The resort is part of Red Sea Global, one of the giga-projects at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 social and economic reform programme overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This marks the first of its kind show in the Kingdom, where women were previously punished for not covering their heads and faces. The fashion industry in 2022 accounted for US$12.5 billion, or 1.4 percent of the national GDP, and employed 230,000 people, according to a report published last year by the official Saudi Fashion Commission.
Saudi designer Tima Abid got her start at a time when fashion shows were taboo and tourism, apart from religious pilgrimages, was almost non-existent in the Gulf kingdom. So she was as surprised as anyone to see models draped in her latest couture collection gliding down an overwater boardwalk connecting beachfront villas that go for nearly $2,000 per night. The sunset show on Thursday kicked off Saudi Arabia’s first Red Sea Fashion Week, pitched by organisers as a milestone both for Saudi fashion and for a nascent tourism sector whose growth is key to diversifying the economy of the world’s biggest crude oil exporter.
