They love us, they really do!
At least the ones who are not all fundamentalist in their ways! I had heard about this many years ago when I used to be in retail, that the women of the Middle East do like to shop, have tons of money to do it with and follow our trends and fashion in a big way.
I was still surprised when I took a look at Marie Claire’s latest issue to find a spread in their Fashion & Trend section about Islamic women who do love to shop and even some who are models in their country of Dubai, the Middle East’s fashion mecca!
To take a look at the numbers, there are 860,000 residents; 45 malls, 10 Million visitors to one of the malls during it’s first six months of opening; name a designer, they are there, as in: Marc Jacobs, Harvey Nichols, Burberry, Missoni; and as for Retailers and Eateries: Virgin Megastore, McDonald’s, Starbucks to name a few! There is even a ‘ski mountain’ inside the Mall of the Emirates.
The malls close at Midnight, Wednesday through Friday. What are the prices like? Alexander McQueen Sunglasses for $230; Dolce & Gabbana handbag for $1795, no different than what they cost here at those very trendy and upscale stores I’m sure!
One of the models was asked if there are any interests in American fashion there, she said “Definitely. Even the young women who are veiled wear jeans — from Levi's to Rock & Republic.”
This makes me wonder if this is why the fundamentalist section of their people hate our Western culture so much, because their young people are ‘slaves’ to our fashions?! It is good to see that they young people there do have varied interests and choose to wear what they want, although they do wear their traditional garments over jeans or whatever they wear.
They might be ensconced in their Islamic roots but they do accept our Western culture of being fashionably decked!
Here’s a link to the pages of Marie Claire on iVillage.com
Link