The Arab Fashion Council has created a fund to support emerging fashion brands from Arab countries by investing $500,000 every two years in one designer’s business.
Dubbed the AFC Fashion Fund, the accelerator programme aims to help scale a designer’s business by underwriting the cost of three runway show seasons, showroom representation in Paris, capsule collections for the Middle East retail calendar and support in the form of industry networking and mentorship.
“This is not a prize. It’s an evolution,” said Mohammed Aqra, chief strategy officer at the Arab Fashion Council, in a statement. “The AFC Fashion Fund is about turning a promising designer into a sustainable, export-ready brand that carries the spirit of our region onto the global stage.”
Applications for the first cycle of the fund will open in June, with the winner announced in October.
Co-founded in 2015 by Jacob Abrian and Aqra, the Arab Fashion Council launched Arab Fashion Week in the same year as a biannual event presenting runway shows for regional designers. The event continued until 2023 when it rebranded as Dubai Fashion Week under the auspices of the Dubai Design District (D3)’s senior vice president Khadija Al Bastaki.
The Arab Fashion Council’s stated mission is to establish a comprehensive fashion system, unifying 22 Arab countries under a single umbrella. The Arab League recognises the same number of members: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Learn more:
Arab Fashion Week Rebrands as Dubai Fashion Week
The event curated by Dubai Design District and the Arab Fashion Council kicked off under the new banner on Mar. 10, 2023 in Dubai.
Content shared from www.businessoffashion.com.
