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Riyadh Fashion Week opens its fourth edition on 15 October and runs until 20 October, with six days of runway shows and presentations staged across the Saudi capital. The Fashion Commission, which sits under the Ministry of Culture, is hosting, and the Milan trade show White Milano has signed on as an official partner with the backing of the Ministries of Culture and Tourism.
The Ministry of Tourism will work with White to bring buyers and fashion professionals from around the world to Riyadh for the week. As of early October, there was no runway schedule and no designer list. The open call for brands, covering couture, womenswear, menswear, and streetwear, closed on 1 September, and the week has also held open castings for local models.
Last year’s edition ran from 16 to 21 October, with more than 25 runway shows and 10 designer presentations, with curated showrooms and activations around town. Venues change from year to year. The 2023 debut ran for four days with more than 30 designers, nearly every show staged at the King Abdullah Financial District. The 2024 edition announced more than 30 Saudi fashion houses across three venues, Tuwaiq Palace among them, and 2025 ranged from The Palm Grove to Bedrock, an open-air space carved into stone.
White Milano’s Riyadh story starts before last year’s fashion week, with a pop-up of about ten small brands at the Westerly department store, arranged with the AlMalki group and running until May 2025.
In October that year, the trade show staged its first showroom in the city from the 17th to the 21st, gathering more than fifty Saudi and international designers at The Globe, inside the Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah tower, in a layout designed by White’s president and creative director, Massimiliano Bizzi.
The Fashion Commission announced a memorandum of understanding after the week closed on 21 October, giving Saudi designers access to White’s international platforms and providing for joint events and collaborations.
By February 2026, the group had opened The Circle, a permanent space in Misk City meant to give international brands a way into the Middle Eastern market. Brenda Bellei, chief executive of M Seventy-White, told FashionUnited that the group’s momentum in the Gulf is growing. The Circle project, which she devised with Monica Sarti of Faliero Sarti, is aimed at helping small and medium brands from White’s clientele into Gulf distribution.
Fashion Commission chief executive Burak Cakmak told WWD that White suits the Saudi 100 Brands programme because it specialises in presenting new fashion perspectives to international buyers.
At the 2023 debut, Cakmak described the week as a step toward building the full fashion value chain in the country, with growth led by emerging Saudi talent. He said that year that Vision 2030 is about diversifying the economy away from oil and that fashion had become a key economic driver within a few short years. By 2024, he was calling the week a gateway for homegrown talent and for new opportunities in fashion and retail.
Vivienne Westwood opened the 2025 edition on 16 October at The Palm Grove with her first runway show in the Middle East, a capsule of gowns embroidered by Saudi artisans and made with Art of Heritage, the cultural institution whose chief executive is Princess Nourah bint Mohammed Al Faisal. About 100 students from local fashion schools were invited to attend, with a mentoring session beforehand. Stella McCartney closed the week on 21 October at KAFD, also with her first show in the Middle East.
The Westwood show drew objections from inside the family. Cora Corré, the late designer’s granddaughter and a co-founder of the Vivienne Foundation, told the Guardian that the label’s decisions do not align with the values or wishes of her late grandmother. She had left her campaigns manager role at the house in October 2024, and the foundation holds the rights to Westwood’s work from before 1993.
Judd Crane, executive director of buying and brand at Selfridges, told WWD that Mona Alshebil was the top-performing brand at the event and will return to the store’s womenswear edit in 2026, with Abadia joining her. He also named Mirai a top discovery of the week. Tima Abid and Atelier Hekayat were among the Saudi names on the programme, and Listmag adds that Ashi Studios and KAF by KAF also showed.
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