After the successful launch of the first Thai Silk International Fashion Week in 2018, the preperations for the 3rd edition to take place in Bangkok from December 6 to 11th, are in full swing.
Initiated as a project in honor of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother’s 90th birth anniversary, who’s known as the Queen of Silk, the project aims to spread knowledge and use of Thai silk around the world. All foreign embassies in Thailand are inivited to present one of their designers to show a collection produced in Thai silk that is supplied by the Thai Silk Association.
The organizing comittee is speared by Mr.Edward Kiti and Mrs.Zigi Mueller-Matyas, the organizer of MQ Vienna Fashion Week . Together they represent the long standing partnership between Thai and Austrian fashion. A curated selection of the top Thai designers have been presenting their collections at MQ Vienna Fashion Week for the past 13 years.
Among the many international celebrities and fashion industry insiders, the Thai Silk International Fashion Week will once again welcome Prof. Jimmy Choo, OBE.
Over 60 international and Thai designers are expected to participate. Among them five Arab designers representing their respective countries.
“Thai silk is a beautiful material that will be used by the designers, each coming from a different country, according to their style of designing their collections. Having seen the designs already in the previuos editions of Thai Silk Fashion Week, it never seized to amaze me, how each designer is working with Thai silk. For me this unique event brings the whole world to Thailand and will show how united the sphere of fashion will turn out during this one week in December”. Zigi Mueller-Matyas
MEET THE ARAB DESIGNERS
Bahrain
Fatima Al Samahiji is a Bahraini fashion designer and artist with a passion for art and fashion design. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in interior design and is certified in women’s wear and dressmaking from Instituto Di Moda Burgo Milano, Italy. Fatima participated in several fashion and art workshops and exhibitions including recyclable fashion shows. She got a certificate in fashion design and entrepreneurship from Bahrain Fashion Incubator after completing the Dilmun Star program and won second place in the competition. Currently Fatima is a visual art teacher at one of Bahrain’s leading private schools. She specialises in handwork and corsets for women’s evening wear.
For her second participation at the Thai Silk International Fashion week, Fatima developed a collection that represents Bahrain’s heritage and culture by incorporating basket weaving techniques using Thai silk fabric. The traditional colors and textured fabrics were chosen based on old basket bags made by local weavers.
Egypt
Inspired by his mother’s talent in tailoring, Ahmed Al-Saedi’s passion for fashion design was already ignited at the age of seven. Using her tools and fabrics, he started experimenting on designing clothes for his sister´s dolls. Ahmed started his career as a designer in 2012 and evetually created his namesake label Maison Saedi back in 2015, specializing in ready-to-wear and custom evening and bridal wear. He was a finalist at the first edition of the Egypt Fashion Awards in 2022 . Among his celebrity clients are Egypt´s most famous actresses.
“Being part of an international event that gathers designers from all over the world to be part of a celebration of one the most precious fabrics worldwide, is truly an appreciation of what this industry should be all about; appreciating the skills that are the foundation, encouraging sustainability that we are all trying to reach now. Representing my country is an honor and I am really excited to be there.” Ahmed Saedi
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Mashael Al Rajhi is a designer who has built an atelier that has the artisan’s value for perfection in an unlikely equilibrium with an artist’s passion to create. After finishing a degree in Business Administration from King Saud University, she eventually embraced her love for the sartorial arts by acquiring a fashion design diploma from the Australian based Box Hill Institute through the Arts and Skills institute in Riyadh. Mashael immediately ventured into fashion design after graduating, creating ready to wear collections for men and women under the brand label Mashael.. She made major international headlines whcn she collaborated with Nike for a capsule collection in 2017 presented at FFWD.
Kuwait
Kuwaiti designer Montaha Al Ajaeel has been selected to participate for the second time at the Thai Silk International Fashion week presenting her label Montaha Couture. The award winning designer also showed at Paris Fashion Week last October and beisdes her boutique in Kuwait is also prominently retailed at major stores in Doha, Qatar as well as in Paris, France Al-Ajeel is always keen on presenting unique designs that reflect international glamour and combine the beauty of both soul and body. She has become a role model in her own unique way, first by providing fun and fashionable clothing for conservative Muslim women, and second by breaking into the international fashion industry.
Morocco
Said Mahrouf was born in Morocco and raised in Amsterdam. His studies in Amsterdam and New York initially focused on costume design, but over the years his attention shifted towards fashion design. He launched his name-sake label in 2007 and was immediately invited to show his collection in Paris in 2008, which proved the beginning to his international career and also got him appointed as the artistic director of the Festimode-Casablanca Fashion Week for the following six years. In 2013 he was awarded best contemporary Moroccan designer. Some of his works have been exhibited in international museums and galleries such as the New York Museum of Contemporary Art and the Carriage Works Gallery in Sydney.
“What makes this project unique is that I took inspiration just from the Thai silks that were offered and that I ended up selecting. In my usual approach I tend to keep the colour scheme minimal to two colours. Receiving the colourful pieces from Thailand I am challenged to explore the possibilities with these unique handwoven pieces. I see so many similarities of how colour is used in the Thai silk and colors of the traditional Moroccan caftans that I as a Moroccan never even explored before. I took this opportunity to express my take on it. ” Said Mahroud
United Arab Emirates
Asma Almazroi describes her name sake brand as dreamy. Pieces are made to take you to another space where you feel like a revived person. Hergoal is for every woman to connect with her joy, beauty & confidence. By creating custom pieces, made individually to fit each client’s unique body shape/measurements the brands ensures the best fit which enhances the customer experience. Being a brand born in Dubai, UAE, Almazroi takes inspiration of her local culture for a lot of her designs, and combines fashion & art within the modest taste & custom to each woman’s unique figure.
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