Noon By Noor to unveil new collection at London Fashion Week

The brand combines masculine tailoring with subtle feminine details. (Supplied)
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Updated 09 September 2025
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Noon By Noor to unveil new collection at London Fashion Week

DUBAI: Designers Shaikha Noor Al-Khalifa and Shaikha Haya Al-Khalifa of Bahraini label Noon By Noor are set to present their Spring/Summer 2026 collection during London Fashion Week.

The event runs from Sept. 18-22, with the duo unveiling their new pieces on Sept. 19.

Founded in 2008, the brand is known for its blend of relaxed tailoring and refined detailing. The designers, who are cousins, both studied fashion in the US and returned to Bahrain to launch their label, which combines masculine tailoring with subtle feminine details.

Their collections often feature oversized shirts, tailored blazers, wide-leg trousers and fine knits, with the pair drawing inspiration from art, architecture and nature to produce pieces designed to be wearable, versatile and subtly expressive.

Production remains largely based in Bahrain, with the brand committed to preserving craftsmanship and creative control locally. In 2024, Noon By Noor opened a boutique at The Ritz-Carlton in Manama, further cementing its presence in the region.

The brand has also shown collections at both New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week. In February, the Fall Winter 2025 collection was presented in London with a salon-style display at Somerset House.

The designs were inspired by Bahrain’s architectural landscape, specifically the work of Swiss architect Christian Kerez, whose multi-story car parks in Muharraq have become a cultural hub.

The four car parks were commissioned by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities as part of a wider preservation and development project in the city, which served as the Bahraini capital until 1932.

“We are fortunate to have been nurtured in art and architecture, both in our home and in our surroundings in Bahrain — a place rich in both, from which we can draw constant inspiration,” Shaikha Noor Al-Khalifa said at the time.

The line featured sculptured jackets, draped bodices and sliced silhouettes. As per the brand’s design ethos, embellishments were minimal, and textures and fabrics played a key role.

The designers employed a technique of stripping and fraying wool tweeds and reapplying them onto tulle to create their own lightweight fabric.


Art Basel Qatar will pay tribute to region’s ‘culture of gathering’

Updated 08 November 2025
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Art Basel Qatar will pay tribute to region’s ‘culture of gathering’

  • Focus on community, director Vincenzo De Bellis tells Arab News
  • 84 artists, 87 galleries from Mideast, Asia, Americas and Europe

DOHA: Art Basel, the international contemporary art fair, will make its Gulf debut in Doha from Feb. 5 to 7 next year featuring 84 artist presentations by 87 galleries. 

Art Basel Qatar is a partnership between Art Basel, its parent company MCH Group, Qatar Sports Investments, and QC+, a strategic and creative collective specializing in cultural commerce.

Vincenzo De Bellis, chief artistic officer and global director of Art Basel Fairs, told Arab News at a recent press briefing in Doha that the event will reflect the location’s culture.

“The first thing we started thinking was how we can do this differently from the other fairs.

Attendees at the Art Basel Qatar media briefing. (Supplied)

“Because the region, in our opinion, asks for a different format to begin with, a format where the culture of gathering together, being together, is really part of the concept.

“So, I wouldn’t call it a challenge in that case. It was different from what we do, but it was an opportunity.”

Egyptian artist Wael Shawky has been appointed as the artistic director of Art Basel Qatar.

Shawky and a committee will eschew the traditional booth model in favor of an open-format exhibition in which artist presentations respond to a central curatorial theme of “Becoming.”

De Bellis said: “We’ve appointed a selection committee, composed of both international and regional experts, and experts both in contemporary and more modern art.

“By doing this, we cover a lot of both the artistic intentions, conceptual, and also the cultural specificity of the region.”

The fair will unfold across two key venues, M7 and the Doha Design District, as well as selected public sites in Msheireb Downtown Doha, the city’s creative and cultural hub.

Both the format and curatorial direction will bring the concepts of storytelling and dialogue to the fore, offering new ways for galleries, artists, and collectors to engage while maintaining market relevance.

More than half of the artists presented in this first edition hail from the region, including Etel Adnan, Ali Banisadr, Simone Fattal, Ali Cherri, Meriem Bennani and Iman Issa.

Galleries from across the region will participate, including those with outposts in Gulf states including Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

The wider Middle East and Asia will also be represented, including galleries from Lebanon, Turkiye, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and India.

Saudi Arabia-based galleries participating include Hafez Gallery based in Jeddah and Riyadh, Cairo’s Gallery Misr, Tunis’ Le Violon Bleu, Beirut’s Saleh Barakat Gallery, and Dubai’s Tabari Artspace.

International galleries from across Europe, the Americas and Asia will also participate, including Acquavella Galleries, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner and White Cube.

Noah Horowitz, CEO Art Basel. (Supplied)

Art Basel’s CEO Noah Harrowitz said: “​​Growing the market for galleries, artists, collectors, and patrons around the world is core to Art Basel’s mission.

“So at its heart, Art Basel Qatar is about expanding the conversation and catalyzing the opportunity so present here on the ground in Doha.

“By bringing artists, galleries, and collectors from across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, together with Art Basel’s global community and expertise, will create new possibilities for how art is seen, shared, and ultimately collected.”