A member of Kuwait’s ruling family, Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah, has transformed the Middle East’s fashion scene, says Omer Ali
One of the unexpected results of the first Gulf War seems to have been a retail boom aimed at lifting the gloom. Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah points to the 1991 cataclysm as the inspiration for his high-end fashion chain Villa Moda: “Immediately after the Gulf War, I wanted to create something that would take us all out of the sadness of the invasion and to introduce a new retail concept that mixed home, fashion, food and so on.”
It was perhaps an unusual career choice for a member of Kuwait’s royal family and Sheikh Majed acknowledges that “at first, a few members of my family were not happy with it. It took three months to have them all become clients”.
Renowned throughout the Middle East, Villa Moda has become the place to purchase such top designer brands as Dior, Gucci and Manolo Blahnik, as well as furniture, jewellery and other local crafts. The 9,500 square metre, glass-fronted flagship store in Kuwait has been followed by outlets in Dubai and Qatar.
The man known as the “sheikh of chic” has proved his fashion adroitness with a typically stylish makeover of an 18th-century stable in the middle of the old spice market in Damascus last year, as well as with Kuwait’s Mubarakiya store, created within a souk earlier this year. Opening next spring are shops in Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai Festival City – all designed by the very latest names in cutting-edge architecture: Sybarite (see also p20), Marcel Wanders and Jaime Hayon respectively. A London branch of the store may have been delayed, but plans continue apace for Asia and the USA, while the Villa Moda brand is also now involved in real estate, art and hotels.
Sheikh Majed may suggest Middle Eastern fashion is still best for its vintage and traditional clothes, but he’s typically diplomatic when asked for his own favourite item for sale in one of his stores: “Everything under the Villa Moda roof.”
www.villa-moda.com
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