Fashion Trust Arabia Announce 2023 Winners

Although Fashion Trust Arabia had to cancel its Fifth Annual Awards Ceremony - scheduled to take place in Qatar this year - the FTA 2023 finalists, announced today, received their awards in a two-day online deliberation session in the presence of co-chairs HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani and Tania Fares. The online event also welcomed the esteemed panel of judges, which included SHOWstudio contributors like creative director Ruba Abu-Nimah and Central Saint Martins' very own Fabio Piras, as well as top designers, counting Samuel Ross of A-COLD-WALL*, Giambattista Valli, Olivier Rousteing and Erdem Moralıoğlu among them.

The winners include eveningwear designer Amir Al Kasm, Cynthia Merhej of the Lebanon-based brand Renaissance Renaissance, jewellery designer Katarina Tarazi, Omar Taha and Lily Max - who won the Accessories award with their brand A Better Feeling.

Over in ready-to-wear, the winners include Ahmed Amer and Adam Elyasse - the latter whom was presented with the Franca Sozzani Debut Talent Award. Last but not least, the winner of this year's Guest Country Award - which was in partnership with Nigeria - was Adeju Thompson of the sky-rocketing brand Lagos Space Programme.

Despite being lucky enough to achieve such prestigious accolades, you may be wondering what's next for these emerging designers? Well, six winners will receive a financial grant of $100,000 to $200,000 cash prize, depending on the size of their business, and the seventh, Adam Elyasse (Franca Sozzani Debut Talent Award), will be granted $25,000 to grow his Morocco-based brand ADAM.É.

Ready-to-wear, accessories and jewellery category winners will also receive a one-year mentorship program by luxury retailer MatchesFashion, who will carry their collections for one season. In addition to this, the iconic department store Harrods will carry the eveningwear category winner’s collection. Other benefits include showroom representation, PR consultancy and internships.