THAT Concept Store – the luxury fashion and lifestyle destination from Majid Al Futtaim – is excited to announce that they will collaborate with SAWA, the fashion and lifestyle platform founded in 2021 by Emirati jewellery designer and influencer Salama Khalfan and The Modist founder and influencer Ghizlan Guenez, to support homegrown businesses and entrepreneurs and showcase regional talent, for a truly diverse pre-Ramadan Second Edition, from 17-20 March 2022, during their women’s empowerment month.
In collaboration with THAT Concept Store, SAWA will exhibit over 60 brands across fashion, fine jewelry, beauty, food and so much more, all homegrown in the Middle East and selected to bring a beautiful curation of a Ramadan-themed offering, over two floors at the Majid Al Futtaim shopping hub in Mall of the Emirates. All visitors to THAT Concept Store during the eclectic four-day event will not only have a most unique and seamless shopping experience, supporting young businesses from the region, but SAWA will also host an inspiring and impactful roster of talks and workshops, focused on retail entrepreneurship and supporting the growth of small businesses.
In the new world order of increasingly conscious consumer behaviour, more acutely aware than ever before of the importance of slow fashion, traceability, and shopping more sustainably, the news that SAWA is returning for a second edition is a truly welcome one. That it will be presented by one of the UAE’s most respected and successful businesses and lading fashion retailers, Majid Al Futtaim, known for contributing to the wealth and creative success of the country, makes it even more poignant partnership, committed to supporting local and developing talent.
“Majid Al Futtaim has long supported rising local and regional talents, from a plethora of different creative industries and been a pioneer of CSR in the UAE. Today, THAT Concept Store continues to reinforce the legacy of Majid Al Futtaim by creating a platform of talent that provides equal opportunities for all artists and designers to express their work. We are very proud to host SAWA’s second edition over four consecutive days, in what can be seen as the first step towards our much bigger community activations in 2022,” says THAT Concept Store Managing Director Thierry Pichon.
The first edition of SAWA, which translates to ‘together’, saw its founders carefully curate local designers who had been negatively impacted by the pandemic, to showcase their collections under one unique platform, without the rents or overheads that they otherwise would never have been able to afford as fledgling businesses.
For the exciting second edition, presented by THAT Concept Store, SAWA will continue their mission of giving back to the creative community, and their overarching support umbrella for entrepreneurs from the region, building on the legacy of the late Majid Al Futtaim who was tirelessly dedicated to growing brands over 30 years of exceptional retail know-how, to offer prime retail space at no cost at all to the SAWA SMEs and small businesses. Prime retail space in not just one of the leading Malls of the region, but the entire world. Taking this edition’s SAWA to the next level of retail and distribution for the participating brands, THAT Concept Store will commit to buying the collections of the best 5 fashion or lifestyle brands exhibiting during the fair and keep retailing them for the rest of 2022. A testament to THAT Concept Store’s commitment to nurturing talent from the region and embracing young entrepreneurs with great potential.
“SAWA is really a group effort. It’s a collection of very passionate people who lead small to medium businesses in the fashion or creative enterprises landscape. SAWA exists as a platform to enable not disable these small businesses and individuals, from being able to commercialize their collections and present them to the public. As two entrepreneurs and women in business, who have witnessed friends and creatives around us who have gone through the pandemic and had the most difficult time from a business perspective, our goal was to come together and find a way to support each other,” says SAWA Co-Founder Salama Khalfan.
“We are very excited to continue the journey of SAWA and especially thrilled to be collaborating with THAT Concept Store and Majid Al Futtaim. Our alignment of values including supporting our ecosystem and recognizing young talent and nurturing it, makes working together very fulfilling and we can’t wait to show our visitors over the few days of the event what we have in store for them,” continues SAWA Co-Founder Ghizlan Guenez.
With the space of THAT Concept Store as their platform, the possibilities for SAWA brands are limitless.
SAWA will launch at THAT Concept Store from the 17 to the 20 March 2022
Timings are 10am to 12am daily