Emirati designer Maitha Alansaari wins the ADMAF x Dolce&Gabbana award
Her cape, a new take on the abaya mixing Emirati patchwork with Italian design, earns her a six-month internship in Milan from January 2027.
Emirati fashion designer Maitha Alansaari has won the ADMAF x Dolce&Gabbana Design Award, run by the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation with the Italian fashion house, Gulf News reported on 15 October.
This edition asked designers to reinterpret the Emirati abaya. Alansaari's winning piece is a cape called "A Journey Woven in Fragments", which joins patchwork motifs from Emirati heritage with Italian design traditions. It was digitally printed and finished with embroidery applied by hand. ADMAF lists her among the first graduates of the UAE's Bachelor's degree in Fashion and Textile Design at the University of Sharjah.
Her prize is a six-month internship at Dolce&Gabbana in Milan, starting in January 2027.
You can see the work in Abu Dhabi: the three winning designs, including the runners-up, will be shown for six months at the Dolce&Gabbana boutique at The Galleria on Al Maryah Island. The start date of the display has not been announced.