Wafaa Abbar: The queen of luxury retail therapy

    After the success of the annual Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience in the fashion capital of the Middle East — Dubai — the unique and exciting event has traveled all the way to Jeddah, the fashion capital of Saudi Arabia. 
     Rubaiyat, Saudi Arabia’s go-to luxury destination, and Vogue Italia, the most influential Italian fashion magazine, have come together to provide an international platform for Saudi female fashion designers.
      Saudi designers were required to submit their portfolios on Vogue Italia’s website, after which it was reviewed and selected by a team of Vogue Italia, who chose the works of ten designers. The winner will get full sponsorship to present her collection in Milan.
     All the finalists will exhibit their work at the Rubaiyat department store in Jeddah and will have the opportunity to showcase and sell their collections at the Stars Avenue Mall.
     “It is tremendously rewarding to see Saudi women being given such an opportunity on the world stage. We, together with Vogue Italia, are delighted to help highlight some of the Arab world’s most talented and emerging designers,” said Wafaa Abbar, president of the Rubaiyat Group.
Franca Sozzani, Editor in Chief of Vogue Italia, commented: “This initiative builds on Vogue Italia’s deep commitment to promote new fashion talents, knowing how important it is to offer them relevant and concrete international platforms to present and advance their creativity.”
     In partnership with the National Home Health Care Foundation, the event will feature a unique opportunity to scout the best female talents, embracing their ambitions and promoting their work on an international platform whilst adding to this initiative a humanitarian dimension by supporting the National Home Health Care — an opportunity that combines efforts and talents for a good cause. 
     The funds raised, thanks to the organization of a women’s charity gala dinner, will be donated to the World Food Programme, which will encourage and support the empowerment of women living in underdeveloped areas of the world.
     Arab News met with Wafaa Abbar, president of the Rubaiyat Group, one of the first Saudi women to start a retail business in the Kingdom, to talk about her career, achievements and the collaboration with Vogue Italia.


1. For those who don’t know you, who is Wafaa Abbar? 

I am President of Rubaiyat Company and a main shareholder in the company, which I helped to co-found in Jeddah in 1980. 

2. Tell us about yourself, what got you interested in the retail business and how did your career path lead you to be the president of a leading luxury retail fashion store? 

I started my career in retail as manager of client accounts at the Abbar Company where I was responsible for purchasing. My interest in fashion wear led me to start with Rubaiyat where I worked as children’s and ladies manager. My responsibilities increased as the company grew bigger and eventually I became President of Rubaiyat. 

3- Tell us about the journey behind establishing Rubaiyat. 

It has been a long and very fulfilling journey during which I and my colleagues have worked steadily to consolidate the acquisition of the exclusive distribution rights in Saudi Arabia for some of the most prestigious brands including Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Kenzo, Lanvin, Ermenegildo Zegna and many others. Over the years we have continuously reinvested in expanding with outlets in prominent locations and today Rubaiyat is a kingdom-wide chain with branches in Jeddah, Riyadh, Alkhobar and Dhahran. 

4. How is a day in the life of the president of a leading luxury retail company? 

Let us describe it as challenging but always bringing something new to the table. We are in constant movement, just like fashion and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. time speeds by, between meetings and strategic decisions, reports and mainly a continuous eye on fashion and brands, the day ends with the certitude that 24 hours are never enough in the day. 

5. In 2014, Rubaiyat opened the first luxury fashion department store in Jeddah. Tell us more about the concept.

With the Rubaiyat Department Store, we are redefining luxury shopping experience in Jeddah not only by offering the widest range of leading brands, but also by offering an exclusive service provided by fashion advisers that have been trained to cater to our clients’ needs and wishes. 

6. How has the 30-year journey with Rubaiyat been? 

For more than 30 years, Rubaiyat has been pioneering the fashion industry in Saudi Arabia. 

7. How did you manage to keep your standards high and keep up with the fast changing market, given that new competitors have entered the Saudi luxury market? 

We have attained our leading position by focusing on the highest levels of quality and customer service, while innovation keeps us apace with the fast changing market. 

8. What is your vision of what Rubaiyat should look like in the future and how do you plan to get there? Can you paint that big picture for us? 

Rubaiyat has always been a versatile entity that sets the trends in fashion, creating unique models and concepts to satisfy its clientele. Our evolution for the last 36 years has always been the wise consequence of calculated decisions and well placed investments to build on the heritage whilst looking at the future with sharp eyes. With the new retail panorama changes and fashion evolution, Rubaiyat is leading the way by introducing new brands and creating unique concepts whilst always having in mind, the end consumer and his needs from a luxury company. These are principles we have always believed in and worked toward. Going the extra mile when it comes to any service or product is key for us to cater to our clients’ expectations. We build the future with faith and determination, focusing on enriching our client’s experience and pursuing our fashion journey alongside him. 

9. What do you feel are some of the best aspects of the retail industry today, and what not-so-great features you would like to see changed? 

At the high-end of the retail industry, where Rubaiyat is positioned, the best aspect is the very high level creativity, which keeps on delivering fresh new ideas while maintaining classical traditions and quality. What I would like to see changed is greater prevention of counterfeiting of the top brand names. 

10. It was recently announced that Rubaiyat is teaming up with Vogue Talents to spot and promote the best women designers in Saudi Arabia. Tell us more about this collaboration.

In partnership with the National Home Health Care Foundation, Rubaiyat is hosting the Vogue Italia Experience, which will take place in Jeddah on April 20-21 and in Riyadh on April 22-23. The event is dedicated to a global celebration of Arab women, their heritage and culture. It will offer extraordinary experiences to entertain, involve, promote and engage local women. 

11. What inspired this collaboration? And what is Rubaiyat’s vision toward it? Will this be an annual collaboration? 

Rubaiyat represents many of the most famous Italian fashion brands so it is natural that we team up with Vogue Italia to bring this event to Saudi Arabia. Our vision is to identify young Saudi designers, nurture their talents, and give them an opportunity to appear on the international stage. We would like to see it become an annual event and will evaluate the results to see if this is feasible. 

12. Why has Rubaiyat partnered with the National Home Health Care Foundation and how will it benefit the foundation? 

The National Home Health Care Foundation (NHHCF) is one of the finest and most worthy charitable organizations in the Kingdom. As an NGO it cannot receive donations from entities outside Saudi Arabia and is dependent on funds raised within the Kingdom, accordingly, all revenues generated by Rubaiyat from the event will be donated to the NHHCF. 

13. At the end of the day, what image and thoughts would you wish to come to consumers’ minds at the mention of the name Rubaiyat? 

Rubaiyat always aims to be known as the leading retailer of high fashion and luxury goods in the kingdom, through its commitment to innovation and the highest levels of quality, world-class presentation, and thoughtful and attentive customer service. 

Originally published on Arab News

Shahd Alshehail is Saudi Entrepreneur Who Spreads the Word and Gives Back

Entrepreneur, Shahd Al Shehail, a Saudi national who gave up her comfortable job in 2008 to pursue her own path, a social enterprise, Just. Using real time data to help brands and consumers connect with the who, where, and how clothes are made. Victor Besa for The Nationa

When most employees in the finance sector were desperately trying to hang on to their jobs in 2009, Shahd AlShehail handed in her notice.

She knew she didn’t want to work in the industry any more – but needed time to figure out her next career move.

Leaving a secure position in commercial finance with a large corporate in the United States, she returned to Saudi Arabia, where she is from, to consider her options.

“Growing up, I’d heard stories from my grandfather who was an entrepreneur and a self-made man, who has not only made a good business out of what he did but also was so connected to the community in so many different ways,” she says. “That was always at the back of my mind.”

Luckily, her family were supportive and she went on to help launch a fashion label in Saudi Arabia that employs and supports underprivileged women becoming, not for the last time, a social entrepreneur.

“I didn’t know what the term meant at the time. But for the first time I was able to combine my business skills with something I felt strongly about – community development and policy mediation and doing good for the world,” she says.

Ms AlShehail later returned to the US, where she had already completed an accounting degree, to do an MBA in entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins, Maryland.

As part of her course she visited Rwanda, where she read a book called The Blue Sweater, a memoir written by Jacqueline Novogratz, the founder of Acumen, a non-profit organisation that raises funds to invest in ideas, companies and people who seek to end poverty.

“I got really excited about what she was doing. After graduation I joined Acumen. It’s an amazing experience but also very rigorous, very difficult to get into. They take 10 people annually from over 1,200,” she says. “I was the first female from the Arab world who made it.”

Ms AlShehail was sent to Bangalore, India, as part of her fellowship to work on one of the organisation’s projects, which provided affordable educational services to prepare children for further education or employment.

She made friends with another Acumen fellow, Natalie Grillon, who was based in northern Uganda working with a company helping cotton farmers rebuild their community and economy.

And it was when Ms AlShehail and Ms Grillon discussed their experiences that they developed the idea for Just, a social enterprise they set up together a little over a year ago.

“[Natalie] was talking to me about this beautiful story of impact that this company had made for these farmers. It is a story that gets lost in the supply chain. And I was sharing with her how I saw consumers getting really excited about knowing these stories and we were wondering why don’t we know these stories.”

Two months later there was an explosion at Rana Plaza, a clothes factory in Bangladesh which killed more than 1,100 people.

“These farmers’ beautiful cotton could have ended up in a place like Rana Plaza and we would have not known,” says Ms AlShehail. “So we set out on a path to go and research the industry and figure out what it is going to take for brands to use better suppliers, for suppliers to switch their practices or improve their practices and for consumers to demand more of this. And that’s how it came about.”

Just, as Ms AlShehail and Ms Grillon called their company, collects data to tell a brand what is happening in their supply chain – where materials come from and who makes them, for example – and the brand, can, in turn, share the information with its customers.

Suppliers upload information to an app and their employees fill out anonymous surveys reporting when they were paid, while community partners, either non-profits or workers’ unions, for example, provide on-the-ground reviews. Just then displays the data on a dashboard which lets brands track what is happening in their supply chains.

For now, the serial social entrepreneur is happy working on Just. But she has not ruled out returning to her roots mentoring upcoming entrepreneurs or possibly training young Saudi people.

“I really believe in the concept that real change happens in the accumulation of all the small choices we make every day and spreading that concept on through social enterprise,” says Ms AlShehail.

“So I will continue to be engaged in that.”

Originally published on The National 

Saudi healthcare Executive Goes Back to Her Roots

Ms. Summer Nasief is healthcare and life-sciences industry executive for IBM.

First working for IBM in 2001, she was performing in IBM America’s top 10 per cent two years ago when she surprised her colleagues by requesting a transfer to Saudi Arabia. After all, it’s not the country of choice for many businesswomen.

For Ms Nasief, working in Saudi meant a return to her roots; she’d grown up in Saudi Bedouin communities with her Saudi father, who built oil refineries, and her American mother. “All my education was in Arabic because my father insisted my upbringing be 100 per cent Saudi. So when at 15 my parents divorced and I moved to the US, I couldn’t read or write English.

“The healthcare industry that I now run for IBM is the biggest industry that money is being spent on today in Saudi Arabia, so IBM was taking a major risk by putting a female in. My selling point was ‘IBM believes in diversity, so why wouldn’t we send a woman to the most culturally complex place in the world?’”

IBM was ranked by the National Association for Female Executives in the US as one of the top 10 companies for females this year.

Ms Nasief persuaded the company she could create a Saudi healthcare industry for them, with an initial six-month budget and a headcount of three. She just had one prerequisite. As a single woman, Ms Nasief knew it would be difficult to live alone so she asked to have a base in Dubai, which she could return to at weekends.

“I cover the entire kingdom for IBM so during the week I’m constantly in and out of hotels,” she says “The swimming pools in the hotels are male-only. There are a small number of female gyms, but they’re very limited in terms of what they have. The advantage of Saudi hotels is it’s where people can sit and eat together, because that’s where most business people reside. So I stay at a hotel in Riyadh with massive grounds, and my friends come have dinner with me at the same hotel restaurant.”

A lack of mobility has hindered the progress of female businesswomen in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving. It means Ms Nasief has to rely on drivers to get around.

But she is not the only Saudi female in the healthcare industry, as it’s a more culturally acceptable field for women to work in.

“When I first started going to meetings, I wore the abaya and the sheila to fit in. As I started feeling more comfortable, I would put my sheila around my shoulders. As I got to know my clients better, I learnt how to broker meetings between the ladies and the men. I bring my Saudi side to the meetings, and as a female I sit with the other females, but at the same time I also guide the males to do what I need them to do.

“I can’t have one-on-one meetings with male clients. So I bring a male colleague to the table with me, and use that male as almost like a puppet.”

Ms Nasief says there are limitations to her role. For a start, she says, she has to work harder than the men – a challenge she thrives on.

But she acknowledges that Saudi women deserve better opportunities in the workplace.

“The government is building women-only work hubs to give these women employment, and part of my job involves working with people who are building these industries for women. But they’re currently talking about creating entrepreneurship cells in two specific fields – cosmetology and fashion,” she explains.

Ms Nasief isn’t the only female striving to break down the employment divide; this year Somayya Jabarti was appointed as the first female editor of a Saudi newspaper. In 2013 Saudi registered its first female trainee lawyer, Arwa Al Hujaili, and its first female police officer, Ayat Bakhreeba. Such pioneers are inspiring the next generation of Saudi females.

“Girls here have told me I inspire them to follow,” adds Ms Nasief. “When I did my first speaking engagement, I realised how impactful what I was doing was. I got questions like ‘I want to do my master’s degree, but I don’t want to leave my family’. I told them family is important, but just because you’re getting an education, it doesn’t mean you’re leaving your family cell.

“I took my journey to Saudi Arabia to fulfil my needs and reconnect with my roots. But now I realise that it’s about more than just me.”

Published on The National by Jessica Hill