Major news for Saudi designers and creatives!
The leading partner for luxury across the Middle East, Chalhoub Group, has announced Saudi Arabia’s first Fashion Lab launch. An initiative created to identify and boost innovative Saudi fashion brands and support creative designers on their journey to becoming successful entrepreneurs.
The Fashion Lab is an open platform that combines Chalhoub Group’s operational expertise along with their insight from industry professionals on how they grew their Saudi brands and maintained their talent. With its new innovative initiative, Chalhoub Greenhouse is seeking emerging brands focusing on streetwear, sustainable fashion, contemporary design, and accessory design.
Michael Chalhoub, Deputy President JVs and President Strategy, Growth, Innovation and investment, Chalhoub Group, shares, “Saudi Arabia has a fast-evolving fashion ecosystem driven by its young population and its amazing pool of talented designers. With the launch of the Fashion Lab, we are supporting and encouraging this ecosystem of great entrepreneurs. We also want to accelerate this truly home-grown entrepreneurial culture dedicated to the fashion industry that will contribute to building tremendous value in the Kingdom. In addition to shaping a fashion retail supply chain led by Saudi brands, the initiative will build a new generation of creative entrepreneurs who will have access to mentorship, funding and end-to-end support from fashion experts.”
The successful candidates will join a two-week hybrid boot camp, which allows candidates to learn from fashion experts and build their brand with the latest cutting-edge marketing plans, content creation, and many more media-related strategies. In December 2021, the first Fashion Lab will end with a demo day where the selected Saudi brands will showcase their products to retailers, distributors and investors and will receive a funding of US $15,000 to support them.
The programme mentors include fashion designer Arwa Al Banawi and experts from the Chalhoub Group from Dina Sidani, Chief Innovation Officer to Sharmila Murat, Chief Investment Officer, Charbel Lahoud, Head of Growth and many more.
Applications are now open online at www.chalhoubgreenhouse.com/fashionlab. The deadline for submissions by Saudi-based early-stage ventures and brands focused on streetwear, sustainable fashion, contemporary design, and accessories is July 25, 2021.
