Part-Arab model Imaan Hammam spotted at Tory Burch’s NYFW show
Updated 14 September 2022
Arab News
DUBAI: Dutch Moroccan Egyptian model Imaan Hammam sat on the coveted front row at the Tory Burch Spring-Summer 2023 presentation at New York Fashion Week.
The model took to Instagram to give fans a behind-the-scenes peek at her time attending the show, including snapshots of her getting ready.
Also in attendance were models and celebrities including DeWanda Wise, Lana Condor, Arden Cho, Sydney Sweeney, Madeleine Arthur, Jenna Coleman, Thuso Mbedu, Salem Mitchell, Lena Mahfouf and Chloe Fineman.
British Moroccan model Nora Attal was spotted on the catwalk.
The new collection from US designer Tory Burch takes inspiration from the New York of the 90s and is, according to the fashion house, bold but uncompromising when it comes to comfort. “The Spring/Summer 2023 collection is defined by opposing instincts: to experiment freely and to pare everything back. It is personal and intuitive, drawing on my memories of the ‘90s when I moved to New York. I wanted to look at my signatures with a fresh perspective, reflecting what feels modern now,” read a post on the label’s Instagram page.
Hammam recently featured in Tory Burch’s campaign introducing the label’s new range of perfumes called Essence of Dreams.
In a recent interview with the online publication Who What Wear, Hammam talked about her favorite scent from the Essence of Dreams collection, saying “it’s hard to choose when you have five great scents to pick from, but I’d have to say I’m really into Divine Moon. It’s more of a lighter perfume, something I would put on before I go to sleep or when I wake up. It has a blend of honey, so it’s a little bit on the sweeter side. It also has citrus and lady-of-the-night flower notes and is very enchanting. It captures the essence of peace and smells so tranquil to me,” said Hammam.
“Depending on your mood, you could go for sweeter scents, or you could go for something like Cosmic Wood. I also love Mystic Geranium because it has musk. Musk is something, again, that really brings me back home to my Moroccan and Egyptian culture and background,” she added.
Hammam was also recently revealed as the celebrity star of a new campaign by Dutch football team Ajax for their latest pre-match collection. The model promoted the club’s newest line, which is a collaboration between Adidas, Ajax and Daily Paper.
Quinta Brunson opts for Lebanese gown in Los Angeles
Updated 33 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: Emmy-winning actress, comedian and writer Quinta Brunson showed off a gown by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad at the 14th Annual Spring Break Gala by City Year Los Angeles.
Founded in 1988, City Year is a national service program that offers full-time community service. This weekend, the Los Angeles chapter held its annual gala, which was attended by the likes of US actress and film producer Viola Davis and “Abbott Elementary” sitcom creator Brunson.
Brunson’s column gown hailed from Zuhair Murad’s Pre-Fall 2025 collection. The look featured star-like embellishments across the torso, bust and cuffs.
It is not the first time Brunson has worn a Lebanese creation on the red carpet — in September, she showed off a mermaid sculpted gown from Lebanese designer Georges Chakra’s Fall/Winter 2024-2025 couture collection at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Murad has continued to attract celebrity clientele to his eveningwear label.
In late April, Murad made a statement at the 2025 Time 100 Gala with US actress Blake Lively, as well as singer and songwriter Nicole Scherzinger, showcasing his creations on the red carpet.
Lively, who attended the event with her husband Ryan Reynolds, wore a pink taffeta off-the-shoulder gown featuring a corseted bodice and a train detail from Murad’s ready-to-wear Spring 2025 collection.
Scherzinger, meanwhile, chose a black off-the-shoulder sequin gown from Murad’s ready-to-wear Pre-Fall 2025 collection.
One month earlier, Murad unveiled his latest collaboration with Italian label Marina Rinaldi. Murad designed the brand’s Spring/Summer 2025 capsule collection inspired by China’s Tang dynasty.
Drawing from the dynasty’s introduction of peony cultivation in imperial gardens, Murad infused the collection with images of the flower.
The collection focuses largely on eveningwear.
“Grand evening gowns go beyond the pure object, they are a way of investing in one’s personal history,” the designer said in a released statement. True to his signature style, the collection features hourglass silhouettes and intricate hand-embroidered details.
The collection’s color palette mirrors another element of Tang dynasty artistry — delicate chinaware. Soft shades of cream, sky blue, aquamarine green and pink infuse the flowing chiffon gowns, pleated bodices and long plisse skirts.
Photographs in Doha’s Tasweer photo festival explore belonging, identity and home in the Arab world
Updated 11 May 2025
Rebecca Anne Proctor
DOHA: A young Sudanese man sits in a chair dressed in an elegant off-white three-piece suit. He holds a small shotgun in one hand which he eyes solemnly while resting against the wall behind him on a crimson red tapestry is a rifle. The photograph is titled “Life Won’t Stop” and is one of several images by Sudanese photographer Mosab Abushama documenting his friend’s wedding in Omdurman, Sudan, a city constantly targeted by airstrikes.
The photograph is on view as part of the show “Tadween,” referring to the concept of recording of news and emotions through writing, photography, audio or video, and is one of several exhibitions in the third edition of Doha’s Tasweer Photo Festival, which runs until June 20.
“Life Won’t Stop” is one of several images by Sudanese photographer Mosab Abushama documenting his friend’s wedding in Omdurman, Sudan. (Supplied)
“Despite the clashes and random shelling in the city, the wedding was a simple but joyous occasion with family and friends,” wrote in the caption for the work. “The war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, brought horrors and displacement, forcing me to leave my childhood home and move to another part of the city. It was a time none of us ever expected to live through. Yet, this wedding was a reminder of the joy of everyday life still possible amidst the tragedy and despair.”
Abushama’s photograph earned recognition at the 2025 World Press Photo Awards in the Singles Africa category.
Abushama’s poignant image is one of many on show this year in the Tasweer Photo Festival that prompt deep reflection and compassion.
One of the numerous exhibitions on view is “Obliteration — Surviving The Inferno: Gaza’s Battle for Existence.” The images are displayed outside in Doha’s Katara Cultural Village unfolding in five stages to capture each chapter thus far of the war on Gaza. Each image, such as Abdulrahman Zaqout’s “When Food and Water Become Weapons,” has been shot by a Gazan photographer on the ground to witness and experience the catastrophe. From children extending bowls for food to mothers comforting terrified children, each image recounts the tales of horror that continue to unfold as the war in Gaza continues.
One of the numerous exhibitions on view is “Obliteration — Surviving The Inferno: Gaza’s Battle for Existence.” (Supplied)
“As I Lay Between Two Seas,” another exhibition in the festival, is at the Doha Fire Station. Curated by Meriem Berrada, an independent curator and artistic director of the Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden in Marrakech, the exhibition is a poignant and poetic display of 25 photographers from the Arab world and its diasporas grappling and coming to terms with ideas of identity, belonging and home.
“(The exhibition) approaches belonging not as a fixed state, but as a fluid, evolving condition shaped by memory, distance, rupture, and imagination,” Berrada told Arab News. “The exhibition unfolds through a non-linear narrative that invites diverse temporalities and perspectives to coexist.”
“As I Lay Between Two Seas,” another exhibition in the festival, is at the Doha Fire Station. (Supplied)
The title of the exhibition is drawn from a photographic series by Ali Al-Shehabi that conjures up a metaphor that speaks to the fluid, ever changing idea of understanding the self.
“Guided by the metaphor of the sea — shifting, unstable, and expansive — it draws inspiration from poets of the region whose writings on exile and longing offer a conceptual and emotional foundation,” Berrada said. “The selected works span a wide spectrum from documentary to conceptual and abstract practices. These works examine family and community dynamics, spiritual and philosophical relationships, and the sociopolitical structures that influence selfhood. They explore the symbolic ties to one’s roots, often shaped by personal memory and collective histories.”
From Lebanese artist Ziad Antar’s dreamy and edgy photographs of abandoned and unfinished buildings in Beirut and on the Lebanese coast and Saudi artist Moath Alofi’s series of desolated mosques along the winding road to Madinah, Saudi Arabia, to Palestinian Taysir Batniji’s “Just in Case #2” (2024), portraying images of a series of keys representative of feelings of loss and exile, the photographic works on show oscillate between feelings of pride, belonging, loss and longing.
The "Al Mihrab" exhibition at Doha Fire Station. (Supplied)
A poem by Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish titled “I Belong There,” appears on one wall between the display of several photographs reflecting through words many of the feelings expressed in the images on display. “I belong there. I have many memories. I was born as everyone is born […] I have lived on the land long before swords turned man into prey. I belong there.”
Elsewhere in Tasweer, a solo exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art on the works of Moroccan photographer and filmmaker Daoud Aoulad-Syad titled “Territories of the Instant” presents the essence of Moroccan popular culture and remote regions in the country. Another exhibition, “Threads of Light: Stories from the Tasweer Single Image Awards,” presents 31 captivating images from 2023 and 2024 awards highlighting the extraordinary in daily life, including sacred traditions in Oman, dynamic street scenes in Yemen and moments of contemporary change in Iraq and picturesque marine views of traditional boats in Doha.
As Berrada said of the festival, which can arguably apply to numerous works and shows in Tasweer this year: “It also reflects on the photographic medium itself — how image-making can question fixed and often deterministic categories of belonging and become a powerful tool for reimagining identity in a deeply interconnected world.”
DUBAI: Chanel cannot get enough of French Algerian model Loli Bahia. The French luxury house has tapped the model once again to front its latest campaign for the Chanel No. 5 jewelry collection.
The new pieces combine gold and diamonds to form the shape of the number five, a symbol closely associated with the brand’s identity. The collection includes rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings, all inspired by the enduring allure of the No. 5 brand.
In the campaign images, Bahia was seen wearing various pieces from the line, including number five-shaped drop earrings, a diamond pendant necklace, a gold bracelet featuring the numeral and matching rings. The designs incorporate both yellow and white gold and are detailed with diamonds.
Bahia has collaborated with Chanel on several occasions. Most recently, in January, she opened the runway show during Paris Haute Couture Week wearing an ensemble that combined the house’s signature tweed with pastel quilting.
The look featured a jacket with a quilted front panel in soft shades of pink, blue, yellow and green, contrasted with white tweed sleeves. The jacket was detailed with front pockets and Chanel’s signature buttons.
The in-demand model also wore a white tweed mini skirt, paired with a slim black belt featuring a gold buckle. The outfit was completed with two-tone Mary Jane heels in black and white, secured with gold buckle-adorned ankle straps.
She graced the runway in a two-piece ensemble comprising a tailored buttoned jacket complemented by a matching knee-length skirt in a delicate tweed fabric. Both garments were adorned with subtle black tassel details.
The model’s first campaign with Chanel was in 2022, when she was just 19 years old. It was Chanel’s Metiers d’Art spring 2022 campaign, shot by fashion photographer Mikael Jansson.
In the campaign, Bahia displayed the savoir faire of artisans via tailored jackets, logo-emblazoned leather gloves, wide-brimmed hats, embellished mini-dresses and ornate bangles, necklaces and earrings.
There is something instantly charming about Matcha Cloud — from the soft pink packaging to the handwritten “To the matcha lover only” on the box.
This brand knows its audience, and it delivers an experience that feels like a warm, cozy hug.
I ordered everything separately: the Premium Ceremonial Grade Matcha that came with a cute sleeve, and four flavor syrups — Apple Pie, Gingerbread, Caramel Gingerbread, and Cinnamon Cookie.
Each item came in one box, with themed packaging that made the whole order feel cohesive and thoughtful.
The matcha itself is fresh, smooth and vibrant — exactly what you want from ceremonial grade.
It blended well with oat milk and delivered a balanced, clean taste without bitterness. The sleeve was perfect for holding my cup around.
Now to the flavor syrups, they are playful and creative. Especially the cinnamon cookie one, which gave cozy winter vibes.
But if I am being honest, the taste of the syrups was not as deep or rich as I hoped. They add sweetness and aroma, but I found myself wishing they had more natural flavor and less artificial aftertaste.
Still, for matcha lovers who enjoy a touch of customization or want to try fun new twists, Matcha Cloud offers a refreshing take.
It is not just about quality, it is about joy — and this brand knows how to deliver that.
For more information, check their Instagram @matcha.cloud.ksa.
ISLAMABAD: Around 150 Pakistani artists gathered in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to participate in a eight-day humanitarian art camp to raise funds for people affected by Israeli military offensive in Gaza, the head of Silk Road Culture Center said this week, in a remarkable show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The camp, “Art for Life – Art for Gaza,” brought together musicians, writers and performers from across Pakistan who presented series of multidisciplinary performances and visual art displays to raise funds for the war-torn people of Gaza.
The event began on April 30 and ended on May 7, amid renewed Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave. Israeli’s 18-month war against Hamas has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, Palestinian officials say.
“The idea [behind the event] was to empathize with the suffering people of Palestine,” Jamal Shah, chairman of the Silk Road Culture Center, told Arab News on Wednesday, without sharing details of the total funds raised.
Jamal Shah, Pakistani artist and chairman of Silk Road Culture Center, records live art performance to express solidarity with Gaza, in Islamabad on May 6, 2025. (AN Photo)
A wide range of artworks, including paintings, sculptures, calligraphy, origami and mixed media, were created, exhibited and sold at the event, according to Shah. Many of the pieces are still up for auction, with proceeds pledged to the Palestinian embassy in Pakistan to support humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza.
The participating artists engaged in dialogue around the Palestinian cause and expressed their reflections through paintings, sculptures, theater, music and film at the event.
“My depiction shows their flag and different elements. The golden color represents pain and the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Atif Ayub, a contemprary artist from Lahore, describing his installation that combined symbolic imagery focusing on the year 1988 that marked the establishment of the State of Palestine.
“It’s all about shared humanity and emotion.”
Pakistani artists paint during a live performance in solidarity with the people of Gaza, at the Silk Road Culture Center in Islamabad on May 6, 2025. (AN Photo)
The final two days featured live painting sessions, with artists painting silhouettes of performers in real time. These sessions were accompanied by musical performances, skits and poetry readings.
Pakistani singers and musicians such as Arieb, 360 Degrees, Maddy and Sam performed original pieces dedicated to Palestine, contributing to the emotional tone of the event.
Zeeshan Usman Khattak, a filmmaker from the northwestern city of Peshawar, said their collaborative work was a visual metaphor for the crisis in Gaza.
“There was a live performance behind the canvas and we were capturing the shadows,” Khattak said of their live performance. “Those movements reflected the dance of life and death, the aggression, the loss.”
Visitors attend the eight-day art workshop to express solidarity with the people of Gaza, at the Silk Road Culture Center in Islamabad on May 6, 2025. (AN Photo)
Wednesday’s closing ceremony was attended by ambassadors from Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen, Qatar, Syria and Romania, along with cultural attachés from China and Iran as well as representatives from the French film community.
Summera Jawad, a professor who teaches fine arts at Lahore’s Punjab University, highlighted the community-driven nature of the initiative.
“Artists are not just performing or creating here, they’re also contributing to the exhibition and donating their artworks for the cause,” she said.
