Grab Your Seats for an Intense Fashion Star Premiere on 3 February, 2016!

Fashion Star, a first-of-its-kind reality show on Arab TV channels, is set to premiere on Dubai One and First Dubai starting Wednesday, February 3 at 10:00pm UAE/6:00pm GMT.

Produced by Dubai Channels Network, a division of Dubai Media Incorporated, Fashion Star is set to showcase the best of Arabic talent in fashion design before internationally acclaimed icons Reem Acra, Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, Ramzi Tabiat, and TV presenter Leila bin Khalifa.

The contestants, hailing from Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE, are divided into two teams of six across mentors Hanaa Ben Abdesslem and Ramzi Tabiat. Throughout the competition, the mentors will challenge and provide direction and advice to their respective teams to bring the best of their team’s talents, and drive them closer to their creative limit in all the assigned tasks.

In the premiere episode, contestants will be urged to channel their inner personality under the first theme ‘Who You Are’. With crippling time constraints and unpredictable sources of inspiration, the designers will battle it out and find their skills pushed to the boundary. The first episode will feature guest judge Sofia Guellaty, Senior Editor at Style.com Arabia, alongside mentors Reem, Hanaa and Ramzi on the judging panel.

Over the following 10 weeks, Fashion Star’s senior mentor Reem Acra will challenge the two teams with 10 stimulating tasks. Every episode will be a mesh of creative inspiration and hard work, and will witness designers showcasing three ingenious garments each, which they must create in only two days. At the end of every episode, three of the designers will be placed in the ‘Danger Zone’ and one eliminated from the show. Only three of the 12 contestants will make it to the grand finale where the winner will receive half a million dirhams and the opportunity to display and sell their designs on the website NAMSHI.COM

Sarah Jarman, Director of Dubai One channel, said, “This is a novel opportunity for established designers from various Arab countries to receive guidance from international designer Reem Acra, alongside an outstanding team of mentors including Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, an international model and Lancôme Ambassador, Ramzi Tabiat, Creative Director of Al Oustoura in Kuwait, and a wide spectrum of fashion experts appearing as guest judges on each episode.”

Ian Smith, Marketing Director of NAMSHI.COM, said: “As the Middle East’s number one fashion destination, we are proud to be collaborating with Fashion Star to offer the winning designer a unique platform to showcase their designs across all of our digital channels. We are a brand that was born out of the Middle East and we pride ourselves in championing local talent and regional designs, so the synergy between Fashion Star and NAMSHI felt only natural from the start.”

Spoiler Alert!

Following are the participants of the two teams:

Mentor Hanaa Ben Abdesslem’s team is made up of Wadih De Jreij from Lebanon, Ibrahim Mimou from Syria, Farah Hourani from Jordan, Fahad from Kuwait, Razan Alrayedh from Bahrain, and Muna Alzarooni from UAE.

Mentor Ramzi Tabiat’s team consists of Joe Challita from Lebanon, Salah Barka from Tunis, Arwa Alammari from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sofia El Arabi from Morocco, Yasmeen Borro from Lebanon, and Ahmad Saedi from Egypt.

Repeat telecasts of Fashion Star will be aired on Dubai One and Dubai First every at Friday at 5:00pm UAE / 1:00pm GMT, Saturday at 9:00pm UAE / 5:00pm GMT and Sunday at 4:00am UAE / 12:00am GMT.