D1 Editorial

This Editor’s Letter Calls for Newness & Realness

What is the change of a season to a woman’s wardrobe? Or even the switch of a year? Or the turn of a decade to a person’s being? Well, a lot depending on how you carry yourself or consider things. For me personally, this has been a monumental 12 months - and please don’t assume I’m counting twelve by the standard calendar of January through to December! Rather, I’m looking at the moments between thinking of launching this platform, planning it, and it actually happening. Sometimes one has to dare to move, to be moved. The conversations I’ve had recently have reminded me of my purpose and drive. That’s one of the many beautiful byproducts of friendships and connections - we talk and remind each other of the path behind us and the ground at our feet.
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My motivation is also my concern: There are still too few Arab women sitting at the top tables of the luxury fashion and beauty industry. This needs to change and this platform, my podcast series Firsts by Deena, and my work as a consultant are all geared towards carving out a space for Arab women in these glossy worlds. We need a chorus of voices, not a token few, in order to understand the nuances of different cultures and individuals within those microcosms.

Look 38/63, Carolina Herrera Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 22/45, Richard Quinn Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 32/42 Nensi Dojaka Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 8/30, Roksanda Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 8/47, Erdem Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 32/71, Jil Sander Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 26/50, Prada Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 4/52, Simone Rocha Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 27/49, The Attico Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 27/49, Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 49/49, Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 24/54, Gucci Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 43/60, Dries Van Noten Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 27/58, Loewe Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 16/58, Giambattista Valli Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 8/44, Yohji Yamamoto Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 67/77, Chanel Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

Look 7/14, Harris Reed Spring/Summer 2025. Shutterstock

I’ll lift to a lighter note: fashion month is upon us and I’m wondering how the brands I turn to for six monthly installments of inspiration will manage to move me this Spring. Yes, it’s the fashion world, and that tends to trigger a rotation of Creative Directors in cyclones of change each year (typically and perhaps wisely timed to the end of December when most journalists have unplugged). But I cannot decide where there is more turbulence, in the fashion industry or across global politics! While Chanel’s top position has been filled, it’s a sparse job description in contrast to what the late and great Karl commanded. Maison Margiela is nestled back into talented hands too, but the exit/entry rate is exhaustive, spicy and fiercely unsettling. The burn rate of designers in today’s world is high and it permeates through into the collections they produce. No wonder the leading luxury brands struggle to get to the finer details of making a collection globally relevant for women who live and dress very differently from the Western mass consumer or are simply not from the West. Is it asking too much to go beyond a mere caftan collection or Ramadan campaign each year to ‘get’ the Gulf customer? CEOs of high places in style: please make this afterthought your primary focus in 2025/2026, or don’t expect our Gulf credit cards to be entering your stores enthusiastically. We might browse, but there are plenty of local talents we can commission. Just leaving this paragraph right here!
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I’ve had a special birthday that I celebrated with my husband at a stunning hotel somewhere special (more on this travel destination soon on Deenathe1st.com). This location at New Year’s Eve was so full of the Arts talents that it could have passed for a Paris Fashion Week afterparty or Oscar Night undercover hang-out spot. I saw more Bottega and rarified fashion looks than a couture front row could muster up. This is no boast but it brings me to say that I reflected a lot in good company and the only resolution I have for 2025 is to continue to be grateful in the fullest sense for all of the wonderful people and opportunities in my life. Being grateful is an active state for me, it is not passive. It’s a constant meditation of witnessing in real-time the joy of small and big opportunities to live in the present. With Ramadan coming up, this reflection will go deeper still.
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My team at Deenathe1st join our weekly meetings with energy in their voices - this tells me we are onto something. What binds us is more than our brand mission, it’s also to be women from different continents united as a team in trust, humor, and with a shared attitude of kindness (the feisty edition).
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Here’s to fashion season firing up again, to surfing the waves of change that 2025 will surely bring, and to keeping it chic no matter what.

Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz