ARWÁ

Arwa Al Banawi launched ARWÁ in Riyadh in 2015, and the work has consistently done something the Gulf's ready-to-wear scene tends to avoid: it stays legible as Saudi without performing Saudidom for an outside audience. The blazers carrying Arabic script — "We Are a Kingdom" split across two separate pieces — are a blunt formal choice. Collaborations with Levi's, Adidas Originals, and Pepsi have reached a different register than the brand's tailoring without destabilising either. The kaftan and suiting sit on the same site, which would feel incoherent from another label; here it reflects a city that moves between registers in exactly that way. The script placement does more work than most of the copy ever will.