Abaya in limelight of Who's Next, Premiere Classe design contest

More than just a tradeshow, Who's Next & Premiere Classe are committed to promoting diversity and cultural exchange amongst designers and this "exercise of style" applied to the Abaya is an amazing opportunity for aspiring designers from around the world to apply their creative instincts and talents to a national identity and local dress.

Prior to each edition of Who's Next & Premiere Classe a designer contest is launched based on a cultural theme in view of encouraging brands and designers to re-interpret or customize a traditional object or piece of clothing with one of their iconic items.

Three objectives lie behind this style exercise: the first is to encourage the exchange of ideas between France and other countries, the second is to demonstrate the creativity of the exhibitors and finally to familiarize designers with local fashion codes.

Examples of previous contest themes include: the Spanish "pena" (comb), the Japanese "Geta" (sandals), the rugby ball to celebrate the Rugby World Cup, the skateboard, the typical Chinese skirt, the Korean alphabet... These competitions not only challenge designers to use new ideas or types of clothing, but also create a unique opportunity to fuse fashion and culture.

To celebrate the first edition of Who's Next & Premiere Classe in Dubai - the first professional fashion tradeshow to take place in the Middle East bringing together both fashion and accessory universes - the chosen muse for the contest is the local women's dress, the Abaya.

Each designer exhibiting at Who's Next & Premiere Classe in Dubai will receive a dossier featuring a full description of the Abaya as well as contest guidelines. The designers will be requested to submit sketches of their customized Abaya to a panel of judges, made up of fashion experts, who will select 20 Abaya models to be brought to life. The selected designers will then each receive an Abaya to create a prototype that will be exhibited and maybe even cat walked during the upcoming Who's Next & Premiere Classe tradeshow to take place in Dubai.

Who's Next & Premiere Classe will run from the 11th till 13th October 2009 at the Dubai World Trade Center covering over 12 000sqm of exhibition space and hosting 250 international brands, mostly from Europe and the Middle-East, including 100 French brands.

With 100 women's brands, 80 accessory designers and 70 urban labels showcasing together the latest trends from their 2010 Spring/Summer collections, Who's Next & Premiere Classe will without a doubt bring a profusion of diversity and uniqueness to the fashion scene in Dubai.