What went down at Riyadh Fashion Week 2025 When fashion speaks the language of the stars
In Riyadh, as evening falls slowly and the palm trees light up with golden reflections, the city seems suspended in fluid time. It is in this atmosphere that the Riyadh Fashion Week 2025 opened its third edition, transforming the Saudi capital into a stage where tradition, creativity, and experimentation meet without boundaries.
For six days, local and international designers told a story of roots and innovation through three symbolic locations: Bedrock, guardian of the past, where the memory of traditions takes shape; The Roof – Al Mamlaka, the pulsating heart of the present, which blends elegance and contemporaneity; and Jax B5, laboratory of the future, where experimentation and boldness shape new visions. In each of these spaces, Saudi fashion found a universal language, capable of speaking to the world while maintaining a deeply local soul.
The week opened with a tribute to Vivienne Westwood at The Palm Grove, a dialogue between creativity and rebellion that recalled how fashion can be a cultural and political gesture. At Bedrock, history came to life on the runways: Tima Abid, Amen and Atelier Hekayat recounted Saudi tradition in a contemporary key, with embroideries like constellations and light silhouettes oscillating between elegance and poetry. Here the past is not nostalgia: it is living matter, to be worn, reinterpreted, and passed on.
The present took shape on the runways of The Roof – Al Mamlaka, where designers like Abadia, Razan Alazzouni, and Reem AlKanhal showcased cosmopolitan fashion, attentive to sartorial detail and dialogue with the city opening to the world. Each collection told the today of Saudi fashion: refined, aware, unafraid to confront global trends. Finally, the future exploded at Jax B5, with bold experimentations and unprecedented approaches, through the creations of Ih Nom Uh Nit, Hajruss, Hindamme, and 1886. Here fashion is adventure, energy, challenge: new forms, bold colors, artisanal details that become narrative. In this space, the tomorrow of Saudi creativity appears tangible, fresh, yet deeply rooted.
Under the starry sky of the Palm Grove, the magic took shape with the Middle East debut of Vivienne Westwood. In collaboration with Art of Heritage, the British maison presented a capsule of hand-embroidered couture garments by local artisans: Hashu, Nadqdah, Dabkah, and Zari. Gold threads intertwined, ancient gestures, and English sartorial precision found their voice in the delicacy of Arab embroidery, creating a perfect dialogue between technique and poetry. Alongside these works, some looks from the Spring/Summer 2026 collection showcased Westwood's stylistic signature: bold proportions, sculptural corsets, fluid yet powerful dresses.
The CEO of Riyadh Fashion Week, Burak Cakmak, has recounted how this edition reflects the evolution of Saudi fashion, emphasizing the centrality of the local consumer: "In Saudi Arabia, we have the unique fortune of having our ideal audience at hand. This allows designers to experiment and create thinking first and foremost about the people who will wear their collections." He added that tradition is not a limit, but a starting point: "Here, tradition is not a limit, it is a starting point. Our designers know how to unite cultural heritage with global trends, creating garments that speak to both Saudis and the rest of the world." Riyadh, according to him, is now a bridge between cultures: "The city is becoming a meeting point between cultures. From here, we can dialogue with Europe, the United States, Central Asia up to Japan and Korea, showing that Saudi fashion has a global voice."
The CEO has also underlined the fluidity that characterizes local fashion: "In Saudi Arabia, you can switch from a traditional garment to a contemporary look in a few hours. This ability to adapt is what makes our creativity so unique." And to young designers dreaming of building their future in fashion, his advice is simple but powerful: "Have the courage to be authentic. Start from what you are, from your roots and your symbols. It is there that the key to universality lies."
More than a simple fashion week, Riyadh Fashion Week 2025 has become a collective tale of roots and future visions. The palm trees of the Palm Grove, swaying in the warm evening wind, seem to remind every gaze that past, present, and future can coexist in harmony, and that Saudi fashion, with its local accent, now speaks a universal language.