Designers in the region struggle to navigate a fragmented market of competing fashion week events with ambiguous agendas and mixed results.

International tourism will not fully recover until 2023 at the earliest, causing a shift in shopping patterns. Luxury players must rebalance their global footprints while increasing investment in domestic consumer bases and e-commerce.

Chanel, Dior and Valentino are making a splash this week in Dubai and Doha in a bid to excite locals who were restrained from shopping abroad during the pandemic. But will repatriated spend in the Gulf be a permanent shift?

Last week’s Arab Fashion Week Riyadh focused the world’s attention on Saudi Arabian design and the country’s push for women’s rights, but who are the real power brokers in this fashion market worth $15 billion?

A slew of new e-commerce ventures are using the UAE as a springboard into the Middle East’s online retail market.

With a new fashion council, a revamped fashion week and a growing reputation as a launch pad for big brand events, Dubai is evolving into a fully-fledged fashion capital for the Middle East and North African market.

To accompany the launch of the BoF 500, Robb Young examines how an omnipotent cartel of deep-pocketed families have managed to anchor themselves in the lucrative fashion markets of the Gulf States.

Five years after the global financial crisis hit Dubai, the United Arab Emirates is poised to become a super-regional powerhouse, with compelling opportunities for luxury retailers, argues Mortimer Singer of Marvin Traub Associates.