Vivienne Westwood's show will open Riyadh Fashion Week and the event will feature international brands for the first time

The Vivienne Westwood brand will host its first fashion show in the Middle East as part of Riyadh Fashion Week this month and will debut there on October 16. The show will be presented in a palm grove in Riyadh.

The company's CEO, Carlo D'Amario, said that the brand is working “on a special collection of embroidered dresses, the result of the union of the experience of our haute couture team and the craftsmanship of local artisans: a concrete way to promote local traditions through an international perspective. Today, fashion must go beyond aesthetics: it must be a connection between cultures. “Global-local” is a key concept for us and for this reason we have “I started collaborating on special projects and shows like this.”

The embroidered capsule pieces, which are made in collaboration with 'Art of Heritage', a cultural institution that safeguards Saudi Arabia's heritage of craftsmanship, will be displayed alongside Vivienne Westwood's SS26 main collection.

The brand has also invited around 100 students from local fashion schools to attend and will host a mentoring session with the students before the show.

In its third edition, Riyadh Fashion Week is already well established in the region, but this year is the first time that the official calendar is open to international houses, hence the participation of Vivienne Westwood.