As the world’s style elite flocked to Paris and all eyes turned to the French capital for the start of fashion week, Ameni Esseibi was busy breaking barriers.
Not only did the Tunisian-French model make her Paris Fashion Week debut, she did so as the only Arab woman to walk for Weinsanto — the event’s opening show — but also as one of only two plus-size models to feature.
With her brown hair styled in a pixie crop, Esseibi wore a long satin gown in ombre neutral shades, paired with cream elbow-length satin gloves.
“It was like a dream come true, because I was the only Arab on the runway so I was really representing all the Arabs, it was a really exciting moment — it felt amazing,” she tells The National.
“I was also one of the only plus-size models; there were only two-plus size girls on the runway, so I was not only representing Arabs but also diversity, so it was a two birds with one stone situation, which felt great. I love being on the runway — that walk, the lights, the cameras.”
Esseibi, who lives in Dubai, first walked for Weinsanto on her home turf at Arab Fashion Week earlier this year, and with the help of the Arab Fashion Council, for which she is an ambassador, was able to repeat the experience on fashion’s biggest stage last week.
Weinsanto is the eponymous label founded by designer Victor Weinsanto, who is Jean Paul Gaultier’s protege and student. The theatrical and daring collection, which he described as a “manifesto celebrating love, friendship, and creativity”, opened Paris Fashion Week on September 26.
“Fashion week is honestly crazy and super intense, but the feeling, the adrenalin, the running everywhere, I love it, I love that feeling,” the model says. “When fashion week is over, I feel empty, I’m like ‘what now?’.”
After Monday’s show, Esseibi shared her excitement with her 185,000 Instagram followers, thanking Weinsanto and the Arab Fashion Council for the experience. “Mama I made it Paris Fashion week!” she wrote. “Thank you so much @arabfashioncouncil for helping make my dream come true and @weinsanto for believing in me. This is just the beginning.”
For Esseibi, it was a pivotal moment in her modelling career, which started back in 2017 when she emerged as one of the first body-positive models from the Mena region.
In a previous interview with The National, Esseibi spoke of the power of embracing her body.
“It changed my life,” she said. “As a person who got bullied in high school, my weight affected me a lot. Body positivity taught me self-confidence, self-love, how to overcome my insecurities and to know my worth. It made me who I am today.
“I’m not modelling for the sake of modelling. I feel that, as an Arab who is bigger in size, I’m representing all the women living in the shadows, who are told they can’t celebrate their bodies and their beauty because they are not a certain size. They aren’t comfortable in their skin and I want to change that. I want to be their voice.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan
Rating: 3.5/5
Our family matters legal consultant
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Mr Al Qassimi is 37 and lives in Dubai
He is a keen drummer and loves gardening
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
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Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
