Highlights of the Fifth Day of Arab Fashion Week Women's Ready-to-Wear Spring Summer 2023

• The penultimate day of Arab Fashion Women’s kicks off with UAE Ready to Wear brand Lili Blanc
• Eco-Conscious and slow fashion feature prominently among designers like Yassmine Saleh, Vidhi Wadhwani, Atelier Forger.
• The Giving Movement reinvents sustainable athleisure with the debut of FiftyMade ©
• BHYPE ushers in the upcoming FIFA World Cup and closes day Five with an exclusive afterparty

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Lili Blanc
An intrepid explorateur, a savvy urbanite, a self-made woman… these were the sort of muses UAE-born designer Sabrina Mouhieddine of Lili Blanc spoke to with her spring-summer 2023 ready-to-wear show. Named “Reflection”, the season’s teaser featured women in blazers and top hats wandering through nature, underscoring a journey toward self-awareness and empowerment. This continued on with a lineup of uptown leather ensembles, trenches, vests, and skin-embracing outfits that set the tone for the fifth day of Arab Fashion Week.

POCA & POCA
Frills, fringe, and feathers were the playful elements that made POCA & POCA’s spring-summer “Joy” collection captivating in both spirit and design.  Created by Karolina Gniewek-Lewicka and co-founder Wiktor Gniewek, the Polish-made brand infused the day-five roster with every ruffle with a palpable dose of levity. Largely inspired by 50s and 60s fashion, voluminous dresses, blouses with open backs, jumpsuits, and trousers reflected a contemporary yet timeless new look for a girl who knows how to have fun.

Yassmin Saleh
One would have to look closely to spot the tattooed motifs embedded within the Yassmin Saleh collection. A form of wearable art, the hand-designed artwork reflecting key issues of our time has become the hallmark of the sister duo behind the label. At Arab Fashion Week, eco-conscious goddess looks like flowing bohemian dresses and floor-sweeping gowns adorned with organic prints, conjured a sense of otherworldliness. Above all, the slow fashion brand showed the audience that their looks, made with leftover fabrics that are kept aside and repurposed, are the future of luxury.

Vidhi Wadhwani
Like a small Holi Festival of color, Vidhi Wadhwani’s summer 2023 resort collection was an homage to the brand’s artisans. In hyper color shades of intense grass green, fuchsia, and canary yellow, this latest collection featured mesmerizingly intricate, almost folkloric embroidery techniques that can only be made with patient hands.
Its summer resort 2023 collection is an ode to the earth and all its wonders via botanical applique’ sewn onto party dresses, as well as embroidery and fabric manipulations fashioned into an array of white ensembles that offered a futuristic perspective as to what the bride of the future might look like in a globalized world.

Atelier Forger
Neat and polished in black and white, Tarek Abou Samra of Atelier Forger launched his second collection at Arab Fashion Week. Inspired by mid-century design, the Renaissance Collection spoke to a woman who reclaimed control over her own life and is unwavering in her pursuit of joy and beauty. Crafted with sustainable materials, Atelier Forger effortlessly conveyed a fresh twist on ready-to-wear, marking its foray into organically sourced bags. An uptown cast of contemporary 60s-inspired, sartorial designs was envisaged to flatter a variety of female forms.