FFWD adds panel to its showroom in Paris

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 25, 2017

In a break with the past, Fashion Forward Dubai (FFWD) is adding a high-powered panel discussion to its well-received showroom in Paris.

Its next Paris edition kicks off this Friday, September 29, in the Hotel Intercontinental, and last four days until October 2.

FFWD Showroom Paris has pulled together a distinguished group of experts, who at 5PM on Friday will discuss the following theme: The Globalization of Fashion: Value Creation Through Business Exchange Between Dubai and Paris.
 
Ramzi Nakad, Co-founder of Fashion Forward Dubai and a member of Dubai Design and Fashion Council, will join Middle Eastern influencer and Editor-in-Chief of L'Armoir de Lana El Sahely; Clair Seffeen, Senior Women's Contemporary Buyer, Harvey Nichols Dubai and Bloomingdale's Dubai and Dima Ayad, the Marketing and PR Director of Modist.com, for this debate.

This marks the third season of this Showroom Paris, which operates as a high-profile promotional vehicle for new generation talent from the Gulf. The equivalent of the CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund Americans in Paris Showroom, which takes place on the same weekend.
 
In salon features 12 UAE-based fashion and accessory designers who will present their latest ideas at Fashion Forward in the Presidential Suite of the Hotel Intercontinental, opposite Paris’ principal opera house, Palais Garnier. Among the notables, Amira Haroon, a Parsons School graduate; Cheyma, a fashion and luxury masters graduate from France’s prestigious Institute of Political Sciences who has worked for Christian Dior couture, Chloé and Saint Laurent Paris; or Rula Galayini, a Vogue Arabia Fashion Prize finalist known for edgy sensual Power Bag style.

The remaining other designers are Anaya, Asya Krasnaya, Sadeem, Geodie Handbags, Hessa Falasi, Kage, Soltana, Tania George, and Utruj.
 
The Middle East is one of the most rapidly growing fashion markets in the world. Testifying to its dynamism, FFWD will stage one of his biggest fashion weeks, Fashion Forward Dubai, at the end of October, 26-28 inside the Dubai Design District. That three-day event will include some 30 runway shows, and over 80 brands in the 10th edition of this season.
 
Launched in 2013, Fashion Forward Dubai was founded by Nakad and his partner, Philippines-born Bong Guerrero. While its Paris event was first developed by Muriel Piaser Consulting.