studio has been transformed into a giant, colourful caterpillar – a singular look worn by five models.

Everyone is smiling and laughing and the energy is a delight. Koizumi’s desire to make people happy is clearly coming to fruition. “That’s because I am having fun,” he says with a laugh.

$37,000

... is the price of this new bed from Hästens. Here’s why it promises the ultimate night’s sleep

Hästens, the Swedish producer of premium beds, is celebrating its second anniversary in the UAE with the regional launch of the Dremer (pronounced dreamer) bed. The model is hand-built by master craftsmen in Köping, Sweden, so each of Hästens’s signature checks are seamlessly aligned – a process that demands the utmost precision.

Envisaged by interior designer Ferris Rafauli, Dremer is upholstered in a unique woven fabric featuring the bed brand’s signature horse insignia. This is the same material used to create Hästens’s famous Grand Vividus model, which is priced at $400,000, takes more than 600 man hours to make and weighs a whopping 530kgs. Combining fine leathers, sleek lines, suedes and gold accent trims, the bed is among the most luxurious in the world and favoured by rapper Drake.

As with the Grand Vividus, the new Dremer comes in four colour choices: traditional blue, black shadow, natural shale and phantom charcoal. It sits on lacquered wood legs that have been designed exclusively for the Dremer in shades of black and blue.

Woven into the foot of the bed is the phrase “Dremer, the day is yours,” while a silver-plated brass nameplate on the base is etched with the logos of Dremer, Hästens and Ferris Rafauli. Also available is the Dremerheadboard, which is priced at $28,300. It features velvet panels and side wings in the same hues as the bed, which are generously padded and finished with piping detailing.

“We are delighted to announce the arrival of the Dremer, to continue to help the world sleep better and inspire dreamers to their inner greatness. We look forward to welcoming our customers in the region and showcasing what it really takes to embark on a good night sleep,” says Ludovic Létrillart, regional director IMEA, Hästens.

Founded in 1852, Hästens prides itself on using natural materials in its beds and mattresses, including cotton, wool, flax, Swedish pine and, crucially, horse hair. These strands act as tiny springs, enhancing the work of the bed’s internal spring systems, but also serving as natural ventilation. A hollow tube with microscopic capillary action that channels away moisture and brings in fresh air, each horsehair doubles as a miniature airway. The organic material also has natural antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-mite properties.

Hästens has served as an official supplier to the Swedish Royal Court for three generations, gaining the title Royal Purveyor, a hallmark of Swedish quality and Scandinavian design. In addition to its flagship store on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, it established a presence in Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi this year.