Dubai Fashion Week staged its Spring/Summer 2027 edition from 22 to 26 October 2026 at Dubai Design District (d3). The event, co-founded by d3 and the Arab Fashion Council, brought together designers and labels from India, Colombia, South Korea, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, France, Kuwait, Italy, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Indian couturier Tarun Tahiliani closed the five days, while the most striking feature of the week was what happened off the runway: a buyers’ programme and a month-long pop-up at Harvey Nichols took the collections into a shop.
The event took its current name in March 2023 and grew out of Arab Fashion Week, launched in 2015. As in other fashion capitals, days were split between showroom appointments, panels and invitation-only events, with runway shows each evening. For where this season sits in the global calendar, see our 2026-2027 fashion week calendar.
The collections that stood out on the runway
Yousef Al Jasmi: a couture debut from Kuwait
Kuwaiti designer Yousef Al Jasmi presented his first couture collection at the week in a restrained palette of black, cream and silver. The official fashion week post shows the crystal fringe on a strapless corset and fitted skirt up close.
Details from Yousef Al Jasmi's runway on Dubai Fashion Week's Instagram
Colombian Saturday: Laura Aparicio and Adriana Capasso
The third day, Saturday, largely belonged to Colombian designers. Laura Aparicio’s show, supported by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, set blocks of green, red and blue against black separates. Adriana Capasso’s collection TRACE drew on her country’s coffee-growing region, turning that reference into sculptural silhouettes and dense textile work. Mónica Schuster and Oda also appeared on the same day’s programme.
Looks from Laura Aparicio's SS27 collection on Dubai Fashion Week's Instagram
Onori and Kuni: the UAE’s own voices
Sharifa AlHashemi, the Emirati designer behind the label Onori, made her first runway appearance on Sunday with a collection inspired by 1950s Sardinia. On the same day, Abu Dhabi couture house Kuni showed its Couture’27 collection, built on hand embroidery, Persian motifs and structured silhouettes. Lili Blanc, Shoma, Picasso Institute and Weinsanto were also on Sunday’s schedule.
Kuni's Couture'27 collection on Dubai Fashion Week's Instagram
Pallavi Puri, Sara Pedram and KEL’
Pallavi Puri’s debut stood out for its scale: 50 looks, more than 21 traditional crafts and over 150 artisans. Lisa Haydon and Cyrine Abdelnour walked in the show. Sara Pedram, who trained as a chemical engineer and founded her label in 2015, presented hand-painted and hand-embroidered abayas in The Simorgh Collection. Ukrainian label KEL’ built its Genesis collection around a butterfly theme, using corsetry and architectural tailoring.
Kresha Bajaj and the closing show by Tarun Tahiliani
On the last day, Monday, the runway belonged to Christopher Italy and Josephine, followed by Tarun Tahiliani’s closing show. Kresha Bajaj’s collection, made with Alok Lodha Jewels, combined beaded fabrics, fan details and jewellery. Tahiliani’s The Many Moods of TT was a retrospective of three decades of his work; the designer described the show on his own account as a celebration of the cultural ties between India and the Arab world. According to Gulf News, he is also about to open his first store in Dubai.
Looks from Kresha Bajaj x Alok Lodha Jewels on Dubai Fashion Week's Instagram
Tarun Tahiliani's The Many Moods of TT closing show on the designer's Instagram
A new generation and the road to the shop floor
FADTALENTS, the showcase of the d3-based fashion school FAD, marked the school’s tenth year by putting more than 20 young designers on the runway. Its volumes, oversized shoulders and print experiments gave the week some of its boldest moments.
FADTALENTS student collections on Dubai Fashion Week's Instagram
The commercial side rested on two legs. Through the Buyers Programme, retailers and representatives of department stores and e-commerce platforms viewed collections in showroom appointments and designer previews. At Harvey Nichols Dubai, a pop-up running from 1 to 31 October brought together designers from the week’s calendar with talent from across the Middle East and North Africa. Among the names featured were Lilian Afshar, Andrea Wazen, Abadia, Nafsika Skourti, Retori, Marmar Halim, Pallavi Puri, Nora, Onori and Lalingi London.
The Harvey Nichols pop-up on Dubai Fashion Week's Instagram
Why it matters: the view from Türkiye
In our view, the real story in Dubai is not any single look but the shortening of the distance between showing and selling. A young label finding space in a department store while the week is still running answers a question many emerging designers struggle with: what happens after the show? The list of countries reported by the organisers does not include Türkiye, even though Turkish fashion has strong roots in couture, eveningwear and modest dressing, all categories that sell well in the Gulf. That is why Dubai’s model is worth following closely for designers in Türkiye, both as a market and as a template for linking a fashion week to retail.
Sources
- Gulf News: The Kurator’s Dubai Fashion Week SS27 Round up
- Gulf News: From Emirati debuts to global designers, the looks that stood out
- Emarat Al Youm: Spring/Summer 2027 season
- Madame Arabia: Dubai Fashion Week Unveils Spring/Summer 2027 Schedule
- Dubai Fashion Week official Instagram account
Image: Burj Khalifa seen from Dubai Design District at sunset (representative image, not from the event) — Leakingh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Instagram posts in this article are official posts by the accounts concerned and are published using Instagram’s embed tool; rights to the images belong to their owners.