DUBAI:\u00a0Last month, Saudi fashion designer Yousef Akbar was all over the news as US actress Sharon Stone wore one of his creations to the 2023 Women\u2019s Cancer Research Fund gala in Beverly Hills.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stone isn\u2019t the first celebrity that Akbar has dressed, either. Since the launch of his brand in 2016, Akbar\u2019s avant-garde creations have been championed by other A-listers, including American supermodel Chrissy Teigen and former Destiny\u2019s Child star and Beyonc\u00e9 bandmate Kelly Rowland.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a fashion designer was never a childhood dream for Akbar, he tells Arab News. He studied supply-chain management at university and \u2014 outside of academia \u2014 was a keen, and talented, ten-pin bowler.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akbar says that during his childhood in Jeddah he used to love sketching and drawing, but a career in the arts was not something he ever considered.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing an artist or a designer was so unthinkable that it wasn\u2019t even worth dreaming about \u2014 it was completely out of the question,\u201d he says.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akbar\u2019s parents were fairly traditional and wanted him to focus on a steady career for his future, so he spent most of his adolescence studying. In his spare time, he went bowling. He was good enough to earn a spot on the national team, competing at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha where Saudi Arabia won a bronze medal in the team of five event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were very successful, and King Abdullah invited us to the palace to reward us,\u201d Akbar says. \u201cWe were asked to write a letter with our request (for the reward), and I asked for a scholarship for higher education, which was granted.\u201d Soon after, he headed to Australia to study logistics and supply-chain management at the University of Sydney.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a student, he loved going on shopping trips with friends. Although he couldn\u2019t splurge as much as he would have liked to. \u201cComing from a regular middle-class family and being on a student allowance, I didn\u2019t have thousands of dollars to shop. Also, I couldn\u2019t find the type of clothes I wanted to wear in regular menswear stores,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo, towards the end of my Master\u2019s degree, I started looking for fashion courses where I could learn to make my own clothes.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He signed up for a fashion design degree at Ultimo, a technical and further education college in Sydney. Initially, he was disappointed in the course.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce I got in, I thought I would be able to pick tailoring as a subject \u2014 you know, learn how to make a jacket for myself and get out of there. But tailoring was a second-year subject, so I had to complete the first year to get there. Additionally, womenswear was compulsory in the first year, which really annoyed me \u2014 I was barely interested in menswear, let alone womenswear,\u201d he says.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as he got into the swing of things and started learning about design, something clicked, and Akbar discovered this was something he wanted to take seriously. \u201cOnce I had that realization, I worked hard and was fortunate enough to graduate top of my class in 2016,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his collection being well received and Teigen wearing one of his dresses to the 2016 American Music Awards, the sales weren\u2019t coming through. He contacted countless buyers and stores without getting a response. It got to the point where if someone wrote back with a \u201cNo,\u201d he would take solace in the fact that they had at least looked at his collection. Then, in 2017, a disagreement with a PR agency in 2017 meant that his brand had to hit pause temporarily. \u201cThey scammed me out of my money, putting me out of business,\u201d he says. \u201cSo even if I had an order, I had no resources to make it. But it was a life lesson, and now I\u2019m wiser.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akbar now works out of a design studio in Sydney with a small team on a freelance basis and often commissions artisans in India to produce his embroidery.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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