DUBAI: Fans of Italy-based luxury shoe brand Aquazzura are in good company, with the likes of Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, Beyonce and Meghan Markle showing off the label’s heels on numerous occasions. With new boutiques in Riyadh and Jeddah, creative director and founder Edgardo Osorio sat down with Arab News to discuss his decision to tap into the Saudi market.

The brand, founded in 2012, is going through a speedy expansion in the region with new boutiques opening in the Kingdom, Bahrain and Kuwait in 2024, with another UAE boutique sscheduled for 2025. This is after the brand’s first regional outlet opened in Dubai in 2018.

“It’s a very special time to be in Saudi and be a part of cultural revolution,” the Colombian designer said of his foray into Saudi Arabia at Riyadh’s Centria Mall and Jeddah’s Al-Khayyat Center — the brand’s first mono-brand concept stores in the country.

 “We have a very large Saudi clientele already existing, at the shop here (in Dubai) the shop in London, and the shop in Paris, so for us it was a natural step.”

Fashion aficionados the world over will be familiar with Aquazzura’s often-copied designs, including the gem-encrusted Tequila Collection, the sparkling Gatsby Collection and the popular Twist line with its butter soft nappa leather and double padded insoles.

“The best sellers are the best sellers worldwide, but I think that Saudi women tend to dress up more,” Osorio said of Saudi footwear trends.

While a distinct focus on attention-grabbing heels is part of the Aquazzura design ethos, Osorio is keen to reiterate that the brand was born out of a desire to provide comfort.

“The reason (this) exists is because one summer I was invited to 13 weddings. I went to 12 … and I noticed women complaining about their shoes — and this was a time pre-designer sneakers, pre-there being all heel heights … Comfort was a dirty word in fashion at the time,” he said.

“And so I said … there’s an opportunity in the market to make beautiful, comfortable shoes because if you can choose, which one would you choose?”

That savvy insight proved to be the making of a designer who showed his fashion chops from a young age, interning at fashion companies in his native Colombia at the age of 14 before moving to London to study at the London College of Fashion at 16.

After dropping out to pursue a career at Italian accessories label Salvatore Ferragamo, Osorio found himself as the head of footwear at Roberto Cavalli at just 23.

His own venture began with the study of the human foot, a far cry of the glitz and glam of the red carpet where Osorio’s designs would end up.

“I worked with a technician who had been studying the human foot and making shoes for over 40 years and the way (our) shoes are constructed, the weight of your body is more evenly distributed … so our shoes are more ergonomic. The weight of your body is more evenly distributed between the front, the arch and the back.

 “I also use extra-soft materials and I put in memory foam,” he said. “Almost nobody works like this. I don't know why except for me … and so obviously women feel the difference.”

Women and fashion’s leading awarding bodies, it seems, for Osorio has just been named Footwear News’s 2024 Designer of the Year — a prestigious prize in the international style industry.

Osorio was named Designer of the Year once before, in 2015, and he is part of a cohort of previous winners including Jordanian Romanian celebrity designer Amina Muaddi, London-based Charlotte Olympia Dellal and Italy’s Gianvito Rossi, among others.

“It’s obviously a huge honor to be recognised by my peers and by Footwear News … this is a very pivotal moment for the brand,” he said.

“(We are) part of a major expansion for the brand, in the major face of growth in a difficult moment, people are believing in us and people are choosing to buy and wear Aquazzura.

“When I launched Aquazurra, we were in the middle of an economic depression and everyone was telling me ‘you’re crazy to open a brand and to leave Cavalli’ … I read somewhere ‘crisis means opportunity’ … and in the moment of crisis is when you need to get crafty and creative,” he said.

Twelve years on, as his latest gilded boutique in the Middle East joins his growing list of international outlets, it seems the designer took a step in the right direction.

DUBAI: Somali Norwegian model Rawdah Mohamed took to social media to celebrate her latest campaign with Italian label Dolce & Gabbana.

The model took to Instagram to share a video of the marketing materials, on show in an eyewear outlet in the UAE’s Dubai Mall. Mohamed posed for the Italian luxury label’s latest eyewear collection and can be seen showing off sunglasses while wearing various patterned hijabs.

“What a moment! Thank you to the @dolcegabbana team and @nimabenati for always capturing my beauty,” Mohamed captioned the post, highlighting Italian fashion photographer Nima Benati’s role in the project. She now walks the runway for storied brands and stars in luxury fashion campaigns, but Mohamed’s early years were marked by upheaval as her family fled Somalia’s civil war for the safety of Kenya when she was just a baby. Alongside her parents and nine siblings, including an adopted sister, she spent her childhood in a refugee camp before relocating to Norway at the age of eight.

Mohamed previously told Arab News that she “sort of stumbled into modeling” after a mutual friend put her in touch with her manager while she was at university studying for a degree in behavioral analysis and healthcare.

Mohamed said: “I went to a fashion show in Oslo at the end of 2018 where I met my manager. He told me about what they were doing and I went to his office for a meeting and I said I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a model but I wanted to work in fashion.”

Fast forward to 2024 and she is fast becoming a recognizable face in the industry, working with brands like Boss and H&M.

Mohamed walked the Roberto Cavalli show in Dubai in September, wearing an all-black three-piece suit consisting of a structured blazer, a fitted vest, and wide-legged trousers, all crafted from a subtly textured fabric. The outfit was completed with a dramatic wide-brimmed black hat that was styled over a black hijab.

“A privilege to walk the runway of @roberto_cavalli show. Sublime collection,” she later wrote on Instagram.

She was also spotted on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2023 and 2024.