What We Are Buying Today: Saudi beauty brand ‘Jayla’
Jayla creates head-turning scents; the brand collaborated with international perfumer Benoit Vetter to create “Pulse Perfume 50s” a perfume inspired by the scents of the 1950s
Updated 30 June 2024
Arab News
Saudi beauty brand Jayla offers a range of body and skincare products.
From perfumes to body scrubs, the products for women and men are made using top-notch ingredients, ideal for anyone looking to elevate their bodycare routine at an affordable price.
Many of Jayla’s bodycare collections are inspired by iconic perfumes, including two of Chanel’s — Coco Mademoiselle and Chanel No.5.
Inspired by Coco Mademoiselle, the “Class Boquet” collection contains four body products: whipped soap, scrub, body oil, and body butter. Each product in this collection smells like an elevated version of the original perfume.
The collection has a beautiful concoction of perfume notes: musk, mandarin, Turkish rose and vanilla.
Jayla also has collections inspired by Dior perfumes: Miss Dior, Gris, and Poison.
Their scented oils and body butters are rich in vitamins leaving the skin deeply nourished and with a divine sillage and aroma that lasts all day.
Their sugar-based scrubs are mixed with a blend of shea, mango and cocoa butter, leaving the skin soft and perfumed.
Jayla creates head-turning scents; the brand collaborated with international perfumer Benoit Vetter to create “Pulse Perfume 50s” a perfume inspired by the scents of the 1950s. This fragrance has a blend of rose, jasmine, sandalwood and amber.
Perfect for gifting, Jayla’s travel-size bodycare collections are SR180 ($48) and the full-sized collection is SR285. Each product is also sold separately, starting at SR63.
The Saudi brand also has body accessories such as loofahs, towels, and a wooden spoon and bowel set designed to hold body scrubs.
Jayla is in the Yasmeen District in the Kingdom’s capital, Riyadh, and its products are also available to purchase online at jayla.sa.
Ola Farahat spotted as Amira Al-Zuhair walks for Dolce & Gabbana
Updated 03 July 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: From a Max Mara showcase to this week’s Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda show, Dubai-based influencer Ola Farahat has been on a high-fashion spree in Italy.
The fashion icon, who is Palestinian, was spotted at Italian luxury label Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda show on Tuesday, looking regal in a flowy, off-the-shoulder grey chiffon dress paired with a glitzy tiara. She completed the look with a silver clutch.
The event was held at the Nora Archeological site in Sardinia and was attended by a number of A-list stars, including Halle Bailey, Maluma, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Alessandra Ambrosio, Kitty Spencer, Lucien Laviscount and Naomi Campbell, to name a few.
The show celebrated the culture, folklore and artistic heritage of various Italian regions through gold and gemstone creations.
Models on the runway, including part-Saudi star Amira Al-Zuhair and British Moroccan model Nora Attal, wore luxurious black garments adorned with intricate, oversized gold jewelry that showcased Italy’s cultural legacy.
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Inspired by Sardinia’s deep cultural tapestry, the designs featured hand-woven tubular fabrics with gold threads, creating three-dimensional patterns that graced corsets, bras, jewel-encrusted bodices, and belts. The collection also transformed mikado and velvet organza with elaborate patterns and intricate designs, further embellished with sequined motifs.
Al-Zuhair wore a prominent necklace and matching earrings, embellished with red gemstones. She also showed off a sleek black wig styled in a short, blunt cut, adding a modern edge to the ensemble.
In a short video shared on Instagram, she posed with her husband and daughter in matching outfits. In another post, she posed by the beach wearing a summery, backless white dress with yellow and green floral detailing. She complemented her outfit with a matching scarf on her head. “Happy to be back in Italy for #DGAltaModa,” she wrote.
In June, Farahat was spotted at the Max Mara Resort 2025 show, which took place at Palazzo Ducale overlooking Piazza San Marco in Venice. She wore a one-shoulder green satin gown with a draped, asymmetrical design.
DUBAI: US Dutch Palestinian supermodel Bella Hadid announced this week that a percentage of the proceeds from her fragrance brand Orebella are being donated to the Orebella Alchemy Foundation, a charitable initiative aimed at creating positive change across various communities.
The Orebella Alchemy Foundation partners with organizations that are “deeply personal” to Hadid, such as Girls Club New York, which empowers young women and “youth of color,” and the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.), which aims to change lives by providing equine-assisted services to people with disabilities.
“We will be donating a minimum financial donation of 1 percent of all Orebella net sales to charity, as well as delivering service hours, community outreach and social promotion,” Hadid wrote on social media. “I can’t wait to keep growing and including even more amazing organizations. I have so many different organizations that are important to me and we will continue to roll them out.
“We keep selling out, and the numbers for donations have made me beyond proud. This is the main reason I wanted to start a company. To be able to make a difference through my passion.”
Hadid also expressed her gratitude to her supporters.
“I am so grateful for all the love and can’t believe we keep selling out Orebella. Truly this is unreal for me and the fact that you all love Orebella as much as I do means everything.”
Hadid launched Orebella in May, with the inaugural products being three skin perfumes.
The Salted Muse perfume has top notes of sea salt and pink pepper, middle notes of olive tree accord, fig and lavender and base notes of cedarwood, sandalwood and amber.
The Blooming Fire fragrance boasts notes of bergamot, cedarwood, clove leaf and cardamom, followed by Tahitian monoi and jasmine and patchouli.
Lastly, the Window2Soul scent has a blend of lemon, geranium and mint in its top notes, before it transitions to jasmine and damask rose and concludes with a base of tonka bean.
Miss Arab USA 2024 Zenovia Jafar talks pageant experience and aspirations
Updated 01 July 2024
Shyama Krishna Kumar
DUBAI: Iraqi American Zenovia Jafar was over the moon for “having made it” as she was crowned winner of the Miss Arab USA 2024 pageant in Arizona on Sunday.
“My experience with Miss Arab USA is one of the best experiences of my life. When I walked in, I had no idea what was going to happen, if I was even going to win. But most importantly, when I walked in, I will honestly say that winning was the only thing on my mind. I didn’t think about anything else,” Jafar told Arab News in an interview.
Zenovia Jafar crowned Miss Arab USA 2024. (Supplied)
“But once I actually got there, I realized the friendships and the connections I’ve made with the people here is priceless and it is far more important than winning … I genuinely wanted to connect with every single person that I met, and I think that’s what helped me win Miss Arab USA. Because I focused more on genuine connection and doing what I need to do. And I was committed to just being myself,” she added.
When asked about her goals going forward, the Michigan resident said: “I’m going to be using my platform to raise awareness on issues regarding people who are … from underdeveloped communities, people who are in need. I’m going to be raising more money for charities. I’m here to serve Miss Arab USA and use my voice to amplify the voices of people who are not heard all over the world.”
Jafar’s family moved to the US — having escaped the war in Iraq and spent two years in Syria after — in the late 90s, when she was a toddler.
“When I moved here, I remember one thing that my mother told us is that we should never forget our roots and where we come from. My mother was committed to teaching us how to read and write and speak Arabic. And that is something that I am so grateful to my mother for because I can read Arabic, I can write Arabic, I can speak Arabic, I can understand many Arabic dialects. And I never let go of who I was and where my family came from. And I think that’s something that is so important when you grow up away from home, is to stay connected to who you are. Because at the end of the day, all you have is your roots,” she said.
When asked if she had any advice for young Arab American women, Jafar said: “I will say that as an Arab woman, it is very, very important to push your limits and always do things outside of your comfort zone because you will never grow as a person if you are stuck in your comfort zone. Always push yourself to be better.”
Queen Rania celebrates Crown Prince Hussein’s birthday with a portrait featuring Princess Rajwa
Updated 28 June 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: Jordan’s Queen Rania celebrated her son Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah’s birthday on Instagram with a newly released portrait of him and his wife, Princess Rajwa.
In the photo, the pregnant Princess Rajwa, who is Saudi, is seen wearing a light, creamy yellow midi dress from the Spanish brand Rabanne. The dress features short sleeves, a round neckline and a gathered detail along one side, adorned with a row of buttons.
High fashion: Saudi label Ashi Studio unveils Riyadh Air cabin crew uniforms in Paris
Updated 28 June 2024
Jasmine Bager
PARIS: Saudi designer Mohammed Ashi, founder of the Paris-based label Ashi Studio, has unveiled the inaugural cabin crew uniforms for the Kingdom’s new airline, Riyadh Air, which is on track to make its maiden flight in 2025.
The glittering event took place after the couturier’s Haute Couture Week show in the French capital on Thursday.
“What we’ve done is, we’ve taken the golden age of aviation and we are representing it in the current day; it’s a relevant collection,” Ashi said at the grand reveal of his collaboration with Riyadh Air on Thursday evening.
The designer created uniforms for Riyadh Air. (Supplied)
“It’s not cabin crew ‘uniforms,’ it’s cabin crew fashion,” Tony Douglas, the CEO of Riyadh Air, told the crowd at the runway show.
The luxury line is comprised of timeless cashmere outerwear, elegant dresses and trousers made of fine wools, custom leather footwear, amethyst earrings, and pillbox hats, all of which were inspired by 1950s airline fashion, widely considered the “golden age” in aviation - but with an Ashi twist.
For the uniforms, Ashi created an entirely new color tone — Electric Amethyst for womenswear and Dark Amethyst for menswear. The unique amethyst shades pay homage to Saudi Arabia’s lavender fields and are rooted within Riyadh Air’s bold color scheme. The process of creating the color alone took six months, according to show notes.
The fashion collection will be worn by Riyadh Air cabin crew, pilots, concierge agents and airport staff. They will be changed seasonally to keep the looks fresh.
Ashi unveiled the uniform design concepts at Haute Couture Week in Paris. (Supplied)
“We feel that he has actually done an incredible job of connecting back to those halcyon days of commercial aviation, the kind of Pan Ams the TWA used (from the 1950s), the “Catch Me If You Can” — with a real modern twist,” Douglas shared, referring to the hit 2002 film.
“What Ashi and his studio have created brings back glamor,” Douglas added.
Ten womenswear looks were shown on the Paris runway, each of which were accompanied by accessories such as shoes, purses and hats. Five menswear looks were also unveiled, with the rest being kept under wraps.
Ashi included distinctive Riyadh Air elements within the concepts, such as adding the canopy twist found in the Riyadh Air brand logo into the silhouettes of some of the pieces.
There were some modest options, including a turban for women, as well as trousers. The skirts were below the knee and embodied a sleek clean design with some high collars on show.
“For a start-up airline to be showcasing our new fashion collection during Haute Couture Week in Paris shows what an impact Riyadh Air is having globally,” Douglas told the crowd to mark the launch. “Working with Ashi on these designs has been a tremendous experience for all of us and we’re all very proud to be able to show off the creations and the full range early next year.”
Riyadh Air is on track to make its maiden flight in 2025. (Supplied)
He was quick to point out that the elegant and chic designs will soon be recognizable in airports around the world.
“The designs will leave a lasting impression on our guests by the proud team members that wear them. When you get up close to the garments you can see the level of detail and intricacy that Ashi has included, which is in complete alignment of our values and attention to detail at Riyadh Air,” Douglas added.
“Designing for the new national airline from Saudi Arabia has had a big impact on me knowing that we are making a mark in history,” Ashi said. “Fashion and aviation have seen collaborations in the past, but its pinnacle was over 50 years ago, and I was keen to be inspired by that time. This is an amazing collaboration where fashion is helping to make an airline modern with completely unique looks. It shows that Riyadh Air has no limits and that luxury and attention to detail is key across every aspect of the experience.”
Riyadh Air will take its maiden flight in mid-2025, connecting the Saudi capital to more than 100 destinations by 2030. Ashi — or at least his creations — will be along for the ride.
