Archive for the ‘Women’s Clothing’ Category

It is well known that many women who live in the Middle East are religious conservatives who adhere to strict Islamic dress codes, which require that women’s fashion clothing be modest, especially in public. So they will wear burqas, veils that cover the entire face except for the eyes. A scarf called the hijab is also worn by many Muslim women, which covers the head and hair but leaves the face visible.

However, what is not well known is that Arab women are among the most fashion-forward in the world. For example, Kuwaiti women are known for being very fashion-minded, dressing in the latest Western styles. And in Saudi Arabia, one of the favorite national pastimes in urban areas is shopping, with many Western-style malls available. In fact, women from the Middle East, particularly the royal families, buy more designer dresses and clothes than almost any other group in the world.

Some of the interest in fashion is related to their social lives. It is not uncommon for Arab women to attend up to 20 weddings a year and several private parties every month. And like celebrities, it’s not fashionable to wear the same designer dress to more than one big occasion.

Another reason for the interest in fashion is that money is hardly ever an issue. The royal families in places like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are oil-rich and think nothing of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a single designer dress. As one daughter of a construction mogul told Reuters, “What I want is unique pieces, extravagant and chic. I do not want to pay 5,000 or 6,000 Euros for a dress, as it happened to me with a Pucci outfit recently, and see it on somebody else the same evening.”

According to Euromonitor, women of the UAE buy the most designer dresses, with the country as a whole spending $930 million a year on designer clothes. Although European designers remain the most popular, some Middle Eastern designers such as Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad have also benefited from the appetite for designer dresses, which is only expected to grow in the coming years.