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Our take on what’s cool, trending and fashionable

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Spotlight on the Influencers

The region’s style influencers are getting their own TV show, which was due to launch on E! as we went to press.

Expected to be called My Fabulous M.E., it will follow six local social media names going about their day-to-day lives. It will feature some of the Gulf’s biggest style stars: Dubai-based Hadia Ghaleb, Lebanese Maya Ahmed (pictured), who also lives in Dubai, Kuwaiti Fatima Almomen, Dana Al Tuwarish, who is known for her old-school glamour, Nour Arida, from Beirut, and fellow Lebanese blogger Lana El Sahely.

The show will initially be a three-parter, produced by Sugar Rush Productions, and will focus on the women’s business dealings and family lives.

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Cruising in Arles

Gucci will be holding its Cruise 2019 fashion show on the ancient site of Alyscamps, in Arles, France, on May 30.

Les Alyscamps is a UNESCO World Heritage site with one of the most renowned Roman necropoleis, which will provide a remarkable backdrop for Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s latest offering. This follows his previous Cruise presentations that have taken place in other culturally significant locations, including the DIA-Art Foundation in New York City, the Cloisters at Westminster Abbey in London and the Palatina Gallery in Florence’s Palazzo Pitti.

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Bella Gets Political

Model Bella Hadid showcased her Palestinian heritage and took to the streets to join protestors demonstrating against Donald Trump’s controversial decision to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The catwalk favourite had apparently been at a nearby event and joined the banner-waving protestors, still looking glamorous in a red dress and white coat. But though her heart might have been with the cause, she came under fire for staying just three minutes before being whisked away in a chauffeur-driven car.

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Religious Robes

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will look at the synergy between religious art and contemporary couture for its next major fashion exhibition.

Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination will be a joint production between The Met’s Fifth Avenue location and The Met Cloisters – the museum’s satellite location at the northern tip of Manhattan, which exhibits medieval art. The exhibition will trace the history of garments depicted in Catholic art, and reveal how some of today’s biggest designers have been influenced by the imagery and ideas presented in centuries of ecclesiastical artefacts.

The Costume Institute, based at the museum, is partnering with The Met’s Department of Medieval Art to organise the show.

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Modest Mania

In another indication that modest fashion is not only going mainstream but is fast become a big-bucks business, Dubai Modest Fashion Week, which took place on December 8 and 9, attracted some of the world’s leading fashion labels.

More than 20 countries were represented, and designers, both established and emerging, put on 40 runway shows. There were 50 brand booths, workshops and talks, fashion and art exhibitions in front of celebrities and influencers from across the region.

Following in the footsteps of London and Istanbul, this was only the third modest fashion week in the world but it looks like being an event that will grow and grow.

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Red Soled Star Wars

There has been much excitement in our office about the release of the latest Star Wars film The Last Jedi (we’re not all about fashion you know), but never more so than when the news emerged that franchise fan and uber shoe meister Christian Louboutin has teamed up with Disney and Lucasfilm to honour leading ladies, Rey, Admiral Holdo, Captain Phasma and Rose Tico with their own shoes. The gorgeous creations were due to be auctioned as we went to press with a portion of the proceeds going to kids’ charity the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which supports critically ill children in hospitals, on behalf of Star Wars: Force for Change.