Why Saudi Arabia is pushing its fashion brands to assert themselves on a global scale

This week, Saudi Arabia hosted its first official Riyadh Fashion Week, an event the country's recently appointed Saudi Fashion Commission (SFC) hopes to evolve into an annual prominent industry affair like the Paris, London, or New York fashion weeks. 30 Local brands have been selected to participate in the four-day event, where VIP buyers, global fashion tastemakers, and key industry stakeholders are invited. "We are focused on facilitating positive business outcomes for our designers from new deals with buyers to new industry connections," says Burak Cakmak, CEO of Saudi Fashion Commission, in an interview with Luxury Tribune, adding that from next year, designers from across the world will be invited to participate just like in other major fashion weeks.

As part of 'Vision 2030' goal to power and diversify its non-oil GDP, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture formed a special fashion commission three years ago to fuel the growth of local talent and local manufacturing in apparel, footwear, leather goods, and jewellery. A year later, the Commission launched an inaugural mentorship program - the Saudi 100 Brands, in which a selection of local brands are given global business exposure and opportunities to showcase their work at pop-up state-of-the-art showrooms and side events hosted in key venues in the world's hottest fashion centres - London, Paris, and Milan during the seasonal fashion weeks. White Milano, a popular trade show hosted on Milan Fashion Week's sidelines, has showcased RTW collections from Saudi-100 brands since last year. "Modern designs and highest quality materials of Saudi brands make them appealing to top, international buyers. Moreover, the collections have an incredible quality-price ratio", Brenda Bellei, CEO of White Milano, tells Luxury Tribune.

This year, in July, Saudi-born Paris-based designer Mohammed Ashi became the first designer from the Gulf region to be invited to the Paris Fashion Week as a guest member. Like Ashi, a handful of Saudi fashion houses have been wooing the global fashion market much before the formation of the SFC. Saudi designers such as Arwa AlAmmari have presented their ready-to-wear (RTW) collections at Dubai, London, and New York fashion weeks, others like Honayda Serafi and Yousef Akbar, whose designs have been adorned by celebrities Priyanka Chopra, Sharon Stone, Nicole Kidman, Alicia Keys and Chrissy Teigen are already stocked at Harrods, London.

Arwa AlAmmari, an ambassador of the Arab Fashion Council and founder of ArAm Designs, says that the fashion ecosystem is changing in the Gulf kingdom. Earlier, design students had to travel out of Saudi Arabia to find good fashion colleges, "but now we have strong fashion educational institutions here. There are many mentorship programs, including those launched by the SFC and Alula, to help local talent understand the nuances of running a business and prepare for potential buyers. New production areas and new regulations to support local talent are also coming", she tells Luxury Tribune from Riyadh.

AlAmmari has already participated in most of the important global RTW fashion weeks. So why does she feel the need to participate in the newly launched Riyadh Fashion Week? How does it incentivize her brand? "GCC is a big market for fashion, and there is a notable gap in the demand for cultural silhouettes that overseas brands can't fill, but local designers can", she answers, adding that most of the popular global fashion weeks position collections around the four seasons that may not coincide with the major shopping seasons in the middle east - such as Ramadan and other festivals.

If Saudi Arabia truly wants to power its future economy with non-oil sectors, growth of local fashion production will need to be a key focus area. So far, the country has largely depended on importing finished fashion goods to meet the rising local demand - thus building a significant trade deficit. Saudi Arabia saw an increase of 42% in the imports of just apparel from 2012-2021, whereas their exports increased by only 11%. "the Kingdom's open trade system, the market's global connectivity, and local cost and skills challenges" are the major reasons for this trade deficit according to a Saudi State of Fashion report published this year. The local government seems keen to narrow down this trade deficit on priority, as the overall retail fashion sales (all segments combined) in the country are expected to surge to $32 billion by 2025.

Apart from reclaiming its home market, the Kingdom wants to amp up its role in the global supply chain, too. Switzerland, France, and the UAE were the biggest fashion importers from Saudi Arabia in 2021. Switzerland and France collectively imported an estimated US $447 million of fashion goods. Nearly 98% was jewellery, with little to no contribution from apparel. This is a shortfall the Saudi Fashion Commission hopes to remedy with a string of initiatives launched recently. "To encourage businesses across the fashion ecosystem, including designers, to be based in Saudi, we have listened to their needs", explains Cakmak, CEO of Saudi Fashion Commission, “through innovation, we are delivering ease of business like never before, positively impacting regulations, sustainability, research, and development."

Earlier this month, SFC hosted an investment roadshow in New York in which Saudi streetwear brand 1886 and luxury label Abadia secured investments from Turmeric Capital, a consumer-focused private equity firm. At the end of 2023, the Saudi Fashion Commission aims to launch a first-of-its-kind product development studio in Riyadh for designers to create prototypes to hasten market entry. A leading college in Saudi has also set up a sustainable materials research centre to devise sustainable polymer fabrics. "Local brands such as ours, too, are investing in special machinery for printing and embroideries. Earlier, we used to import these materials", says AlAmmari, "Because the Made in Saudi label is very important to us now," she concludes.