Features Lifestyle

12 Established 1961 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, January 27, 2021 onning chic neck-to-toe abayas, for foreigners, Saudi women are still gance”, said Beaufays, who is based in models saunter in high heels required to wear the garment in public. In the kingdom and works for Jeddah- Daround a swimming pool in a glit- a brewing cultural rebellion, however, the based Lomar which designs traditional ter-filled fashion show staged in the once all-black garment is now repur- “thobes” for men. unlikeliest of places: Saudi Arabia. posed in bright colors and many women Haute couture displays are rare in the leave their cloaks open at the front. Liberalization drive deeply conservative Muslim kingdom Despite the risk of riling arch-conser- The fashion show, unthinkable in the and have usually been restricted to vatives, a handful of bold Saudi women kingdom barely four years ago, was women or avoided female models alto- have taken the rebellion a step further- organized at the residence of the Belgian gether-one even displayed dresses dan- they have stopped wearing the abaya. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. It comes gling from drones. But a private event in But Princess Safia, 50, said she hoped amid Prince Mohammed’s contentious Riyadh last weekend-which showcased a to make the garment “fashionable”, a drive to shake off his country’s ultra-con- new collection of abayas, a billowy, fig- crossover between tradition and moder- servative image by allowing cinemas, ure-concealing robe-opened up to a nity that blends Arab motifs and pat- mixed-gender concerts and sporting small but mixed-gender audience at a terns with contemporary fabrics. The extravaganzas. But despite the liberaliza- time when social restrictions are slowly designs would appeal to women from tion drive, organizing the event appeared being eased in the country. different cultures and religions who to be mired in government red tape. Draped in shimmering embellish- share views on “modesty and ele- Two sources close to the organizers ments, half a dozen models, most of told AFP that Saudi authorities initially them Saudi or of Saudi origin, displayed refused to grant the Belgian embassy the collection that sought to redefine the permission to host the show. There was abaya as a stylish overcoat suitable not no public comment from authorities or just for Muslims but for women every- the Belgian embassy. After heated diplo- where. “The stigma around the abaya matic wrangling, the show was eventual- and the hijab around the world-I wanted ly allowed to proceed, the sources said. to change that,” said Saudi Princess The event toasted the stylish abayas, Safia Hussein Guerras, a former model which Princess Safia says will go on sale who designed the collection in collabora- in the kingdom. tion with Belgian designer Christophe There was however hardly an abaya Beaufays. “If I bring it to a level of chic- in sight in the audience, which was ness and acceptance... maybe our gen- restricted to roughly three dozen people eration will (fully) embrace the abaya.” amid the coronavirus pandemic, includ- While many see the abaya, which has ing Saudi royal family members, diplo- been obligatory public wear for Saudi mats and social media influencers. women for decades, as a symbol of Despite the small crowd, the show chastity and piety, feminists generally marked progress compared to previous view it as a symbol of oppression. The fashion events. In April 2018, Jean Paul dress code was once fanatically Gaultier and Roberto Cavalli headlined enforced in the kingdom by the now- the kingdom’s first ever Arab Fashion defanged religious police. Week-a women-only event that barred not only men but also cameras. And in ‘Fashionable’ June 2018, a video of dresses floating in In 2018, de facto ruler Crown Prince the air, suspended from drones, at a Mohammed bin Salman-who has spear- fashion show in the Red Sea city of headed a sweeping modernization drive- Jeddah went viral on social media. It was said during an interview with broadcaster ridiculed widely as a “ghost show”, with CBS that the robe was not mandatory in comments online peppered with ghost Islam, hinting the dress code may be emojis. — AFP relaxed. But while it was announced the following year that it was not obligatory big company, more like a neighborhood Marembert hailed Monday’s decision, workshop, a little creative place,” he says. saying it “has just confirmed once again “I don’t think we can plan on a genera- that the accusations against Luc Besson tional change as people expect.” While are baseless”. computer graphics offer “a new possibility Van Roy is one of nine women who for the future”, traditionalists can rest have said they were assaulted or assured that “drawing on paper, the tradi- harassed by Besson. Like Hollywood, tional animation like my father’s, will con- French cinema has grappled over the tinue at the studio,” says the creator of past few years with “Me Too” allegations “Tales from Earthsea” (2006) and “From of sexual assault by powerful men in the up on Poppy Hill” (2011). film establishment. France’s equivalent of tudio Ghibli, home of the masters of “He stopped by regularly to check on it The question of succeeding the master Japanese animated film, has decid- (but) given the technological differences who founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 and Sed to take the plunge into 3D under with traditional animation, he had no frame won the 2003 Oscar for best animated film the direction of founder Hayao Miyazaki’s of reference. It’s not his medium.” with “Spirited Away” has not been settled. son Goro-though he is far from ready to Some talented creators have died, while rench film director Luc Besson is to put away his coloured pencils. With the ‘Neighborhood workshop’ others have founded their own studios. be treated as an assisted witness in same smiling round face and the same The move into 3D is by no means Goro marvels at his father’s “still intact Fthe court case over allegations that taste for the fantastical as his father, the “entering into some kind of competition” capacity for imagination” and predicts he he raped an actress, a judge ruled 54-year-old is coming out of the shadows with the American animated film giants could still be at work for another decade. Monday. The case is the second brought with “Earwig and the Witch”, due to go with their vast technical and financial Eight years after his last work “The Wind against the “Fifth Element” director by online as part of the Gerardmer Fantasy resources, Goro says. “You could liken big Rises”, the older Miyazaki is still working the Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Film Festival kicking off on Wednesday. American productions to Tesla electric on “pretty touching project”, Goro says, Roy, who has accused Besson, 60, of The film, originally scheduled to premiere cars, while what we are trying to do is cre- without elaborating. Hayao Miyazaki “has repeatedly raping her over a two-year In this ﬁle photo French director Luc Besson at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and ate an electrically assisted bike for getting got into the habit of retiring only to change period. In France, assisted witness sta- poses as he arrives for the screening of the launched instead at the Lumiere event in around town,” he says, noting: “There are his mind a fair number of times in the tus indicates that a judge considers ﬁlm “The Last Face” at the 69th Cannes Film Lyon, is the story of an impish orphan girl landscapes that you can see only thanks past,” Goro says. “I may retire before there is some evidence to suggest cul- Festival in Cannes, southern France. — AFP adopted by a witch and befriended by a to this slower pace of a bicycle.” him!”— AFP pability, but not enough to charge the black cat. Despite Studio Ghibli’s international suspect. The person can be charged at the Oscars, the Cesar awards, were hit It has the unmistakable Miyazaki fame, “we are neither a big studio nor a a later date if further evidence emerges by controversy last year after Roman imprint, but fans of Hayao Miyazaki stand- against them. Polanski-wanted in the US for the statuto- outs like “My Neighbor Totoro” and Van Roy initially filed a rape claim ry rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 — “Howl’s Moving Castle” may be thrown off against Besson in May 2018, a day after won best director and best adapted balance by the colder effect of 3D. For a meeting him at the Bristol luxury hotel in screenplay. French actress Adele studio acclaimed for the visual harmony of Paris. Two months later the actress, who Haenel, who has said she was sexually its creations, the leap is a gamble, Goro had minor roles in Besson’s “Taxi 5” and harassed by the director of her first film admits, aware of the risk of disappointing “Valerian and the City of a Thousand when she was 12, walked out of the cer- a fan base going back more than 30 Planets”, accused him of raping and sex- emony, shouting “Shame”. — AFP years. Even so, he says his perfectionist ually assaulting her on other occasions. 80-year-old father, sometimes called the Prosecutors dropped the case in Japanese Walt Disney for the power of his February 2019 citing lack of evidence, imagination, has given him a “free rein”. but a new investigation was opened the “He hardly commented at all during the In this picture Japanese director Goro Miyazaki poses at the Studio Ghibli headquarters in following October after Van Roy brought production,” Goro told AFP in an interview.

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