Vivienne Westwood show opens third Riyadh Fashion Week
Vivienne Westwood show opens third Riyadh Fashion Week/node/2619223/lifestyle
Vivienne Westwood show opens third Riyadh Fashion Week
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The collection included embroidered couture gowns created in collaboration with Art of Heritage, a Saudi organization dedicated to preserving traditional craftsmanship, alongside selected looks from the house’s Spring/Summer 2026 and archival collections. (Instagram)
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An ensemble by Atelier Hekayat. (Supplied)
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Tima Abid. (Supplied)
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Adnan Akbar. (Supplied)
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Updated 18 min 49 sec ago
Arab News
Vivienne Westwood show opens third Riyadh Fashion Week
Updated 18 min 49 sec ago
Arab News
RIYADH: The third edition of Riyadh Fashion Week opened on Thursday with a full day of events and runway shows at venues across the capital.
An ensemble from Vivienne Westwood’s show in Riyadh. (Instagram)
The day began with an intimate Vivienne Westwood panel discussion at Fashion Commission Riyadh, focused on the brand’s legacy of design, environmental advocacy and craftsmanship.
Designs fromVivienne Westwood's show. (Instagram)
Later, an evening runway show at The Palm Grove blended British design with Saudi craftsmanship. The collection included embroidered couture gowns created in collaboration with Art of Heritage, a Saudi organization dedicated to preserving traditional craftsmanship, alongside selected looks from the house’s Spring/Summer 2026 and archival collections.
An ensemble from Vivienne Westwood’s show in Riyadh. (Instagram)
The collection included voluminous ball gowns crafted from silk and satin in shades of lilac, emerald and silver, embroidered with gold threadwork inspired by traditional Saudi craftsmanship.
Metallic brocades and tulle fabrics were used throughout the collection, alongside fitted corsets and draped bodices inspired by historical tailoring.
An ensemble from Vivienne Westwood’s show in Riyadh. (Instagram)
Contrasting these evening looks, sharply cut suits appeared in pinstripe, plaid and solid tones, rendered in wool and cotton blends.
Looks included crisp white double-breasted jackets, high-collared shirts and oversized lapels.
A gown by Tima Abid. (Supplied)
Accessories included sculptural chandelier earrings, metallic handbags and pointed heels. Some looks incorporated belts and veils, while embroidered detailing and exaggerated shoulders reinforced the house’s craftsmanship.
A gown by Adnan Akbar. (Supplied)
Other runway shows took place at Bedrock featuring presentations by Saudi designers Tima Abid, Adnan Akbar and Atelier Hekayat. Each highlighted Saudi couture through detailed embellishments, refined tailoring and contemporary silhouettes.
Rap superstar likely to perform songs from latest 23-track album
Updated 17 October 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: US rap superstar Cardi B has been confirmed for Soundstorm 2025, the highly anticipated music festival returning to Riyadh this December.
The Grammy-winning artist will perform alongside stars including Lil Yachty, Miguel, Pitbull, Swedish House Mafia, Tyla, Young Thug, Ava Max, Black Coffee and Halsey, with additional acts expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The news follows the release last month of her long-awaited sophomore album “Am I the Drama?”
Fans are anticipating performances from her latest 23-track album, which features collaborations with Janet Jackson, Lizzo, Selena Gomez, Megan Thee Stallion, Cash Cobain, Kehlani, Summer Walker and Tyla.
REVIEW: ‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ — Twisty thriller’s gripping plot let down by execution
Updated 17 October 2025
Adam Grundey
DUBAI: Some predict that advances in AI filmmaking will eventually lead to actors licensing their image and old performances for use in movies that they won’t — in reality — be acting in. The argument against that is that such movies will lack the human connection of actors in the same physical space reacting to each other’s deliveries and sparking that indefinable chemistry that marks the great films.
That argument is deflated somewhat by Netflix’s thriller “The Woman in Cabin 10,” in which a starry cast, led by Keira Knightley and including Guy Pearce and Hannah Waddingham, deliver performances that, despite them presumably being in the same physical space, lack any notable chemistry or conviction.
Knightley plays Laura “Lo” Blacklock, an investigative reporter who works for The Guardian (shorthand for ethical, quality journalist or elitist liberal snowflake, depending where you fall on the Trump-o-meter), currently traumatized by having witnessed the murder of one of her sources. She needs to decompress, and an invitation to cover the maiden voyage of a luxury superyacht — owned by Norwegian billionaire Anne Bullmer and her husband Richard — seems like an ideal opportunity. Anne is dying of lukemia and the yacht will be taking a handful of other billionaires to her final fundraising gala. Oh, and the photographer on the trip is Lo’s ex-boyfriend, Ben.
On the first day, Lo tries to evade Ben by ducking into Cabin 10 — next door to her own cabin — when she spots him in the hallway. There she encounters a blonde woman. Lo apologizes and leaves. That night, having learned that Anne intends to give away her entire fortune to charity, Lo hears shouting from next door. On her balcony, she discovers a bloody handprint on the other side of the glass wall and sees someone in the water. She quickly alerts security. But she’s told there is no guest in Cabin 10 and that all passengers are accounted for. By the time she gets back to her room, the handprint has disappeared. Lo’s credibility — given her recent shock — is called into question. Can she find out the truth?
Yes, the script is thin on character-building (so some slack should be cut for the cast), but the plot is packed with cunning twists and smart solutions, making the story (adapted from Ruth Wade’s 2016 novel) a lot of fun. “The Woman in Cabin 10” should have been so much better.
‘Afterschool’ explores collective childhood memories of KSA
Highlights from ATHR Gallery’sAlUlaexhibition, which runs until Dec. 30
Updated 17 October 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: ATHR Gallery’s latest exhibition in AlUla, “Afterschool” showcases works that capture the hours after the school day finished, “bringing back memories of activities, scenery, experiences, interactions, rituals, and daily routines,” according to the show catalogue. Using media including photography, video games, painting, textiles, collage, and installations, five Gulf artists — Ahaad Almoudi, Basmah Felemban, Mohammad Alfaraj, Rami Farook, and Sara Abu Abdallah — depict “shared collective routines and memories across generations around .”
Sarah Abu Abdallah, ‘Blanket No. 36.’ (Supplied)
The show, curated by Rania Majinyan, is divided into three ‘paths’: Street, Park, and Home. It is, the catalogue states, “an invitation to take a journey down memory lane … reflecting on practices that we once felt free to do and others that felt restricted. Reminding us of small details and changes we experienced within a particular timeline, urging us to return to ourselves, to turn inward, and to hold onto moments of stillness despite being consumed by outer distractions.”
Sarah Abu Abdallah
Sarah Abu Abdallah, ‘Blanket No. 57.’ (Supplied)
‘Blanket No. 36’ and ‘Blanket No. 57’
The Street section of the exhibition includes two works from Abdallah’s “Blanket” series — a collection of digital images on woven cotton textiles — both of which show scenes of leisure time “acting as a reminder of the sudden, freeing, energizing activities we do after school … evoking an intimate dialogue.” “Blanket No. 36” displays a photograph taken in Abdallah’s hometown of Sanabes, in which a group of children gather round a barrel they’ve found in the street, “sparking investigative playfulness.” In “Blanket No. 57” a young boy and a man stand on the shoreline of the Red Sea off the Jeddah corniche, escaping their daily routines for a moment in nature.
Rami Farook
Rami Farook, ‘I Love You In God (only).’ (Supplied)
‘I Love You In God (only)’
Also in the Street section stands the Emirati artist’s large-scale painting of a piece of street art found in Jeddah, which shows a man in traditional dress alongside the words “I love you in the name of God.” The show catalogue says that Farook’s painting “represents the school’s brick walls, portraying expressive graffiti made by rebellious teens — marks you pass as you walk in and out of school.” Passing by such graffiti every day makes it seem routine — it becomes almost unnoticed over time. Indeed, the catalogue notes, “you don’t remember how powerful the imagery is until it’s provoked unannounced.”
Mohammad Alfaraj
Mohammad Alfaraj, ‘The Last Session.’ (Supplied)
‘The Last Session’
Al-Ahsa native Alfaraj contributes “The Last Session,” a series of photographs, to the show’s Park section. In June of this year, Alfaraj told Arab News of his work in general: “I’m always looking for metaphors and different ways of looking at the world and trying to piece it together as an enormous complex mosaic that I’m lucky to experience and be part of.” That’s instructive of “The Last Session” in which some of the images are simple shots of kids playing football or hanging on climbing frames, photographs that carry echoes of a time before so much of our lives were spent online or in front of various screens, while others are more abstract — “ghostly,” the catalogues suggests — “embodying the absence of playing (outside) … as part of our culture nowadays, especially after school.”
Ahaad Alamoudi
Ahaad Alamoudi, ‘Winning Eagle.’ (Supplied)
‘Winning Eagle’
“If I’m not having fun creating then there’s nothing in it for me,” Alamoudi told Arab News in a 2018 interview. “I use a lot of comedy in my work as a form of addressing serious topics.” That approach is clear in “Winning Eagle,” which is displayed in the exhibition’s Home section, where it is accompanied by another work from Sarah Abu Abdallah’s “Blanket” series. “Both prints are of album covers made in the late 90s and early 2000s,” the catalogue says. “These works trigger a random stream of music that we often listened to in our childhoods, symbolizing how music can carry you inward towards a constructed imaginative reality that (remains) with you.” Alamoudi’s collage features the cover of Saudi musician Rabah Sagar’s 1995 album “Empty of Feelings.”
THE ROUNDUP:Pop-culture highlights from across the region
Updated 17 October 2025
Arab News
Snakeskin
‘We Live in Sand’
The Lebanese duo — Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal — just dropped their excellent third album, written in October 2024, as Israel’s war on Gaza was expanding to include attacks on Beirut. Understandably, then, there’s an atmosphere of grief, anger and frustration throughout, but as with so much of the music Sabra and Tabbal make — together or separately — there is hope here too. “How to love in our insignificance?” Sabra sings in “Blindsided.” It is the record’s main theme.
eL Seed
‘Moving Canvas’
The Tunisian ‘calligraffiti’ artist teamed up with Art be a Part and Dubai’s Special Needs Future Development Center for his latest project, in which SNF students assisted eL Seed in painting their new school bus (bought with funds raised by Art be a Part). “Art is a driver for social change. Painting gave the children a sense of ownership and belonging,” eL Seed said in a press release. “This is more than a vehicle, it is a symbol of unity and endless possibility.”
Rubina
‘Dⲹ’&Բ;
The Persian-Candian singer-songwriter released “Darya” — the third single from her upcoming debut EP “Take Me to the Moon” — late last month. According to a press release, the “haunting, hypnotic” track, sung in English and Farsi, “explores how the ocean’s chaos and calm mirror the human experience of love.” Rubina is quoted as saying that the song “is both the storm and the stillness. It’s the place where human emotion dissolves into nature, and nature dissolves into us.”
Recipes for Success: Chef RaffyBeylerian offers advice and a tasty mushroom garden recipe
Updated 17 October 2025
Shyama Krishna Kumar
DUBAI: In the world’s most dynamic kitchens — from Paris to Riyadh — Chef Raffy Beylerian has spent more than 13 years refining a culinary philosophy that transcends borders, and he’s now brought that philosophy to Riyadh as head chef of Attaché, a new dining destination in the heart of the Diplomatic Quarter.
A graduate of the prestigious École de Cuisine Alain Ducasse in Paris, Beylerian honed his craft in legendary establishments including the three-Michelin-starred Plaza Athénée and La Bastide Saint-Antoine in Grasse.
His journey has taken him across continents, shaping a cuisine that blends classical French precision with the vibrant flavors of the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. Whether designing intricate tasting menus or leading high-end kitchen brigades, Beylerian’s approach is rooted in seasonality, sustainability, and an unwavering respect for ingredients.
Attache Riyadh. (Supplied)
And his latest stop hasn’t disappointed him. “What surprised me was the level all the restaurants were at here,” he tells Arab News. “I wasn’t expecting this when I first moved here, but once I started going around while doing my market research, I realized was a good place for food.”
When you started out, what was the most common mistake you made?
When I couldn’t get something right, I’d get frustrated and demotivated. So you’d get demotivated when you didn’t get something right and then the head chef would tell you off and it doesn’t go well. But with time you realize that, well, you’re cooking every day, and every service is like a blank sheet — basically a fresh start — and, as chefs, we’re only as good as the last dish we put out.
What’s your top tip for amateur chefs?
Whatever you’re cooking, just get good produce. It’s really as simple as that. If the produce is good, whatever you’re gonna do at home, whether it’s something simple or something sophisticated, 50 percent of the work is already done.
What one ingredient can instantly improve any dish and why?
I would say salt, because salt is the major magnifier and it enhances everything. Apart from that, it would be something acidic, like lemon or lime.
When you go out to eat, do you critique the food at all?
It depends on the restaurant. If I’m going to somewhere that has a big reputation and we’re going there for the sake of trying it out — market research, like I said — then yes, I do end up critiquing it. But most of the time, on casual nights out or lunches and stuff, then no, I just try to enjoy it.
What’s the most common issue you find in other restaurants?
The seasoning.
What’s your favorite cuisine or dish to eat?
Mediterranean food or something close to my background and palate profile.
What’s your go-to dish if you have to cook something quickly at home?
Well, eggs are always in my fridge. They’re the easiest thing to do. And when they’re done right, they’re really unbeatable.
What customer request most annoys you?
When the guests try to change a dish completely. Because, honestly, we put a lot of work and effort in with the team to develop a dish, so for someone to come and just want to change it or flip it all over is a bit difficult for us.
As a head chef, what are you like? Are you a disciplinarian, or are you more laid back?
It’s a bit of both, so not really disciplinarian or laid back. The kitchens I was working in before were very disciplined — we were always shouting, throwing pots and pans and screaming and all that. So, I put it on myself not to be like that. But being completely laid back just doesn’t work in a kitchen. So it’s a bit of both.
