Dubai Fashion Week set to return this autumn
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As the first event on the international fashion calendar — ahead of New York, London, Milan, and Paris —DFW's upcoming edition builds on the momentum of February's Autumn/Winter 2025/26 showcase, which drew widespread attention with headline-grabbing appearances by international models and a grand finale by iconic Indian designer Manish Malhotra.
The season also spotlighted emerging regional voices, such as Les Benjamins, a correspondent member of the Arab Fashion Council, alongside global names like Paolo Sebastian.
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American Eagle also plans to launch a limited-edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence and donate the sales proceeds to the nonprofit Crisis Text Line. In a news release, the company noted Sweeney's 'girl next door charm' and 'main character energy.' In one video, Sweeney approaches an American Eagle billboard of herself with the tagline 'Sydney Sweeney has great genes,' then crosses out 'genes' and replaces it with 'jeans.' A teaser video showed Sweeney saying, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' The video appeared on American Eagle's Facebook page but is not part of the official campaign. While remarking that someone has 'good genes' is sometimes a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in the early 20th century, and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler's plan for an Aryan master race. Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right's promotion of the 'great replacement theory,' a racist ideology alleging a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people. Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University, said she had problems with American Eagle's 'genes' versus 'jeans' campaign because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty. 'American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,' Shankar said. 'And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim.' Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017. Pepsi released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters. Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad. The demonstrations following the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many US companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races. Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she's noticed more ads and signs that prominently feature white models. 'I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,' Burrell said. American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017. Its Aerie lingerie brand was recognized for creating a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited-edition denim collection with tennis player Coco Gauff. The retailer has an ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion program primarily geared toward employees. Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism, equality, and social justice initiatives. Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding 'good jeans' will be good for business. 'They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment,' said Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. 'But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand.' Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, said she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the sake of the brand. Other experts say the buzz is good, even if it's not uniformly positive. 'If you try to follow all the rules, you'll make lots of people happy, but you'll fail,' Adamson said. 'The rocket won't take off.'
