Paul Smith, the British fashion brand, organized an artistic evening that attracted many art and fashion lovers at The Archive Café in Dubai.
Reem Moussa, marketing executive at Chalhoub Group, put the evening together. “Paul Smith always looks for things that are linked to art as we are not very keen on typical sponsorship or advertising. We used up the whole space at the café to showcase various live art stations,” said Moussa.
At the first station, a young artist named Maryam sketches live sceneries and people, and places the sketches on a clothesline. Yasmine Richie is at the second station. Her unique and colorful artwork shows a scene from a movie, enriched with the very stripes that made Paul Smith famous.
The next station is a styling corner where different pieces of Paul Smith’s designs are styled in different ways and shapes to show how creative, varied and accessible they can be.
At the last station, an artist is working on a big canvas for the duration of the evening. He places his inspiration of Paul Smith’s latest spring/summer collection. “You can see the flowers blooming on his canvas in an amazing reflection of colors which is very much related to Paul Smith’s brand identity and narrative,” said Moussa.
In the café visitors admire a limited-edition scooter by Paul Smith. “There are only 600 Paul Smith scooters worldwide. This is the only one in the Middle East and the lucky raffle winner will be able to take it home.”
Sir Paul Smith, the creator and designer behind the brand is a very reputable name in the fashion industry. As opposed to many success stories of fashion designers, which usually refer to childhood enthusiasm for fashion and clothes, Smith’s story is quite different. The designer left school when he was 14 to become a racing cyclist. However, those dreams crumbled after he had an accident that kept him in hospital for a few months. As life has taught many of us in various ways, sometimes bad incidents do lead to extraordinary roads that may not have been discovered without taking a wrong turn. Smith made some friends in hospital who introduced him to the colorful world of art. From there he began designing clothes after taking classes in cutting and tailoring. In 1970, the designer opened his first shop in Nottingham and a few years after that he showed his first menswear collection in Paris.
From strength to strength, Paul Smith brand grew to be one of the most distinctive brands in fashion, with successful line extensions such as women’s wear, accessories, shoes, leather goods as well as fragrances. Now, the brand’s boutiques are distributed around the world in cities like Paris, London, New York, Japan, Dubai, Riyadh, Los Angeles, Milan, Las Vegas and many more. The designer is globally recognized for his vivid sense of art. Over decade ago, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his great contribution to the British fashion industry. Finally, one of the most important stations in Paul Smith’s history is designing Isle of Man stamps for the London Olympics in 2012.
The Paul Smith art evening will have another stop at Dubai Mall this week to spread awareness about the young artists the brand embraces and supports.
Paul Smith supports Dubai art scene
Paul Smith supports Dubai art scene
‘The Wild Within’ sees artists breathe new life into Mideast buildings
DUBAI: Lens-based artist Ryan Koopmans and digital artist Alice Wexell are staging a showcase at Dubai’s Leila Heller Gallery that breathes new life into regional buildings.
The series of digital artworks is part of the exhibition “The Wild Within,” featuring images of old structures in Beirut, Istanbul, and Abu Dhabi filled with wild flowers.
Two of the largest works, “Heartbeats” and “The Wish,” are displayed using Ventana, a microLED architectural display surface created by visual technology company Megapixel.
The former artwork depicts the entrance hall of Qasr Al-Watan, the UAE’s presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, while the latter reimagines the upper floors of the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental in Abu Dhabi.
“Each building we work with comes to us through a combination of research, travel, and intuition,” the artists told Arab News in a joint statement.
“We are drawn to structures that carry both emotional and historical resonance, often buildings that once embodied human ambition and now exist in a state of quiet transformation.”
Koopans and Wexell made sure to research the context of each building they choose to recreate, saying “an old villa in Jeddah or a former school in Sharjah each hold their own cultural memory, influencing everything from the lighting and atmosphere to the plants and flowers that we digitally sculpt and implement into the photographs.”
The hypnotic works depict the interior of buildings in the region, with digitally rendered flowers carpeting the floor in a bid to “(reimage) these spaces (and) explore the relationship between nature, place, and time, while celebrating each site as a unique work of architecture with its own spirit and story,” the artists said.
Koopmans is of dual Canadian and Dutch heritage, while Wexell is Swedish and based in Stockholm, so it is noteworthy that both artists chose to explore the Middle East for their latest project.
“In the Middle East especially, the architecture reflects a layered past that merges different styles and eras, while also expressing a sense of renewal and forward-looking energy, particularly in the region’s fantastic contemporary buildings. We are drawn to the symmetry, geometry and patterns that are found not only in nature itself, but in the architectural language of the region both past and present,” they said.
The series — featuring works such as “Adore You,” “Between Worlds,” and “Blossom of the Ancestors” — explores contrasts between the natural world and human-made forms, as well as the traditional and contemporary worlds.
“We are interested in how these elements coexist and merge into one another, creating a sense of hyperrealism that feels both familiar and imaginary. By merging photography with digital sculpture, the artworks question where the boundary lies between documentation and invention, and how technology can extend rather than replace our sense of the natural world.”
Although the scale of the artworks ensures they leave the viewer entranced, it did pose challenges, according to the artists.
“Presented at a large scale, every texture in these artworks becomes visible, which can be demanding but is also incredibly rewarding. The magnified detail allows the visceral and atmospheric layers of the pieces to come through with greater impact,” they said, adding that each piece took “many months” to create.
“Ultimately, we want our collectors to experience a sense of wonder and contemplation, as if they are standing inside a dream that feels both entirely real yet unreal.”
The exhibition runs until Jan. 15, 2026.
