Doha, Qatar: Doha Festival City and Harper’s Bazaar on Sunday unveiled Emerging Voices, a fashion and creativity exhibition celebrating exciting new talents in collaboration with VCUarts Qatar. It also unveiled a series of events to mark Doha Festival City’s bold new era as the destination of coveted trends and expressive fashion.

Emerging Voices has been curated to support and promote talented VCUarts Qatar students and the evolving fashion scene in Qatar. In addition to VCUarts Qatar, the event program will welcome talented creatives from Scale7 next month.

In her opening speech, Noreen Nasralla, Executive Director, Marketing, Al-Futtaim Real Estate, said: “With Emerging Voices, we reaffirm Doha Festival City’s role as a key player in Qatar’s fashion landscape, supporting the next generation of designers and setting the stage for Qatar’s creative future. Doha Festival City encourages engagement and self-expression, and we look forward to renewing our live event line-up to inspire a legion of bright fashion instigators to come.”

Speaking with The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, Noreen affirmed that several market trends led to DFC’s strategic redirection such as Qatar’s economic growth, consumer demographic shifts and behaviour as well as robust interest in fashion from younger generation.

“There were also more signs from the developments taking place in Qatar in terms of their government investment in infrastructure development and world-class services around us which encouraged us to embark on this opportunity,” she added.

She further stated: “We saw an opportunity in the market and we wanted to embark on it and leverage on that opportunity. And this is always in line of with the growth of the economy and our support to Qatar Vision 2030.”

Doha Festival City’s brand repositioning also aims to send a message to consumers on the retail giant’s unrelenting commitment to cater to various shoppers’ needs and preferences.

“It means that we care. We listen. We watch. And we respond back and we provide the consumers with what their needs are,” Noreen told The Peninsula.

Featured VCUart students—Haya Al Thani, Halah Mahmoud, Samah Sulyman, Fay Alsharif, Jory Al-Buainain, and Maya Yatim—unveiled their work in fashion and editorial photography, demonstrating the creative potential that is shaping the future of Qatar’s fashion scene.

On the reveal, Bianca Brigitte Bonomi, Director of Harper’s Bazaar Qatar, said: “Today marks the start of an exciting collaboration between Harper’s Bazaar and Doha Festival City, celebrating the next generation of fashion talent emerging from Qatar. We’re eager to continue building this community and supporting talented voices in Doha.”

Adding a comment on the impact and importance of the event, Christopher Fink, Chair of Fashion Design & Merchandising at VCUArts Qatar, said: “The launch of Emerging Voices in partnership with Doha Festival City and Harper’s Bazaar Qatar has been hugely successful. It is very meaningful for our students to showcase their designs to the community and connect with leaders in the field of fashion. We look forward to future collaborations.”

Another highlight of the evening, Harper’s Bazaar’s Leading Voices segment, presented an in-conversation session with 14-time cover girl and influential women empowerment figure, Nour Arida, who shared highlights on the journey of her career and her work in supporting and nurturing female empowerment.

Commenting on the Emerging Voices pop-up collaboration, Nour Arida said, “I am so impressed by the Qatari talent I have seen today at Emerging Voices. These young designers have produced incredible pieces of international level design and quality and fit for international markets. My advice to emerging talent is to dream big and keep going. Never give up. There is a real fashion moment happening with Arab designers internationally and it’s great to see the designers of tomorrow here today.”

Doha Festival City will be hosting another exciting pop-up on October 22 at Harvey Nichols which will spotlight three talents from Scale7.

Since its inception, Doha Festival has long supported the local and regional fashion and beauty scene by hosting international brands and designers that capture the essence of the local culture.

In the future it enlists its vision and mission to continue to cater to the variety of local and international shoppers with variety fashion, luxury brands and exciting activities and events for diverse audiences.