(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Make sure your heels are high and your suit is pressed, the critical eye of fashion is setting its sights on Dubai. With New York and Paris Fashion Week now at an end, it's Dubai's turn to showcase our design talent. Fashion Forward Dubai (FFWD) has announced its full programme for the Spring Summer '16 event, taking place this October 22 - 25 and expectations are higher than ever.
After cementing its place in the fashion landscape of the region, FFWD now wants to point the spotlight solely on designers. With a great push to expose and elevate locally based designers into an international platform, as well as educating designers and fashion enthusiasts, FFWD is nurturing the fast growing fashion industry in Dubai.
"We are trying to position Fashion Forward Dubai as the definitive platform for the region with a very global perspective," Bong Guerrero, FFWD founder, says of the development of the regional event and the designers who have been involved, "our designers are truly making waves in the region and its almost happening organically."
This year's FFWD event will keep a strong focus on regional designers with 33 catwalk shows and presentations by the region's best couture and ready to wear designers. Debates, discussions and panel talks are also on the agenda. The 'd3 Fashion Talks' will explore issues facing the region's fashion industry, with iconic names from the international fashion industry, including Karen Buglisi Weiler, Global Brand President of M·A·C Cosmetics, Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist, and Imran Amed, Founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion. It's this academic focus that will push the real growth of local designers, says Ramzi Nakad, COO of FFWD.
"We are continuing our academic partnership with Domus Academy and London's College of Fashion. From inception, the whole idea is to offer a developmental platform that is free of charge, which is accessible to all the enthusiasts and designers in order to help them improve their craft."
As a city, Dubai seems to be the perfect hub for designers from the Middle East to congregate. Showcasing their works through platforms like FFWD can give a local brand the opportunity to be exposed on an international scale.
"The good thing about Dubai is that if you do something right here, it grows exponentially," Bong says, "there's a bit of truth to the city's natural inclination to be the best. We're quite quick to adapt, we learn every season and we take feedback seriously."
With FFWD gaining international interest as the fashion event in the Middle East to scout potential new talent, both the event and the designers involved are gaining real attention within a short space of time.
"Like the designers. the platform has been through great leaps and bounds," Ramzi says, "we've had so much attention not just from the regional media but also the international media. To our joy, everyone is speaking very highly of Fashion Forward - about the designers that are participating and the quality."
Attention and recognition from the right places is acting as a catalyst for the regional fashion scene and for events like FFWD. However, growing our regional talent is no overnight process. Ensuring that their platform remains relevant and progressive is the key to the success and longevity of FFWD.
"For us to create our versions of Donna Karans and Calvin Kleins, we need to celebrate the designers," Says Bong, "FFWD is a platform, it is a uniform platform that you see every season. What changes is the evolution of our consistent designers that join us every season and the influx of new designers that come on board, which makes a healthy creative mix. We can only grow stronger and bigger with seasons to come."
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