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RIYADH: The Kingdom’s national carrier Saudia has entered the fashion industry with the launch of a new clothing brand at Riyadh Fashion Week.

The brand, SV by Saudia, is billed as the airline’s first foray into the fashion and lifestyle sector, “inspired by our identity, creating endless opportunities for customers to engage with us in a fashionable, elegant, creative and comfortable ways,” according to a statement by the company.

The sporty-chic brand comprises on-trend athleisure in the airline’s signature brand colors of green and white, with pops of blue and varying shades of green adding depth and dimension to the line.

Bomber jackets, polo shirts, joggers and jumper dresses are offered with travel-themed insignia on some items.

The show took place on Saturday night on the rooftop of the Kingdom Center Tower.

The brand takes its name from Saudia’s IATA code, which are three letters assigned by the International Air Transport Association to identify airports, cities, or metropolitan areas. The airline was set up in 1945.

Presented under the theme “Live to Fly,” the debut collection draws inspiration from both “nostalgia and futurism. Each design reinterprets elements of flight through a distinctly innovative vision,” according to the company.

Developed by creative director Mohammed Khoja, the founder of fashion label Hindamme, the partnership reflects Saudia’s goal of showcasing the nation’s creativity on the global stage, according to the airline.

Khoja said: “It’s been a great honor to collaborate with Saudia on the debut collection of this iconic fashion line.

“Working alongside Freebirds (a Saudi virtual creative agency) to bring SV by Saudia to life offered a unique experience to uniting two worlds; the rich legacy of Saudia that we all grew up cherishing, and the nostalgia it represents to us as Saudis, reinterpreted through an innovative fashion medium.”

It is not the first time a Saudi airline has tapped fashion talent.

In 2024, ����ֱ�� designer Mohammed Ashi, founder of the Paris-based label Ashi Studio, unveiled the inaugural cabin crew uniforms for the Kingdom’s new airline, Riyadh Air.

The luxury line comprises cashmere outerwear, dresses and trousers made of fine wools, custom leather footwear, amethyst earrings, and pillbox hats.

These designs were all inspired by 1950s airline fashion, widely considered the golden age of aviation, but with an Ashi twist.

BEIRUT: “Diva: From Umm Kulthum to Dalida,” a multimedia exhibition put together by the Arab World Institute in Paris, arrived in Beirut after a run in Paris, Amsterdam and Amman, to pay tribute to the legacy of the greatest divas of the Arab world and to celebrate their enduring impact.

The exhibition at the Sursock Museum is divided into four main parts charting musical icons in the 1920s, 1940s, 1970s and the contemporary era.

Renowned singers including Umm Kulthum, Warda, Fayrouz, Asmahan, Laila Mourad, Samia Gamal, Sabah, Taheyya Kariokka, Hind Rostom, and Dalida are featured.

The black-and-white photographs of these divas, from women’s meetings and social and cultural activities, reflect their status during a period of artistic and intellectual vitality. They presented a new image of femininity and participated in political renewal in their countries from the 1920s —especially in Egypt — until the 1970s.

Through these divas, the exhibition sheds light on the social history of Arab women, the emergence of feminism in traditionally patriarchal societies, their roles in the defense of Arab nationalism and the struggle for independence, and their central contribution to artistic fields they helped to revolutionize.

Director of the Sursock Museum Karina El-Helou told Arab News: “In the 1960s, Beirut, alongside Cairo, was a capital of Arab music. Here, divas such as ‘the Star of the East’ Umm Kulthum, who gave an unforgettable performance at the Baalbeck Festival, and Fayrouz, ‘the Ambassador of Lebanon to the Stars,’ who attained worldwide renown, played a decisive role in shaping modern Arab music. Artists such as Warda and Asmahan, both of Lebanese origin, also helped bring this music to the international stage.

“Beirut has consistently affirmed the vitality of its cultural life despite the conflicts it has endured — through music, theatre, and festivals. This exhibition evokes the memory of a glorious past while underscoring a living heritage that continues to inspire and merits renewed attention,” she added.  

The Beirut edition of the exhibition distinguished itself through its specific scenography and the addition of archival spaces featuring costumes, videos, and photographs, displayed in the main gallery dedicated to the divas and in the section devoted to contemporary artists.

In the area dedicated to the Lebanese diva Fayrouz, original dresses worn by the star in the play “Qasidet Hub” (“A Poem of Love”), performed at the Baalbeck International Festival in 1973, are on show. The costumes were designed by the Lebanese Armenian couturier Jean-Pierre Delifer, one of the most emblematic figures in fashion in the 1970s.

 In addition to the costumes, rare video footage documenting Fayrouz’s South American tour in Rio de Janeiro in 1961 is screened, along with an excerpt from a documentary produced by Parker & Co about her US tour in 1972. The exhibition also features an exploration of Lebanese icon Sabah’s lasting impact on popular culture, as well as the 2011 film “The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni” that charts the life of the revered actress from the early 1960s into the 1990s.