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.
