Deep dive into the saudi fashion and design scene

Tha Fashion commission initiative recently led by the Saudi Ministry of culture includes the creation of incubators that will bring direct investment in order to boost  the regional fashion and design art scene development.  And the results are already visible with a very rich and diverse creative landscape of young designers challenging the fashion and design vision of the kingdom.  Some entrepreneurs who are willing to celebrate their heritage, but also to create a real community of artists in Saudi Arabia while taking responsibility around the social changes of their country. Exploration with  5 Saudi designers to follow

Nouran Nazer 

This former banker turned fashion designer started her designer journey 10 years ago after her return to Jeddah as an engineering graduate. At that time, she is striked by the lack  of creativity in the Saudi fashion world, and began to design by herself until she moved to London in 2014 to study fashion styling at the London College of Fashion. She came back in 2019 to launch Aspect Doré, a brand with the aim  of manifesting garments that empower and celebrate the strength and determination of women. Her collections have featured the use of corseting as an armour to protect women and not constraining them, but also lace and see through fabrics which represent vitality and fertility.  

Nouf Alhazmi

The Jeddah-based young designer studied fashion design at Woodbury University in California. She came back to Saudi Arabia with the idea of developing a luxury streetwear brand completely designed and made in Saudi. That’s how she founded Realself in 2019, a small scale production studio which tries to fill the lack of quality ready-to-wear for women that is both elegant and comfortable. As she continues to grow with the support of the Saudi community, Alhazmi is also helping to foster the “Made in Saudi” fashion scene.

Moe Bajbaa

Bajbaa founded her band “Proud Angeles” in 2014, a hybrid fashion and lifestyle brand inspired by LA spirit and Saudi heritage. Since then, Proud Angeles has also collaborated with a lot of artists during immersive installations and has turned  into a collective hub gathering some of the region’s most exciting emerging creatives. Proud Angeles also supports the development of Saudi creative culture through the curation of festivals, as well as supporting the Made in Saudi fashion fostered by Riyadh-based concept store Personage SA. 

Saud Alajaji

Riyadh-based designer Saud Alajaji’s launched  his brand Mazrood in 2018, after he moved to New York where he studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology. While learning about design and textile fabrication, the latest presented a collection of technical streetwear in collaboration with a New York-based material designer. Later, his collaborations with the Al Ula festival  and the Personage store saw the brand further catapulted across the Kingdom. Recently, Alajaji has begun producing smaller scale pieces regionally, hoping to establish one of the first manufacturing plants for fashion in Saudi Arabia.

Lama Albluwi 

Lama Albluwi founded her brand namesake in 2019, after graduating with a BA in fashion design. She aims to celebrate her Saudi cultural heritage through the sourcing of regional materials and her collection is inspired by her Bedouin heritage as well as the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi which represents the acceptance of imperfection. With the support from Al-Ula festival as a retailer and distributor, her brand has been manufactured at a larger-scale and the demand keeps growing.