Shahd AlShehail on Abadia, Saudi Fashion, and Going Global

I still remember one of the first times I saw an Abadia design up close. It was at that inaugural 100 Saudi Brands exhibition in Riyadh. It stopped me in my tracks. That's the effect designer Shahd AlShehail's work tends to have on people. Shahd is the founder, CEO, and creative director of Abadia, the Saudi label she started back in 2019. And if you've spent any time around the Gulf's fashion scene lately, you already know the name — Abadia has quietly become one of the most compelling luxury stories to come out of the region in recent memory. Here's what makes Shahd's story so interesting to me: she didn't come up through a fashion school, dreaming of runways. She came to the industry by way of her studies in sustainable development, of all things — and that background shows in everything Abadia does. The brand works with dozens of female artisans across Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, keeping crafts like Sadu weaving alive, and making sure the women behind those heritage techniques are paid and credited for it. For Shahd, that's not a marketing angle; it's a fundamental pillar of her brand. Which by extension not only creates a sense of pride in the creative past of her culture, but also hopefully will help it to become woven into the fabric of the fashion world more globally in the future. What I love is how she translates all of that heritage into something that feels utterly modern — structured tailoring meeting soft, fluid draping, pieces like the farwa,