“Everyone worldwide eats Middle Eastern food,” says the Lebanese-born fashion philanthropist Tania Fares. “But no one knows a thing about its fashion designers.” Until now, that is. This week, Fares launched Fashion Trust Arabia — a non-profit mentorship and financial prize programme for emerging designers across the whole of the Middle East and North Africa, which aims to give winning designers international exposure. “There is a lot of talent in the region, but there’s a lack of support,” says Fares. “We’re creating a structure within the industry there from scratch.”

With the exception of brands such as tuxedo-based label Racil, handbag designer Nathalie Trad and couturier Elie Saab, few Arabian designers have broken out on the international scene. Racil Chalhoub, who launched her eponymous label in Paris and whose designs are stocked at MatchesFashion.com, MyTheresa and Bergdorf Goodman, says it would have been “a lot harder” for her brand to achieve such international success had she done so from the Middle East.

“It sometimes feels like we are trying to give birth to an entire industry here,” says Amman-based designer Nafsika Skourti, who launched her namesake label in 2014. As well as production issues, Skourti points to the lack of access to quality models, photographers and stylists as difficulties of operating in the region.