DUBAI: Well-heeled celebrities from around the world have been sporting shoes by Arab designers as of late — from Kylie Jenner to model Emily Ratajkowski, there’s no shortage of famous fans when it comes to footwear labels from the region.
Last week, Ratajkowski showed off a pair of tan mules by Lebanese shoe designer Andrea Wazen, known for her high-quality, handmade footwear created in Beirut.
The model posed for photographs at a polo event in New Jersey wearing the simple Gloria mules by the Lebanese designer.
“When your ultimate girl crush wears your shoes,” the designer captioned a photo of the model, who paired the shoes with a fitted pencil skirt and orange crop top.
Wazen, whose sister is fashion influencer Karen Wazen, also saw her shoes worn by model Ashley Graham last week.
Graham wore a pair of slinky black heels with clear PVC accents to the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards ceremony, held last week.
The shoes, called the Dassy PVC pumps, accessorized a custom-made Christian Siriano dress, with puffed sleeves and a form-fitting silhouette.
“In custom @csiriano for the @cfda awards feeling like I just walked out of a fabulous Alfred Hitchcock film, darling!” Graham captioned a snap of her outfit on Instagram.
Wazen isn’t the only designer from the region to earn herself celebrity fans lately. Jordanian-Romanian shoe designer Amina Muaddi has also been in the spotlight, with the likes of Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Rihanna and British model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley showing off her heels in recent weeks.
Kylie boasted a pair of the Lupita glass slippers at the launch of her new skincare line, Kylie Skin, at the end of May, while her older sister Kendall finished off a skin-tight minidress with the Gilda rainbow sandals while in Cannes.
Back in April, beauty mogul Rihanna was spotted in New York — reportedly out and about with her Saudi beau Hassan Jameel — wearing a black coat with strappy white sandals by Muaddi, while Huntington-Whiteley has been an avid fan for quite some time and regularly takes to Instagram to show off Muaddi’s latest designs.
The up-and-coming label is known for its bright hues and razor-thin stiletto heels that often widen out into a squared block at the base of the heel.
