Ashi to dress Riyahd Air crews, while preparing its haute couture show

Ashi, the up-and-coming Saudi designer, has been chosen to design the outfits for Riyadh Air flight crews, just as he prepares to present a major haute couture show in Paris in June.

Mohammed Ashi - Courtesy

This collaboration will mark a new stage in the development of the Kingdom's brand new airline, with the stated aim of "spectacular haute couture fashion and exceptional design combined with functionality, in anticipation of the inaugural flight scheduled for 2025".

Financed by the Saudi State's Public Investment Fund, Riyadh Air aims to set new standards in customer service and style, and shake up the aviation sector with its emphasis on digital technology and attention to detail.

It's a real honour to be working with Riyadh Air to design the first-ever collection for the crews of this airline, which is destined to play a major role in the country's future by making Riyadh one of the world's leading destinations. I'm delighted to be involved in such an important project for Saudi Arabia... I can't wait to show this collection to the world, and to see the Riyadh Air crew wearing my designs for the inaugural flight in 2025," said Ashi, founder and creative director of Ashi Studio.

In 2023, the designer was the first couturier from the Gulf States to take part in the Paris calendar of the Fédération de la Haute Couture, as a guest member. His collection was widely acclaimed in the French capital. 

Riyadh Air is very proud to be working with such an exceptionally talented designer as Mohammed Ashi to create our beautiful inflight outfits. Our cabin crew embody the panache and style that is the airline's identity, so it was imperative to work with someone who is innovative and shares our ethos. Not only does Ashi understand Saudi culture and hospitality, but he is able to capture the essence of our brand with a strong visual impact," said Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air.

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1980, Mohammed Ashi moved to the United States at the age of 13, where he attended boarding school in Burlington, Vermont. He then went on to do a master's degree in marketing at NYU.

I was in New York during 11 September, and it was a great shock. I was on the street on my way to school. After that I went to Paris, and that's when I told my family that I wanted to study fashion, which left them stunned. "In Saudi Arabia it's a woman's job,' my father told me", recalls Ashi, sipping a coffee in her studio on Avenue Hoche.

After being more or less cut off, Ashi had to fend for himself. Fortunately, his family's reluctance finally subsided nine years ago, when his house began to take off and attract attention. Bidding farewell to America, he attended two fashion schools, Esmod Paris and Esmod Beirut, before graduating in 2004. He then did "a fantastic one-year internship in Paris with Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy". He then joined 

Elie Saab, where he stayed for three years, helping the Lebanese couturier to launch his ready-to-wear collection by making frequent 

back and forth between Lebanon and France.

It was at the end of this period that Ashi opened his own house in Beirut in 2007. Developing his brand one step at a time, he was 

In 2013, he was spotted by the great Franca Sozzani, who has sadly since passed away. The editor-in-chief of 

invited him to walk the catwalk under the frescoes of the Tiepolo in Milan, for the Vogue Talent event. 

recognition for this gifted designer.

"Franca pushed me to do ready-to-wear," recalls Ashi, although since her tragic death in 2016, he has stuck to haute couture. And against a backdrop of growing political tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, 

Ashi eventually relocated to Paris, where he opened a tiny studio in the 9th arrondissement, "with my sewing machine to keep me company".

His first real fashion show took place at the Ritz in 2019, just before Covid, which would force him, like so many others, to make do with video presentations. But after several applications, the Federation finally granted Ashi guest member status in June last year. This enabled him to join the official haute couture programme, which is quite remarkable and a first for a designer from the Gulf.