Couturier Adnan Akbar’s past clients included Princess Diana and two French first ladies, but until recently he had never staged a major fashion show in his native Saudi Arabia.
The 74-year-old, dubbed the “Saint Laurent of the Middle East”, was among the most decorated designers at this year’s inaugural Riyadh Fashion Week, a milestone in a country that used to require women to wear hijab headscarves and abaya robes in public.
On a runway set up in Riyadh’s financial district, in front of a mixed-gender crowd of Instagram influencers and diplomats, models donned more than two dozen of Akbar’s floor-length gowns, and one wedding dress sewn from French lace.
It was a world away from most prior fashion shows in the Gulf kingdom: small, women-only gatherings in private homes or, in one famous example, a public show that did away with models altogether, hanging dresses from flying drones.
