AMMAN: On paper, “Mad Men” seemed like — at best — a niche, and quite dull, idea. Exploring the workings of a New York ad agency in the 1960s? Who cares? (Except for ad-agency employees, perhaps, keen to see their choice of occupation as dramatic and meaningful, rather than inherently loathsome.)
However, Matthew Weiner’s depiction of life at the fictional Sterling Cooper agency was one of the finest television shows of this century. First off, it looks spectacular: Weiner and his writers carried out intensive, exhaustive research to ensure the sets, costumes and props were historically accurate (hence the almost constant smoking and boozing), and with a budget that reportedly ran to more than $2 million per episode on average, they were able to create a lush, immersive visual style (Weiner has cited Alfred Hitchcock as a major influence) that rivaled big-budget movies.
Matthew Weiner’s depiction of life at the fictional Sterling Cooper agency was one of the finest television shows of this century, the reviewer thinks. (Supplied)
Secondly, the casting and the cast’s performances were superb throughout. Jon Hamm became a global star for his portrayal of the agency’s complicated, conflicted, alpha-male creative director Don Draper; Elisabeth Moss was brilliant as Peggy Olson — Draper’s secretary who rises through the male-dominated ranks to become an acclaimed copywriter (with her own office!); John Slattery got most of the funniest lines as jaded senior partner Roger Sterling; and Christina Hendricks stole numerous scenes as office manager/office mother Joan Harris — charged with keeping the chaos in some kind of order, with varying degrees of success. They were supported by an ensemble cast who were equally adept at giving their characters an emotional depth rarely matched in primetime TV.
Thirdly, the actors were aided by scripts in which powerful drama was balanced by biting humor; social commentary (particularly about race and gender roles) that still hits hard 60 years on from the period in which the series is set; great tragedies; and life’s big questions. Weiner showed real respect for audiences, providing a show that demanded and deserved their attention (this was not ‘background viewing’) and rewarded focus and inquisitiveness. Even the most minor of characters had three dimensions, and heroes and villains — as in real life — were often hard to separate. Indeed, they were often the same character in the same episode or scene.
Five years on from its final episode, “Mad Men” still deserves its position as a benchmark by which other shows are judged. It may be a period piece, but it’s a compelling, aesthetically gorgeous, and timeless look at life.
She is nominated alongside Italian actress Gerti Drassl and Austrian actress Maria Hofstatter.
“Mond” is directed by Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub. The film follows former martial artist Sarah, who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy family in the Middle East.
What initially appears to be a dream job soon takes a darker turn: The young women are isolated from the outside world and placed under constant surveillance. They show little interest in sports — raising the question of why Sarah was hired in the first place.
Tayeh plays the role of Nour, one of the three sisters.
The actress, who is also known for her roles in Netflix’s hit series “Al-Rawabi School for Girls,” has had a busy year collaborating with multiple brands and fronting their campaigns.
In February, Giorgio Armani announced her appointment as its new Middle East beauty ambassador.
She took to Instagram to express her excitement: “I am thrilled and honored to embark on this new journey with Armani beauty. This marks a real milestone for me, as the brand embodies values I have always cherished: timeless elegance, dramatic simplicity, and women empowerment.”
That same month, she was named the first Middle Eastern ambassador for French haircare brand Kerastase.
In a promotional clip, she appeared in an all-white studio, answering questions about why she is the ideal Kerastase ambassador. Tayeh spoke in a mix of English, Arabic and French, playfully flipping her hair for the camera as she discussed her dedication to maintaining healthy hair.
In March, she also fronted Armani’s Ramadan campaign, set against the backdrop of a desert landscape.
Draped in a flowing emerald-green abaya, Tayeh was seen in the video applying the Vert Malachite perfume from Armani Prive as the camera captured the details of the fragrance and her attire. The setting featured sand dunes stretching into the horizon.
Labubu mania sweeps the UAE, CEO of The Little Things says
Updated 07 June 2025
Diana Farah
DUBAI: Once just a niche collectible from Asia, Labubus have now become the must-have accessory among youth, influencers and collectors of all ages.
Seen clutched in the hands of BLACKPINK’s Lisa and Rosé, flaunted by Rihanna, and even making cameos in Kim Kardashian’s social media posts, Labubu has found its way into the UAE’s trend-savvy culture.
According to Hassan Tamimi, CEO of The Little Things, the UAE’s official POP MART retailer, the demand for Labubu has reached unprecedented levels.
“Labubu has become more than a collectible here,” Tamimi told Arab News Japan. “It’s a lifestyle statement. We’re seeing people pair them with luxury handbags, sports cars, even use them in wedding shoots.”
But in a region known for its love of luxury and limited-edition goods, the blind box collectible has struck a chord, especially among Gen Z and millennial buyers seeking aesthetic, niche fandom items with resale value.
However, the spike in popularity has brought an unfortunate side effect: a flood of fake Labubu figures infiltrating the UAE market. Counterfeit toys, often dubbed “Lafufu” by collectors, have been circulating online via scam websites and unverified sellers.
“We’ve had several customers walk into our stores with fake Labubus thinking they were real,” Tamimi said. “It’s heartbreaking, especially for those who paid high prices for something inauthentic.”
Tamimi warned buyers to look out for telltale signs: typos on packaging, incorrect paint colors, poor stitching on plushies, or even the wrong number of teeth, authentic Labubu figures always have exactly nine.
To meet the overwhelming demand while keeping things fair, The Little Things has implemented a strict one-piece-per-customer policy. The company has also increased restocking efforts and trained in-store staff to help collectors verify authenticity.
Tamimi also pointed out that Labubu’s appeal lies in the thrill of the hunt.
“The blind box format taps into that collector instinct, there’s excitement, suspense, and FOMO. You never know which figure you’ll get, especially with rarer editions, and that makes each purchase feel like an event,” he told Arab News Japan.
While Labubu has long been a cult favorite in Japan, Tamimi noted that the UAE is quickly becoming a hotspot in its own right. In Dubai and Abu Dhabi especially, Labubu fans are forming communities, trading figures and sharing unboxings and display setups online.
“What’s happening here mirrors what we’ve seen in Tokyo,” he added. “The only difference is access, Japan often gets first dibs on regional exclusives. But that scarcity is part of what makes collecting in the UAE so exciting.”
As for those looking to join the Labubu craze, Tamimi has one piece of advice: stick to official sellers.
“If it’s too cheap or too easy to find online, it’s probably fake. Trust verified stores. The magic of Labubu is in the real thing.”
- This article was first published on Arab News Japan.
LAHORE: Tucked away in a quiet lane in Pakistan’s cultural capital of Lahore, Hashim Ali’s studio feels less like a workspace and more like a time capsule from the Mughal era.
Large Persian rugs are spread out on the floors and ornate jharokhas overlook walls painted in beige and maroon and covered in wood panels and miniature paintings, creating a world suffused with nostalgia and opulence. Every corner of the studio reflects the vision of an art director who doesn’t just design sets but builds atmosphere. The space is both sanctuary and stage, where centuries-old aesthetics come vividly to life in the service of modern, visual storytelling.
One of Pakistan’s most renowned Pakistani visual artists and art directors, Ali is a Visual Communication Design graduate from the prestigious National College of Arts (NCA) institute in Lahore. Over the years, he has come to be known for his work in fashion, film, and music and is celebrated for his creative vision and attention to detail, particularly in creating visually stunning and intricate sets. His ability to blend historic grandeur with modern maximalism has won him several accolades over the years, including the Fashion Art Director award at the 2024 Hum Style Awards and the Pride of Performance Award in 2021.
In an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore’s posh Gulberg neighborhood, Ali, 34, said his passion for visual storytelling came from a history of childhood bullying.
This photo shows a generic view of Pakistani art director Hashim Ali’s studio in a quiet lane in Lahore. (AN Photo)
“When you are bullied, you have to make [up] stories, you have to read stories, so I would get lost in fairytales,” he said.
“I would just start imagining what this world is, what these people are, what is this fantasy that exists out of this world? It started from there.”
The stories he read, full of mythology and folklore, led him to start thinking about his identity as a Pakistani and a South Asian.
“Then I was like, ‘Why can’t we rebuild these memories and these spaces and these places?’”
Pakistani art director Hashim Ali speaks during an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore on May 27, 2025. (AN Photo)
Ali’s own studio is a recreation of spaces of the past, a Mughal court in miniature — crafted not from marble and sandstone, but from cardboard, fabric, and imagination. With hand-painted arches, makeshift jalis, and richly colored drapes, the space evokes the grandeur of a bygone empire while laying bare its theatrical artifice. The illusion is deliberate: a paper palace blurring the line between history and performance and reflecting South Asia’s enduring nostalgia for lost splendor and the way identity in the region is often reconstructed through fragments — of memory, of myth, of art.
What one then sees is not just a recreation of the past but a reinterpretation, inviting a dialogue between heritage and reinvention:
“If Hollywood can create all of this [set design] and we think as Pakistanis that we can’t do any of this, then we’re at fault. Because we did create the Taj Mahal. We did create the Lahore Fort … If we could do it then, we can do it now.”
“COMBINED MEMORY”
One of Ali’s most cherished creations was the set for the song “Pasoori,” the first Coke Studio number to hit one billion views on YouTube Music and the most searched song globally on Google in 2022, the year of its release.
Ali, the production designer and art director of the set, crafted it as a communal space, with the bohemian aesthetic of the set, characterized by vibrant colors and eclectic elements, complementing the song’s fusion of reggaeton beats with classical South Asian instruments like the rubab.
This photo shows a generic view of Pakistani art director Hashim Ali’s studio in Lahore. (AN Photo)
Ali describes the aesthetic as “the Pakistani vibe,” exemplified by a new generation that had grown up in the era of globalization and social media and was reclaiming public spaces and dressing up and conducting themselves in ways that merged their cultural heritage with contemporary elements.
“It’s so interesting that now when I’m sitting and I’m scrolling on Instagram or TikTok and I see these reels of girls wearing either ‘saris’ and ‘ghagras’ and they’re dancing in Lahore, in old Lahore,” Ali said.
But the project closest to Ali’s heart is hidden away in the winding, narrow streets of Lahore’s historic Gali Surjan Singh near Delhi Gate. It is a concept store, Iqbal Begum, imagined as a tribute to his late dadi or grandmother, a mathematics teacher who passed away in 2014.
The store has been built in a centuries-old home that Ali rented from a woman who has lived there before the partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan. The walls are adorned with framed pictures of Iqbal Begum and the shop strewn with things that belonged to her, including old table clocks and dial phones and a tub of Nivea cream, a bottle of Oil of Olay lotion, and a coin purse framed together.
Photo frames of Pakistani art director Hashim Ali’s grandmother hang on one of the walls of his studio in Lahore. (AN Photo)
Ali remembered growing up surrounded by the stories his grandmother told him, including about the violence of the partition.
“She told me a story about how she lost her favorite pen and our house was burned down in front of her eyes and the sense of belonging started happening,” Ali said.
“From that story, this thing of holding on to objects, holding on to people, holding on to stories became very important.”
The concept store is thus not only a way to tell the story of Iqbal Begum but also to create shared memories.
“So, for me, every time I tell a story, I’m passing on my memory to someone else, and when they go and tell someone, in a way, it’s almost like my dadi is still alive,” Ali added.
Pakistani art director Hashim Ali gestures during an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore on May 27, 2025. (AN Photo)
And the process is two-way, because people show up with their stories also and can connect with the items they see in the store: “Then it becomes like a combined memory.”
Ultimately, it all connects back to the idea of Pakistan for Ali and to preserving its national, personal and collective histories into tangible, emotionally resonant experience.
“I kind of equated it to the bigger grandparent or the larger mother, which is Pakistan, that slowly, slowly all these amazing things that Pakistanis and Pakistan has done, we’re slowly letting them fade away,” he said.
“The idea from this dadi telling stories to a child has become about this child telling those stories or trying to tell those stories to the world and saying, ‘Hey, we’re Pakistan and we’re a beautiful country and we do all these things apart from what you’re used to hearing about.’.”
Princess Rajwa shows support in sporty style at World Cup qualifier
Updated 06 June 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: Princess Rajwa Al-Hussein of Jordan attended the AFC World Cup qualifier match between Jordan and Oman on Thursday, opting for a look that blended national pride with contemporary style.
The princess, who is of Saudi origin, wore the official home shirt of the Jordan national football team, featuring a white base with red collar and sleeve accents. She paired the jersey with Victoria Beckham’s structured pocket trousers in the “Sandstorm” shade, featuring a high-waisted silhouette with fine pinstripes and curved front pockets.
To accessorize, Princess Rajwa chose pieces from Bilarabiya Jewellery. She wore the brand’s “Abjad Hawaz” single earring and a custom necklace bearing the name of her daughter, Princess Iman, written in Arabic.
Princess Rajwa sat alongside Princess Iman and Princess Salma, the sisters of the crown prince, who were also dressed in the national team’s shirt.
The Jordanian national team qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time in its history, following a decisive 3-0 victory over Oman.
Jordan secured its spot on the penultimate day of Asian qualifying for the tournament, which will be held in the US, Mexico and Canada.
Saudi artist Abdullah Al-Othman discusses work exploring linguistic architectural landscapes
Updated 07 June 2025
Rebecca Anne Proctor
DUBAI: In the Bawwaba section of the most recent edition of Art Dubai, Saudi artist Abdullah Al-Othman’s installation “Manifesto: Language & the City II” presented photographs and numerous illuminated signs and symbols in Arabic against two black walls, reflecting the urban signage one may find in Riyadh.
The installation was an evolution of a series that includes 2021’s “Manifesto: the Language and the City,” a multimedia installation exploring the linguistic and architectural landscape of Riyadh for the inaugural Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, which went on to be included in the Lyon Biennale in 2022, and “Fantasy Land,” which Al-Othman created for the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival in 2021 — a neon wall installation exploring themes of human experience and the shifts between reality and illusion.
Abdullah Al-Othman’s installation “Manifesto: Language & the City II” presented photographs and numerous illuminated signs and symbols in Arabic. (Supplied)
“Language & the City II” pulsed with light and color and the expressive characters of the Arabic language made the viewer feel as if they were indeed on a bustling street in the Saudi capital. “Language is akin to history — it’s very deep,” Al-Othman tells Arab News. “Through my research I realized how language is like a brand for a culture — it references history and people. I study the language that we find in cities. The documentation of language affects the architectural style in an urban environment and the relationship between people and their environment.”
“Language & the City II” was made from a variety of materials, predominantly neon signage, lightboxes and wooden advertising signs that were once hung in the streets of Riyadh. Al-Othman’s installation brought them together to create a portrait of the city through its typographic, visual and architectural styles.
Riyadh’s identity, explains Al-Othman, is revealed through the language, style and vibrant colors of these lit symbols, offering a collective memory of a city in the throes of change.
Abdullah Al Othman at Art Dubai Manifesto Language and the City II for Bawwaba. (Courtesy Artist and Iris Projects. Credit Ismail Noor for Seeing Things)
As an artist and a poet, language has always played an important role in Al-Othman’s life. While he began as a writer, he arrived at a point where he could no longer fully express himself with words and turned to art, creating works that incorporate sound, found objects, sculpture, film and performance.
In 2017’s “Suspended Al-Balad,” for the 21,39, contemporary art festival, Al-Othman wrapped an entire building in Jeddah’s historic Al-Balad district, originally used as a shelter for widows and divorced women, with tin foil.
Al Othman’s intuitive approach to art creation leads him to organically move between and incorporate different mediums. Light is a significant element in his work, whether bouncing off tin foil or shining in neon to reflect the everyday urban environment of Riyadh.
Pieces from Al-Othman's latest project, 'Engineering the Unknown.' (Supplied)
“I want to create journeys for people to discover the importance of language,” says Al-Othman. “Language is a deeply important part of being human.”
Today Al-Othman continues to expand his research and art creation. He has recently published a book on his research supported by The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) and the Saudi Cultural Development Fund.
Presently he is creating sculptures out of various Arabic words from made from different materials for his latest project, “Engineering the Incomplete.”
“In my artistic practice, I engage with language as an open field for analysis and reconstruction,” he writes in his statement for the new project. “I begin from moments of absence — from missing letters and fractured words — treating them as signals of the fragility inherent in the symbolic systems we rely on to make sense of the world.
Al-Othman's 'Manifesto - The Language & The City' at the 2022 Lyon Biennale. (Supplied)
“Failure to achieve perfection becomes an essential part of creation, not a flaw to be corrected,” he continues. “Incompleteness is not simply a void, but an active component that generates new, open-ended meanings. Each missing letter, each visual gap, forms an alternative path of reading and invites the viewer to reshape their relationship with language and the urban environment.”
“Engineering the Incomplete” uses the structure of the letter as an entity capable of both disintegration and destruction and therefore the resulting text as something that is unstable and constantly changing.
“My practice transforms language from a tool of communication into a material and temporal organism caught in the tension between structure and collapse,” Al-Othman adds. “Through material techniques that draw from urban elements and the reconfiguration of textual spaces, my work seeks to highlight the continuous tension between the desire for expression and the inherent limits of linguistic possibilities.”
Al-Othman says that “Engineering the Incomplete” is not an attempt to restore what is lost, but an invitation to read absence, or lacking, as another form of presence and a new beginning.
Incompleteness, he emphasizes, offers “a way to produce new meaning and vision.”
