Amina Muaddi spotted at Paris Fashion Week as Amira Al-Zuhair hits the runway
Updated 25 September 2024
Arab News AP
DUBAI: Romanian Jordanian designer Amina Muaddi, founder of the eponymous luxury brand, turned heads at the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week, while part-Saudi model Amira Al-Zuhair graced the runway for Danish fashion label Ganni.
Muaddi opted for a classic white button-down shirt and a sleek black satin pencil skirt. (Getty Images)
Muaddi, who is a regular at Dior fashion shows, opted for a classic white button-down shirt and a sleek black satin pencil skirt. Her look was accessorized with a pair of dark, round sunglasses and a small, textured blue Dior handbag.
The Dior collection, by Maria Grazia Chiuri, took a sporty turn, blending athletic prowess with an urban menace. The designs evoked a 1960s sci-fi aesthetic, reminiscent of “Star Trek,” but with an edge — daring, asymmetrical shapes paired with knee-high boots that flirted with danger.
Chiuri’s intent was clear from the start: A nod to the power and autonomy of the female form. With a clear reference to Christian Dior’s iconic Amazone dress from the early 1950s, Chiuri reinterpreted the silhouette with sleek, athletic lines, the Associated Press reported.
It echoed the spirit of the recent Paris Olympics, as models walked in skin-tight black tops with geometric cut-outs, circular cutaway patterns, and lace-up boot sneakers. There was a dynamic tension between freedom of movement and structured control — a recurring theme in Chiuri’s work, which often explores the balance between comfort and couture.
Metallic accents, from shimmering embroidery to butterfly motifs, punctuated the otherwise severe palette, adding a touch of delicacy to the sharpness of the designs, according to AP.
Al-Zuhair walked the runway for Ganni in a dark grey, structured blazer styled over similarly colored tailored pants. (Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Al-Zuhair, whose mother is French, walked the runway for Ganni in a dark grey, structured blazer styled over similarly colored tailored pants. Adding an artistic touch, the model also wore a large, ruffled pale blue scarf around her neck, which contrasted with the dark tones of the outfit.
On Wednesday, Al-Zuhair also shared images of the Missoni show she participated in during Milan Fashion Week on Instagram.
She wore a dynamic, eye-catching ensemble featuring bold, wavy stripes in black, white and yellow. The outfit included an asymmetrical top adorned with exaggerated ruffled detailing that cascaded down one side, paired with a high-waisted bikini bottom. Completing the look were matching high-heeled sandals in vibrant yellow, adding an extra pop of color.
He tries and triumphs: John Achkar’s ‘AAM JARRIB’ scores big in Abu Dhabi
Updated 02 June 2025
Celine Hijazi
ABU DHABI: Lebanese comedian John Achkar, who is on a world tour, touched down in the UAE capital on Sunday night as part of Abu Dhabi Comedy Season.
Achkar performed his latest special, “AAM JARRIB” (“Trying” in English), before upcoming stops in London, Paris and Sydney on a tour that wraps up in October.
“John has been trying new things for 34 years, and he’s still trying,” his grandmother sang in a video that opened the show.
At 34, Achkar claims he does not like trying new things — but as the show unfolds, it is clear he excels at turning the discomfort and quiet fulfillment of those rare efforts into comedy gold.
He paces the stage, piecing together absurd real-life misadventures — a botched sailing trip or an outrageously inappropriate skydiving incident — into hilarious anecdotes.
At one point, Achkar calls out what he jokingly dubs a modern epidemic — ADHD — which he says has become a socially accepted excuse to dodge plans. Fittingly, his performance is a whirlwind of energy: Fast-paced, delightfully chaotic and entirely on brand.
True to form, Achkar’s commentary on Lebanon is bold but affectionate. He jokes that almost every restaurant blasts the internet-famous patriotic anthem “Lebanon Will Return,” even as the country teeters on the edge of war. The satire is sharp, never cynical.
Behind him, a detailed sketch of the Lebanese coastline hangs throughout the performance — a quiet yet unmistakable tribute to his identity.
The show ended on the perfect note as the same anthem he mocked earlier blasted through the speakers, with the crowd bursting into applause and laughter — a full-circle moment.
In “AAM JARRIB,” John Achkar does not just try — he soars. And the audience, just as energized as he is, soars with him.
Gigi Hadid marks launch of Havaianas line with new campaign
Updated 01 June 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: US Palestinian Dutch supermodel Gigi Hadid has unveiled a new campaign with Brazilian footwear brand Havaianas.
The model, who launched a line with the flip flop label, stars in a vintage-inspired series of photographs. In the shots, she shows off slippers from her collection with the brand and is seen wearing retro outfits on a beach.
Hadid celebrated the launch at a party in Altro Paradiso in New York last week. At the event, she wore flip flops paired with a white tweed Marc Jacobs minidress, featuring vibrant scattered crystals.
The model is no stranger to making creative decisions and is also the founder of her own cashmere brand, Guest in Residence.
She launched her clothing label, which features soft, colorful knitwear, in September 2022.
“Over the last handful of years, I didn’t want to be backed into starting my own line just because there was an offer on the table or a deal to be made,” she wrote to her followers on Instagram at the time.
“The earliest days of Guest in Residence came about when I started to question the cashmere market, and those answers gave me a path,” she wrote.
“I believe that because of its sustainable qualities — natural and made to cherish and to pass down — cashmere is a luxury that should be more accessible.”
Earlier this year, Hadid celebrated her birthday party at Le Chalet in New York City.
Hadid entered the venue with her partner, Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper on April 25, and met up with her sister Bella Hadid, mother Yolanda Hadid, father Mohamed Hadid, Russian media personality Keni Silva and US actress Anne Hathaway, among others.
Gigi’s birthday was on April 23, and the internet was abuzz with celebrities, designers, family and friends who sent birthday wishes to the supermodel as she turned 30.
Nayla Al-Khaja reflects on new film ‘BAAB’ and Canon collaboration
The director a is frequent guest at the Cannes Film Festival and partnered with Oscar winning Indian musical composer and record producer A. R. Rahman on the score for her latest film
Her previous feature “Three” played at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival
Updated 01 June 2025
Hams Saleh
DUBAI: UAE filmmaker Nayla Al-Khaja, a pioneering voice in Emirati cinema, has wrapped production on her second feature film, “BAAB,” and is also taking part in a renewed partnership with Canon Middle East as part of the brand’s “See No Limits” campaign.
In a conversation following the film’s completion, Al-Khaja told Arab News “BAAB,” set for release after the summer, marks a creative milestone in her career.
“It really feels like I found a language I enjoy in filmmaking, like my own artistic voice,” she said, highlighting its striking visual style and deeply immersive atmosphere. Compared to her debut feature “Three,” she described “BAAB” as a significant evolution in her storytelling and visual approach.
“Haunted by a mysterious rhythm after her twin sister's death, Wahida's journey to find answers pulls her deep into the mountains. As she unravels her grief, she descends into madness, blurring the line between reality and imagination,” the logline of the film reads.
Her previous feature “Three” played at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival. She is also a frequent guest at the Cannes Film Festival and partnered with Oscar winning Indian musical composer and record producer A. R. Rahman on the score for her latest film.
Al-Khaja continues to work in psychological horror, drawn to its emotional impact and the technical challenge of filming in low light. “You feel like you are pulled like a magnet, pulled into a very ethereal, very haunting world… it is just so visually beautiful,” she said.
The director is also working with Japanese corporation Canon on educational initiatives aimed at emerging filmmakers.
As part of the “See No Limits” campaign, she led a workshop for film students, emphasizing both the technical strengths of Canon’s EOS R5 Mark II and the importance of narrative-driven visual decisions. “Although you have the camera, if you don’t know how to position it in sense of what your story is trying to say… how far can you push your own limit?” she said.
Al-Khaja’s collaboration with Canon began in 2011. Their latest campaign focuses on empowering female filmmakers across the region.
While she notes there are still only a handful of women working full-time in the UAE film industry, she sees growing momentum driven by regional grants, commissions and the demand for streaming content.
“When I started, I didn’t have a role model,” she said. “It is good to know that you now have an older generation that you can reach out to.”
Review: ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ sets new bar for first-person carnage
Updated 31 May 2025
James Denselow
LONDON: The first “Doom” game back in 1993 helped define the first-person shooter genre, spawning numerous sequels and even a Hollywood film. Now it is back, and in a crowded market packed with chaotic shooters and arena brawlers, this game slices its way into the pantheon with style — and a spinning shield saw.
Boasting 22 adrenaline-soaked levels, “Doom: The Dark Ages” sticks to the classic formula of annihilating every enemy in the room before moving on. Yet it rarely pauses for breath, charging through its campaign. While there are secrets to uncover and collectible toys to find, it always feels hurried, pushing players forward with breakneck urgency.
Where it stands out is in its innovative combat tools — a shield saw that doubles as a melee weapon, a flail for crowd control, and a shield charge that turns defense into offense. Combat is fast, demanding, and utterly satisfying, especially in boss fights where success hinges on timing and picking the right attack for the enemy.
The gunplay is awesomely brutal and weapons evolve through Sentinel Shrines, letting players fine-tune their arsenal to match the rising difficulty. This isn't just a shooter; it’s a metal-fueled ballet of aggression, where being passive is punished and staying alive means staying angry.
The music? Pure heavy metal fury, matching the gameplay beat for beat. Visuals run at a crisp 60 frames per second and every environment drips with cosmic dread, from crumbling hellscapes to star-forged citadels. The new cosmic realm adds visual diversity, while massive set-pieces like dragon-riding with autocannons and piloting giant sentinels crank the spectacle to 11.
This is bone-crunching mayhem at its finest. It’s Halo-esque in scope, “Doom”-like in execution, but ultimately a beast of its own making.
Basmah Felemban unpacks memory, identity in Riyadh solo show ‘Vessel of Wreckage’
Updated 30 May 2025
Jasmine Bager
RIYADH: Seasoned Saudi artist Basmah Felemban’s work will make you think. In her latest solo exhibition, “Vessel of Wreckage,” which runs at ATHR Gallery in Riyadh until June 26, she combines elements that many of us can relate to while being authentically, fully herself.
“In the past five or six years, my practice has been really an investigation of my family roots from Indonesia and — kind of as a result of getting into sci-fi — to have some imaginary explanations of those reasons why they came from Indonesia to Saudi, because I failed at the factual research, really,” Felemban, who lives and works between London and Jeddah, tells Arab News.
“When did my family move? This is one of the mysteries — part of the myth of the family. I have no idea. I’d say that my granddad came to Saudi for work, probably in the Seventies. But I’d learned that Felemban, our last name, comes from an island called Palembang, so in kindergarten I used to tell people I was a princess because I’m used to, like, the Al-Saud family and Saudi Arabia, so I thought since I’m Felemban from Palembang, I must be a princess.”
Growing up, Felemban assumed that they had no Saudi relatives, until her brother serendipitously found out that they had cousins in town.
“I realized, ‘Oh! We do have extended family here; we’re just not connected to them.’ And that’s also part of the myth and the lore of our family story. Once I realized that, it kind of clicked with me that our identities are really just a construct — it doesn’t really matter if they’re factual. I don’t think my family intentionally tried to lie. I think they believed this was the story.”
All of this was part of Felemban’s world building.
“I think, in Hejaz in general, people came from all over and there was this whole umbrella under which we wanted to identify as ‘Saudi’ for a lot of time. Like, if you speak to me about anything Indonesian, I would have no idea, because my family really assimilated,” she says, adding that she hopes to visit Indonesia soon.
“I wouldn’t say I feel like I’m part of a diaspora, even if I am, factually. But I think Saudi is a very specific, special case in terms of identity. I feel like I’m more interested in the family story and why their connections are the way they are.
“I didn’t grow up in an environment where ours was a weird story,” she adds. “Even my friends that are Bedouin are still also away from where they are from.”
Here, Felemban talks us through several works from the show.
‘Pulang (To Go Home)’
Photo: AN/Huda Bashatah
There are five ship windows looking out on five different topics that I researched, from facts to absurd sci-fi stories. They’re videos collected from YouTube — just rabbit holes I fell into. I really like to document my research and my notes, then my work grows like a mind map — I connect words and then try to connect concepts between those words and visuals. The first window starts with a propaganda documentary about the colonial history of Indonesia and its impact on folklore dances and music. Then a scene that a lot of my world is based on; Indonesian pilgrims reciting a religious song about the prophet.
I realized that another connection between Indonesia and Saudi is catfish — another creature of myth. A few years ago, people realized that there’s a lot of huge catfish in Wadi Hanifa and they started to ask: How did they come here? I like that, as a myth. In Indonesia, the catfish is a really huge asset, but also has some negative connotations.
‘Fish from the Ground’
This work talks about the catfish myth. They are an invasive species and tend to be really vicious and really quick to adapt, so in less than a couple of hundreds of years it was able to evolve from swimming to being able to ‘walk,’ almost on land. That’s likely where the term ‘catfishing’ comes from.
‘Wave Catcher’
When I was approached by the Islamic Arts Biennale (in 2023), I thought, ‘My work is quite futuristic, very colorful and digital, so how can (make it fit) in?’ I think of this work like an ancient machine used by the catfish to collect data by listening to sounds of the calls to prayer from countries around the Red Sea. And by hearing it, the fish are able to measure distances, and study the water and such. That thought was based on research from lectures from scientists.
‘The Gömböc, the Turtle and the Evolution of Shape’
Photo: AN/Huda Bashatah
This is a game based on a lecture by a scientist. If you put the headphones on, you can hear the lecture and then when you reach the top of this fish mountain, there’s a room that has a table that also existed in the lecture and you can interact with that. It’s a video game I made with my husband. He’s an economist so he helps me a lot with conceptualizing what data could be like — that kind of geeky aspect of my work. It’s very experimental and it’s a little bit janky — in the best way possible!
‘Elemental Sprite’ series
These AI works — “Sphere,” “Rod,” “Disc,” and “Blade” (shown here) — are based on some of the same research as “Wave Catcher,” which is some sort of mathematical study of pebbles and the way that pebbles change in nature. But also, if you scan one of the squares, it animates. I’m very much a digital artist at heart and AI is something I’m really interested in, but I have to say that I don’t use AI in engines; I use sort of ‘offline AI.’ I use the modules themselves, the interfaces. Every six months, AI completely changes in quality because it really develops, and I learn more too. This is almost like a documentation of my learning curve, and of the technology itself.
‘Before Asphalt’
These are pictures that I stole from my dad before he passed away. He used to work at the municipality, and these were pictures from the Nineties documenting some of the potholes around Jeddah. I like to think of the city as a galaxy and the potholes as portals. The yellow looks like slime — I’m definitely a cartoon girl and this is like “(Teenaged Mutant) Ninja Turtles” sludge. I think maybe it’ll appear again in another work and I’ll get more into this portal idea.