Fashion Trust Arabia Prize è il nuovo baricentro del lusso La cerimonia si è tenuta a Doha questo weekend
There is a fil rouge connecting the last few fashion seasons: the progressive decentralization of the system. After decades in which Paris, Milan, New York and London have dictated the standard, more and more events and institutions are shifting the focus toward new cultural hubs. Among them, the Middle East is now far more than a promise. It is a laboratory, an engine, a crossroads where talent, market and strategic vision meet with a naturalness that the West still struggles to fully absorb. In this context, the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize has become one of the most credible observatories for understanding where the industry is heading.
The seventh edition, held in Doha, confirmed this trajectory with almost surgical precision. And not only for the quality of the winning projects, but for the way the event manages to hold together tradition and innovation, couture and technology, new geographies and new economies of luxury. The result is an ecosystem that does not simply present “new designers”, but redefines the meaning of what we call contemporary fashion today.
The winners of the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize
In the realm of the main awards, the 2025 winners reflect an extremely diverse landscape. Youssef Drissi, winner of Ready-to-Wear with his project Late for Work, works with precise tailoring and a narrative approach that blends everyday life and memory. For Eveningwear, Ziyad AlBuainain interprets tradition through a vocabulary leaning toward sculpture and monumentality, while the Accessories category is won by Leila Roukni with Talel, a project that combines functional design with less immediate cultural references. The Jewelry category awards Farah Radwan, who creates a contemporary material language without losing touch with heritage.
The Franca Sozzani Debut Talent Award, developed this year in partnership with Kering, goes to Alaa Alaradi. On the tech front, the winners are Fatema and Dalal Alkhaja with Touchless, a project that pushes fashion into still largely unexplored territories. Finally, the Guest Country Award dedicated to India goes to Kartik Kumra, confirming the increasingly close intersection between craftsmanship, research and the geopolitics of creativity.
The entire fashion system in Doha
The most symbolic recognition of the evening was the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Miuccia Prada. A prize that goes beyond tribute and signals how Prada’s intellectual legacy remains one of the few truly essential lenses for reading the present. As the jury explained, her work brings together rigour, politics, irony, visual culture and research — all elements that have shaped an autonomous language, often imitated but never replicated. In celebrating her, Fashion Trust Arabia acknowledges not only a career but a way of thinking about design as a critical tool, one that continues to influence the emerging generation across the Arab world.
Alongside her, the Trailblazer Award was given to Zuhair Murad, a key figure in Middle Eastern couture and a natural bridge between Beirut, Paris and Hollywood. If Prada represents intellect applied to fashion, Murad embodies the spectacle and artisanal dedication required to bring a local aesthetic onto the global stage. A recognition that confirms how Arab couture is no longer a “regional code” but a structural element of international fashion imagery.
Only at the end of the evening does the full scale of the event become clear: the red carpet brought together names such as Adrien Brody, Emma Roberts, Lindsay Lohan, Mariacarla Boscono, Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche, Mario Testino, Lori Harvey, Mahmood, Georgina Rodríguez, Jeff Koons, Rem Koolhaas, all the way to Queen Latifah, who hosted the ceremony. The magnitude of this year’s Fashion Trust Arabia is proof that the cultural centre of gravity for luxury is shifting, and the most influential figures in the industry are following this trajectory closely. And if the future of fashion is movement, the Middle East is the point where all directions begin to converge.
