So what is Fashion Forward Dubai, anyway? - Magazine Article
by Mirza A. A. Khoyee
Fashion Forward Dubai (FFWD) is currently the number one event platform that helps in connecting designers with the right investors to lead to explorations of collaborative setups between them. Designers' collections are presented to a wide range of audience in the form of a number of fashion shows so that their works receive the right attention to help them flourish as high end brands and labels. FFWD came together after the study and understanding of the talent and potential that exists in the regional fashion scene.
The Middle East is one of the major markets of business for the fashion and luxury brands industry. A great number of major international fashion brands saw increase in their sales in the ME region in the past few years, despite the presence of the global recession. Therefore it is quite clear that the region contains within it great potential for growth in the fashion business scene. However, almost all regional retail store businesses focus on international brands who have already gained international recognition in terms of their design work and production. This has resulted in the negligence of the local and regional designers as they find it hard to get their designs to the market and survive in this cut-throat industry.
The fashion scene in Dubai has seen significant growth in the last few years and has also attained global attention. Therefore, it is important to focus on enhancing and promoting the local design talent and raise their standard to that of the international market. For an individual designer, achieving this task might seem impossible. Awareness of the impact of fashion needs to be increased at various levels of education and not just for design students, thereby creating a general understanding of what fashion is, and what fashion does, in terms of everyday life and business. The local design market needs to be promoted so that global buyers get attracted to look at the designs of the region and consider them as standard fashion collections designed per season. Local designers also need to be provided with proper infrastructure to expand and explore their business opportunities. They should also be provided with a chance to showcase their designs to a wider audience and market.
Fashion Forward Dubai is the idea that aims to solve these very issues. Last season's inaugural show gained enough recognition to turn it into the premier fashion event of the region. The season two event will run from October 15, 2013 to October 18, 2013 and will be highlighted as a glamorous Eid fashion community event, thus creating a lot of the much needed buzz.
This year's show will be attended by well known and reputable personalities such as members from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), famous designers, trend setters, and marketers, and will hold various workshops and panel discussions termed 'd3 fashion talks'. These discussions will include relevant topics about the fashion business in the current region, such as e-commerce and setting up a fashion brand.
Experts believe that it will be a very educational and engaging event and expect great positive response from the stakeholders of the local scene, including designers, buyers and retail groups. The event also hopes to attract a lot of the international fashion design, marketing and retailing community and hopes for them to share their experiences of FFWD season 2 all over the world.
All of these steps have been considered to attract enough attention to the works of the local designers, whose catwalk shows will be orchestrated during the 4 days of the event. 22 designers (13 returning, 9 new), all of which include some of the region's crème de la crème when it comes to the fashion design industry, will be showcasing their work at FFWD. These designers too, believe strongly in the efforts put into this seasons FFWD event, and consider it the right way of approaching the goal of making Dubai a major fashion hub and trend setter.
Judging by the amount of buzz and popularity created for this event, and the amount of money spent in its marketing, the revenue made and also most importantly, by the degree of talent pouring out from the region and exposed through this event, one can clearly understand the importance of its role in helping Dubai reach its goal of becoming the regional fashion and design hub by the year 2020. it has given the freedom and opportunities to these designers that they previously didn't have and had worked on helping them make their stance in the international fashion market one season at a time.
