World's top designers fly in for Abu Dhabi Fashion Week

Notes and media contacts

Maven Corporate Ltd
Maven is an international company with offices in the UAE, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Brussels. Maven is a services company specializing in the fashion, apparel, textiles industry. The Company's services focus on design, branding, marketing, retailing, sourcing and investment.

Maven works extensively with international and regional brands and retailers to assist them in expanding their operations into new markets and in creating the new structures, alliances and processes which allow them to do this in an optimal fashion. Maven maintains a global network of partners, clients and investors from North America, the EU and Asia, whilst focusing the bulk of its work on the Middle East & North Africa, South Asia and East Asia (SAMENA).

Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana
Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (the National Chamber for Italian Fashion) is the not-for-profit Association which disciplines, co-ordinates and promotes the development of Italian Fashion.

The Association represents all the highest cultural values of Italian Fashion. It aims to protect, co-ordinate and strengthen its image, both in Italy and abroad. In accordance with the statutory provisions, the Association is the point of reference, as well as the preferential mouthpiece, for all the national and international initiatives aimed at valuing and promoting Italian style, customs and Fashion.

Right from the year of its foundation, in 1958, the Association has pursued a policy of organizational support aimed at the knowledge, promotion and development of Fashion through events with a highly intellectual image in Italy and abroad. Recent agreements over international calendars, which have led to the signing of the Italian-French agreement, have given Milan and the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana the role of undisputed protagonist on the international fashion scene, thus also contributing to the consolidation of alliances with London and New York.

Aldar Properties PJSC
Aldar Properties PJSC is a premier property development, investment and management company and is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It is trusted with the responsibility of creating multi-billion dirham civic projects to develop the capital, and is expanding internationally. Since launching in 2005, the company has announced projects worth more than $60bn, in a property development portfolio diverse in scope and style, attracting considerable worldwide interest and inward investment.. Aldar owns a stockpile of over 30 million square metres of land at strategic locations throughout Abu Dhabi Emirate.

Mubadala
Mubadala is an investment firm that is helping to diversify Abu Dhabi's economy through capital intensive investments and by building businesses.
We establish new companies and acquire strategic holdings in existing companies, either in the UAE or abroad. In partnership with world class investors, we actively manage investments in strategic sectors including energy, real estate, healthcare, aerospace and services. These investments diversify and further develop the growing economy of Abu Dhabi, while achieving superior returns on its investments.
As a developer, an investor and an international partner, Mubadala is generating sustainable economic benefits for the future of Abu Dhabi, its people and the region.

Etihad
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, made its first commercial flight in November 2003.

Since then, the airline has grown faster than any other in commercial aviation history, currently serving 45 destinations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Beijing is the first confirmed new route of 2008, with flights beginning to the Chinese capital in March. Etihad has also recently been granted rights to fly to four new destinations in India, namely Chennai (Madras), Jaipur, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Kozhikode (Calicut).

Etihad offers the highest standards of service and comfort both on the ground and in the air. Customers can enjoy world-class cuisine, award-winning flat-beds in its premium cabins and the widest seats in economy, as well as more than 500 hours of on-demand in-flight entertainment.

Etihad operates one of youngest and most environmentally-efficient fleets in the world, a fleet which is set to grow to 40 by the end of 2008.

The profile of the airline has grown substantially in the last year with the signing of a number of major international sporting sponsorship deals, including with Chelsea Football Club and Harlequins Rugby Football Club.

Etihad's latest deal has seen the Abu Dhabi-based airline become the title sponsor of the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, starting with the inaugural race in 2009.

Emirates Palace Hotel
Built as an iconic landmark showcasing Arabian culture and hospitality at its finest, Emirates Palace has created an enviable niche in the luxury resort industry, welcoming holiday makers from all over the world and giving them a truly memorable leisure experience by providing luxurious facilities and amenities in comfortable surroundings and superior and personalized service.

Situated on a 1.3 km stretch of private beach and surrounded by hectares of manicured lawns, Emirates Palace comprises 394 luxury rooms and suites and a variety of fine dining options. The resort's leisure facilities include two intricately landscaped swimming pools, a spa, tennis courts, and two state of the art fitness centres. Emirates Palace houses the most luxurious and technologically advanced meeting facilities in the region which include an auditorium with 1,100 seats, a main ballroom that can accommodate up to 2500 guests, over 40 meeting rooms, a Media Centre and a Business Centre.

Emirates Palace, since its inception, has quickly established an enviable reputation in the industry, winning many prestigious industry awards including -- Best Conference/Convention Center, Best 5-Star Leisure Hotel, Best 5-Star Business/Corporate Hotel - at the MENA Travel Awards 2007, considered the most prestigious and highly coveted industry recognition programme in the region.

For Interviews with the designers, sponsors or Maven Corporate management team contact:

Borouj Consulting:
Randa Mazzawi
David Baker
Noha El Kafrawi