Fashion Trust Arabia Crowns Prize Winners

The Fashion Trust Arabia, a fund dedicated to providing designers from the Middle East and North Africa with business development support, on Thursday awarded cash prizes and mentorships to seven up-and-coming names from across the region.

Kuwait-born, Dubai-raised Egyptian Nadine Mosallam took the prize for ready-to-wear; Qatar-based Yasmin Mansour for evening wear; Egypt’s Reem Hamed for accessories; and the Saudi Arabian trio behind the label APOA (A Piece of Art) — Noura Abdulaziz Al Saud, Sara Naif Al Saud and Mashael Khalid Al Saud — for jewellery.

The winning designers in these four categories will each receive a financial grant of between $100,000 and $200,000 depending on the size of their business and other factors. The Franca Sozzani Debut Talent category winner, Palestinian Jordanian designer Sylwia Nazzal of Nazzal Studio, will receive a grant of $50,000. This year’s other prize winners are Jordan-based Studio B.O.R. founder Batoul Alrashdan and Acromatyx founders Francisco Barroso and Javier Garcia from this edition’s guest country Spain. (Next year’s guest country will be India). Charaf Tajer of Casablanca won the special entrepreneur of the year award.

The designers were selected by a judging panel that included Moncler chairman Remo Ruffini, Vetements co-founder Guram Gvasalia, Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing, Dazed editor-in-chief Ib Kamara, couturier Zuhair Murad, accessories designer Amina Muaddi and former model and Gucci’s executive advisor for global equity and cultural engagement Bethann Hardison.

This year’s FTA event was held in Marrakech, Morocco as part of the wider Qatar-Morocco 2024 Year of Culture programme, instead of Doha, Qatar, its usual location. (Last year’s edition was awarded virtually due to safety concerns and out of sensitivity to the Middle East war.)

Tania Fares, co-chair of the FTA, stressed the importance of encouraging creative talent from the Arab world, particularly in times of crisis. “It’s a very difficult time for everybody: it’s instability, it’s stress, it’s affected the region very much, especially in Lebanon,” she told BoF.

The sixth edition of the event paid special tribute to the fashion industry in Lebanon, where Fares was born and the war has escalated in recent weeks. “I feel honoured and privileged to be able to support the growth of culture in times of conflict,” said Fares. “I was born in a nation that has faced immense challenges but continues to persevere despite its struggles: Lebanon remains a hub of creativity.”

Looking ahead, Fares said that while next year’s FTA event is expected to take place in Doha, she was contemplating staging future iterations of the event in other destinations in the MENA region. “Maybe we move it to other countries, maybe we go to Egypt one day,” she said. Fares also underscored her ambition to deepen FTA’s designer mentorship programme to enable more “success stories.”

The FTA was founded in 2018 by Qatar’s Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, and Lebanon-born Fares. The prize has seen several winners and finalists from previous years go on to earn commercial and critical success such as Mohamed Benchellal, Sara Chraibi, Krikor Jabotian, Nafsika Skourti and Okhtein.

Thursday Sheikha Al-Mayassa also announced the creation of a new Qatari fashion craft council to “support creators in our region of almost 500 million people to reach their full potential, consisting of regional and international experts in fashion, craft, policymaking, business and more.”

Sheikha Moza, mother of the Emir of Qatar and Sheikha Al-Mayassa, has been linked to Mayhoola for Investments, the Qatari fund that owns Valentino, Balmain and Pal Zileri. Qataris have become prominent investors in the luxury industry, acquiring British department store Harrods and French department store Printemps through Qatar Holding and its affiliates. Qatar Holding is the operating arm of the nation’s sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, which is led by members of the ruling Al Thani royal family.

These and other investments sit alongside the FTA as a part of Qatar’s broader ambition to become a regional fashion hub, an increasingly important strand of the country’s plans to diversify its economy away from liquefied natural gas, of which it is one of the world’s largest producers. The small, wealthy Gulf state plays an outsized role on the world stage, in part thanks to the soft power it wields from its financial clout and strategic investments.

Additional reporting by Vikram Alexei Kansara and Simone Stern Carbone.

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Fashion Trust US Announces Second Round of Winners

Creators including Batsheva, Harbison Studio and Don’t Let Disco were honoured by the US off-shoot of Fashion Trust Arabia, a non-profit that supports emerging designers.