By Ornella Homsi
Meet the 8 Most Powerful Families in the Middle Eastern Fashion World — including the Al Thanis, Salames, Al Tayers, Al Sauds, Chalhoubs, Hervé Cuviliez & Delphine Edde, Alshayas and Binzagrs.
The Al Thanis
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and his wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned recently own Harrods, London’s landmark and number one department store in the UK. Her Highness Sheikha Mozah has always been on the fashion radar and is known to be one of our favorite global fashionistas. Her style is unique and yet combines tradition and researched conception of couture.
The Salames
Tony Salame and his wife Elham Salame, are Lebanese entrepreneurs owing Aïshti, a multi-million dollar retail business which consists of over 150 brands and 40 mono brand stores of the hottest names in fashion: from Gucci to Fendi, Roberto Cavalli to Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana to Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs to Dior, and Cartier to Ermenegildo Zegna to name a few.
The Al Tayers
Khalid Al Tayer is the chief executive officer of the Retail Business of Al Tayer Group. The multi-division conglomerate is based in the UAE. Khalid Al Tayer hosts the retail operations for luxury brands and retail chains within the wider gulf region. Al Tayer group a successful family business, holds a franchise agreement for over 36 luxury brands including Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney, along with exclusive licenses for Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdale’s.
The Al Sauds
HRH Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, CEO of Saudi Arabian luxury retailer Alfa International, a family-owned company which operates Harvey Nichols department Store in Riyadh. Princess Reema was also chief executive of Al Hama, another retail company that manages Donna Karen and DKNY brands in the Middle East.
The Chalhoubs
Patrick M. Chalhoub and Ingie Chalhoub
Patrick Chalhoub is the CEO of the largest family-owned luxury retail company across 14 countries Chalhoub group. In the last 31-years the company has established franchise agreement and joint ventures with hundreds of companies including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, L’Oreal and Christian Louboutin taking its number of retail stores to 350 across the Middle East. In addition to their latest project, Etoile Group is now one of Dubai and Jeddah’s most successful multi-brand store which holds numerous luxury and contemporary labels such as Alaia, Azzaro, John Galliano, Mara Hoffman, Rochas, Roksanda Ilincic as well as Ingie Paris designed by Ingie Chalhoub (President and Managing Director of Etoile Group).
The Binzagrs
Sheikh Abdullah Binzagr, Chief Executive Officer of Rubaiyat Modern Luxury Co. LTD., owns the distribution rights for leading luxury brands such as Bottega Veneta, Kenzo, Balenciaga and Dolce & Gabbana, within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The group also launched a sister company Qaiymah Product distribution housing brands such as Coccinelle, Armani Exchange and French Connection to reach the market at a lower price point.
Hervé Cuviliez & Delphine Edde
Hervé Cuviliez and his wife Delphine Edde established Diwanee in 2008, a company building online portraits for women in the Middle East region. The UAE based company specialized web portraits are 3a2ilati.com (motherhood/health), yasmina.com (beauty & fashion), and mooda.com (fashion e-commerce dedicated to middle eastern designers).
The Alshayas
Mohammed Alshaya is the executive chairman of the retail division of the Alshaya Group, a multi-division Kuwait-based conglomerate. Alshaya oversees one of the largest retail distribution business in the Gulf, North Africa and Eastern regions, as the company operates over 2,600 franchise stores.
